Davis Earns Silver Medal on Final Day of Indoor SEC Championships

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The University of South Carolina track and field team wrapped up the 2020 SEC Indoor Championships with an 11th place finish on the men’s side and a 12th place finish on the women’s side. Stephanie Davis will bring a silver medal back to the state of South Carolina for her performance in the 400m final. 

“[Stephanie Davis] really proved some stuff today,” South Carolina head coach Curtis Frye said. “She really is one of the top three runners in the country on not a particularly fast track.”

Davis used back-to-back personal records to earn her second place finish and now sits at No. 5 in Carolina indoor history in the 400m. It is also the second-straight year she leaves the SEC Indoor Championships with a medal after winning a silver medal as a part of the Gamecocks 4x400m relay team in 2019. 

“I just realized that it was all worth it,” Davis said after the race. “All the build up, I used it today and yesterday to PR. It was just about executing the race and doing what I needed to do and being confident in myself. I’m thankful to have run against world class athletes because I know now if I can keep up with them then I can compete with anybody.”

Over in the men’s weight throw it was Malik Paul who tossed yet another personal best, finishing just shy of a medal with his fourth-place finish. Paul’s 20.82m also propelled him to No. 7 on the Carolina indoor top 10 list. 

The men’s 4x400m relay team also brought home a fourth-place finish. The team of Arinze Chance, EJ Richardson, Rivaldo Leacock and William Spencer Jr. ran a season-best time of 3:06.53 to earn five points toward the SEC team standings. 

Prior to his contributions to the 4x400m relay Chance competed in the final of the men’s 400m. Chance improved his prelim time to 47.00 in the final to finish in seventh place. 

In the field the Gamecocks racked up some points on the women’s side. Hanifah Abdulqadir and Hailey Sweatman both picked up points with seventh place finishes in the triple jump and pole vault. Jordan Fields also contributed points with her sixth place mark of 1.72m in the women’s high jump. 

It was a season-best time from Rayon Buttler in the men’s 800m final that helped him capture points for the men’s team. Buttler used a late kick to clock a time of 1:50.64 in his first appearance in the SEC Championships as a Gamecock. 

On top of Carolina’s contributors on the scoreboard, the Gamecocks had a few personal bests at the conference championships. Adele Blalcok cleared 3.95m for the first time in her career in the women’s pole vault to finish 12th while both Kaden Briggs and Elisha Brooks completed their first heptathlon with point totals of 3965 and 4832, respectively. 

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