Carolina's 4x400m Relay Highlights the End of the 2020 Carolina Challenge

COLUMBIA, S.C. – It was a day filled with personal bests for the University of South Carolina track and field team at the Carolina Indoor Track and Field Complex. The Gamecocks combined for 37 personal records between Friday and Saturday and added the fourth best time in the country this season in the men’s 4x400m relay to wrap up another successful Carolina Challenge. 

With a time of 3:06.63, South Carolina’s men’s 4x400m relay team put up the fifth-fastest indoor time in school history with the help of senior Quincy Hall who made his 2020 season debut. Freshman EJ Richardson led off the race followed by senior Arinze Chance, freshman William Spencer Jr. and Hall anchored the impressive Carolina run. Hall’s split of 45.59 was the highlight, and best, of the group while Chance’s 46.59 was the second fastest split. 

“We know that [4x400m relay] time gets us to nationals,” Frye added. “We know we can improve on it, but it was a great first look at what we can cosider close to our full team. We’re looking forward to having them remain healthy, but it is exciting to have a result like we had today.”

“What stands out this weekend is how many personal bests we had. With 37 personal bests, that’s all we can be is the best person we can be,” South Carolina head coach Curtis Frye said. “It’s what carries over to life. It’s why we wore our [Mamba Mentality] t-shirts with pride. This just reinforces how if you put the work in you will get results like we had this weekend.”

The Garnet and Black picked up a total of five victories during the weekend. Led by an Irish indoor national record, Eric Favors brought home the win in the men’s shot put. At 19.01m (62-4 1/2) Favors was able to easily win the event and in turn made a splash after a three-week break between competition. 

In the women’s 5000m Hannah Twine entered the top-10 in program history in her first appearance in the event. Her 17:26.11 brought her all the way up to No. 8 in the program record book and into the nation’s top 75 in the event. 

Over in the men’s 200m it was Evan Miller who just missed breaking the 21-second mark, but his 21.01 improved his season-best, and personal best, time and to No. 12 in the country as of Jan. 30. 

On top of the Gamecocks four overall victories on Saturday, the team added two more collegiate victories in the women’s high jump and the women’s triple jump. Fresh off her victory in New York City, Jordan Fields reached 1.70m (5-6) before a pair of professionals capped off the event. Notably, in the high jump, Inika McPherson reached 1.90m (6-2 3/4) to win the event. McPherson, a 5-time World Championships participant, was joined by Coach Frye in the 2016 Rio Olympics. Her 1.90m was good enough to reach a world top-10 mark in the world this year. 

In the triple jump it was Hanifah Abdulqadir who matched her season-best mark of 12.87m (42-2 3/4) to take the overall runner-up spot but the top collegiate mark. For Abdulqadir, it was her first competition in three weeks. 

Other notable top three finishers, that doubled as personal bests, include Malik Paul in the men’s weight throw. His 19.52m (64-0 1/2) pushed his mark back into the top 50 with the third-place finish. Brooke Wilson in the 5000m finished just behind Twine to grab a new personal record of 17:31.50 and finish in third. 

“It was just awesome to see all the teams we had at this great facility,” Frye said. “We had over 50 teams from around the country, and we had some local schools that thanked us for allowing them to run at this world class facility. We know we have another meet next week and we’re excited about every team that comes out here and puts up the times that we’ve seen this season.”

The Gamecocks will remain home next weekend for the South Carolina Invitational from Feb. 7-8. Subscribe to South Carolina on Stanza to get schedule updates directly in your calendars. Keep up with Carolina track and field on Twitter and Instagram (@GamecockTrack) and on Facebook, so you do not miss any content during the 2020 season.