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Gamecocks Wrap Up Indoor Regular Season at Home
Track and Field  . 

Gamecocks Wrap Up Indoor Regular Season at Home

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The University of South Carolina wrapped up its regular season, and home indoor finale, on Saturday at the USC Indoor Open. The Gamecocks picked up 11 victories on the day and set 24 separate personal records to conclude the indoor home season with positive momentum before the conference and national meets. 

“It’s good to finish up the indoor season with some positive momentum,” South Carolina head coach Curtis Frye said. “I’m very pleased today, we had some good performances. We saw some awesome performances from [Blake] Newcomb and Mason [Joiner] today, they train extremely hard. Seeing as we don’t have men’s cross country, but we still keep talented distance runners in our program, and often they are local kids. To have the kinds of personal best times they had, not to just participate but to excel and get into the top 10 at your school is a great thing for a young person to hang on their wall and motivate them throughout their lives. I’m proud of those young men for the efforts they put in.” 

The Gamecocks made a number of small improvements in numerous nationally ranked individuals. Filip Demsar and Jackson Marseille both slightly improved their top-10 national marks with Demsar dropping to 7.80 in the 60m hurdles to finish in second and improve his ranking to 11th in the nation while freshman Jackson Marseille’s 2.15m (7-0 1/2) in the high jump improved his national ranking to 11th in the country. Senior Stephon Torrence also dropped his season-best time in the 60m hurdles to 7.85, putting him among the top 20 nationally in the event. 

Among Carolina’s 11 victories, three managed to improve on their season-best marks to improve their SEC and national ranking. Blake Newcomb dropped a 1:51.81 to win the 800m, slightly improving his lifetime best he set back in 2020 and putting him right on the edge of the top 24 in the SEC this season. Knowledge Omovoh also clocked a personal record in the 400m with her 54.16, putting her 36th in the country and 19th in the SEC this season. Heather Stone’s victory in the 5000m in 17:08.37 also improved the graduate student’s SEC ranking, putting her at No. 20 among the conference’s top distance indoor performances this season. 

Breaking into South Carolina’s indoor top 10 on Saturday was Sean Petersen in the men’s mile run. The junior dropped over two seconds to put him at No. 6 all time indoors at Carolina with a time of 4:12.49. Although not in the programs indoor top 10 list, David Olds was close, missing out on the top 10 by less than a second with a sixth-place finish of 4:15.92. Mason Joiner dropped 21-seconds in his 5000m personal best to put him among the Gamecocks’ top 10 indoor 5000m runners. Joiner’s 15:14.59 was good enough for fifth at the USC Indoor Open and puts him ninth in program history indoors. 

Of the other eight Carolina victories, Rocker was the closest to matching a personal record. Rocker clocked a 8.16 in the finals of the wome’ns 60m hurdles, nearly matching her 8.13 she clocked two weeks earlier. Evan Miller dropped back-to-back sub-21-second 200m times to win his first 200m event of his career, finishing with a time of 20.98. The men’s 4x400m relay, which included Miller, also nearly matched their season best time with a unchallenged 3:08.39 with William Spencer Jr., EJ Richardson and Jackson Junkins joining Miller’s anchor leg. 

Another notable personal record from the Gamecocks’ on Saturday was Junkins in the 400m, who dropped his lifetime best to 47.39 to finish second. Junkins, a North Greeneville transfer just prior to the indoor season, has impressively dropped from 49.23 down to 47.39 in the 400m during the 2021 indoor season. 

“Jackson ran well today, he’s starting to get into really good shape,” Frye said. “We look for him to compete at SECs and travel with us to the conference meet. He came in at mid-year and rounded himself into great shape. There’s more there for him and I’m just really excited. He is a tenacious competitor, all of our quarter mile runners put down solid times today.”

The Gamecocks will have a week off before the 2021 SEC Indoor Championships are held from Feb. 25-27, in Fayetteville, Ark. Declarations will be determined next week among the conference to determine what 24 men and 24 women will compete in each event at the SEC Championships. 

For more information on the Gamecocks, continue to check back with GamecocksOnline.com. 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 2021 season.
 

