Sweatman Wins Pole Vault on First Day in New York City

NEW YORK, N.Y. – The University of South Carolina track and field team finished the first day of the Dr. Sander Columbia Challenge in second place on the women’s side with a majority of the Gamecock men to compete on Saturday to make up ground after finishing in ninth on day one. 

Senior pole vaulter Hailey Sweatman highlighted the day with a new indoor personal record to win her fourth event in as many tries this season. Sweatman’s 4.20m (13-9 1/4) slots her in at No. 11 on the current TFFRRs national rankings and moves her to No. 3 on the South Carolina all-time top 10 indoor rankings. 

“Today was a great day,” South Carolina head coach Curtis Frye said. “Our team came a little nervous at first, being in New York City. Things were rolling today, Stoddard made a comeback in the DMR to help us finish in sixth. That is going to be really big come at the end of this meet with points. Then we had Rocker, Little and Tilmon all in the hurdles final which shows where that group is at right now this season.”

The Gamecocks picked up a pair of second place finishes, the first in the men’s 60m dash and the other in the women’s 60m hurdles. Darrell Singleton Jr. clocked a season-best time of 6.75 in the final of the men’s 60m dash to earn his second place finish. After running the best preliminary time in the 60m hurdles, Destinee Rocker nearly matched a season-best time in the final, losing out on the win by 0.002 with a time of 8.268 to finish as the runner up. 

“Today’s race was probably the best technical race that Darrell has ever run,” Frye said. “In his four years since he’s been here, that was his best technical race. We hope he can build on that, come back tomorrow and put up a great 200 time.”

Freshman Filip Demsar was also a finalist for the Gamecocks. He ran the seventh fastest prelim time and made the best of it, improving to fifth place and nearly matched his season-best, missing it by just 0.03. 

Other Carolina hurdlers that reached the final were sophomore Caitlyn Little and freshman Jazmine Tilmon. The two, along with Rocker, were one of two teams at the Dr. Sander Columbia Challenge to have three individuals in the same final. In the end, Little finished in fourth while Tilmon settled for seventh. 

South Carolina continues, and concludes, the Dr. Sander Columbia Challenge tomorrow. For more information on the Gamecocks, continue to check back with GamecocksOnline.com.

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