April 15, 2016

TALLAHASSEE, FLA. – The South Carolina distance crew provided a handful of strong performances Friday on the first day of the Seminole Invitational. A pair of top-10 times and six personal bests set the tone for the Gamecocks.

The men’s 800 started the hot streak for the team, led by Otis Jones. The freshman finished fourth overall with a time of 1:49.81, setting a new personal best by more than a second. His time moved him up to seventh in school history for the outdoor 800, and it was the best time by any Gamecock since 2005. Drew Galang and Michael Elwood also hit new personal bests in the race.

The women’s 5,000 followed right after, and more top times would follow. Mary Reiser finished second overall in the race with a time of 17:07.22, and broke a personal best that was hit back in 2014 by almost two full seconds. She improved a mark that already ranked fifth in school history. Monica York came five-thousandths of a second from entering the program’s top 10 with a fourth-place finish in 17:24.63 and Kaylee Wessel finished sixth.

The field events held their own as well on Friday, starting with Clarence Gallop in the hammer throw. He would hang in the top two throughout his series of throws, topping out with a mark of 207 feet, 11 inches to finish second.

In the jumps, the Gamecock women’s long jumpers packed the top 10 with some solid results. Natasha Dicks cracked the six-meter mark again to finish tops among her teammate in fifth. She was followed close behind by Chalese Davis in sixth (5.89m) and Alexis Murphy in seventh (5.87m).

UP NEXT

The main day of events begin Saturday morning with the javelin throw. Field events begin at 10 a.m. and the track events begin at 12:05 with the women’s 100 hurdles.