FEB. 13, 2021 • USC INDOOR OPEN • MEN’S LINEUP
60m
Gatlin Lawson –. FS (6.94 in prelims)
Parker Howard 22nd. 7.24
200m
Gatlin Lawson 7th. 22.01 (PR)
Parker Howard 20th. 22.68
Evan Miller 1st. 20.98
Jordan Sessom 8th. 22.02
400m
Jackson Junkins 2nd. 47.39 (PR)
EJ Richardson 3rd. 47.59
William Spencer Jr. 1st. 47.26
800m
Ian Fladd 6th. 1:54.78 (PR)
Hayden Cobbe 2nd. 1:52.05 (PR)
Blake Newcomb 1st. 1:51.81 (PR)
Kyle Reers 5th. 1:54.62
Mile Run
Sean Petersen 4th. 4:12.49 (PR)
Alexander Galbraith –. DNF
David Olds 6th. 4:15.92 (PR)
5000m
Mason Joiner 5th. 15.14.59 (PR)
60m Hurdles
Filip Demsar 2nd. 7.80 (PR) (7.87 in prelims)
Stephon Torrence 3rd. 8.17 (7.85 in prelims)
Elisha Brooks –. DNS (8.38 in prelims)
DMR
Petersen, Reers, Cobbe, Story 1st. 10:31.53
4x300m
Sessom, Demsar, Torrence, Lawson 1st. 2:18.36
4x400m
Spencer Jr., Richardson, Junkins, Miller 1st. 3:08.39 
Shot Put
Elisha Brooks 9th. 12.16m | 39-10 3/4 (PR)
Benjamin Womble 10th. 11.47m | 37-7 3/4
Weight
Malik Paul 2nd. 20.56m | 67-5 1/2
High Jump
Kobe Franklin 6th. 2.00m | 6-6 3/4
Jackson Marseille 2nd. 2.15m | 7-00 1/2 (PR)
Long Jump
Christian Lewis 1st. 7.30m | 23-11 1/2
Jalen Herring 10th. 6.39m | 20-11 3/4
Benjamin Womble 13th. 6.08m | 19-11 1/2
Pole Vault
Jonathan Togami –. NH
Dillon McCarthy 4th. 4.86m | 15-11 1/4
FEB. 13, 2021 • USC INDOOR OPEN • WOMEN’S LINEUP
400m
Casey Douglas 19th. 1:00.28
Angel Frank 7th. 56.41 
Macie Kavanaugh 13th. 58.43
Ashton Lindley 3rd. 55.03
Knowledge Omovoh 1st. 54.16 (PR)
Kyna Robinson 18th. 58.79 (PR)
Shaianne Sipsey 14th. 58.45
800m
Sierra Biber 4th. 2:15.43
Christina Ceniccola 13th. 2:28.70
Kensi Gray 3rd. 2:14.77 (PR)
Isabella Pisani 6th. 2:19.33
Mile Run
Savannah Bowers 5th. 5:07.57 (PR)
Hannah Cella 9th. 5:19.38 (PR)
Elizabeth Davison 16th. 5:36.53
Lyndsey Fowler 12th. 5:24.86 (PR)
Emily Pierontoni 13th. 5:26.07
Claudia Satzke 15th. 5:27.74 (PR)
Emily Smith 10th. 5:23.90 (PR)
Hannah Twine 6th. 5:11.04 (PR)
3000m
Kathleen Abrams 11th. 10:59.56
Katerina Hendrix 8th. 10:44.59 (PR)
Brooke Wilson 3rd. 9:58.45 (PR)
5000m
Heather Stone 1st. 17:08.37 (PR)
60m Hurdles
Caitlyn Little 3rd. 8.72 (8.58 in prelims)
Destinee Rocker 1st. 8.16 (8.30 in prelims)
Kiera Hughes 13th. 9.51 
DMR
Bowers, Kavanaugh, Pisani, Twine 1st. 12:30.45
Cella, Gray, Davison, Smith 3rd. 12:44.10
4x400m
Omovoh, Lindley, Frank, Sipsey 1st. 3:42.24
Pole Vault
Hailey Sweatman 3rd. 4.08m | 13-4 1/2
Kelsey Worthington 8th. 3.78m | 12-4 3/4 (PR)
Alyssa Rice –. NH
Pressley Perry 12th. 3.38m | 11-1
Brianna Stamps –. NH
High Jump
Dymier Jeffery –. NH
Long Jump
Synclair Savage –. F
Shot Put
Alycia Springs 3rd. 14.48m | 47-6 1/4
Carisma Holland 5th. 13.42m | 44-0 1/2
Weight
KD Young 4th. 17.21m | 56-5 3/4