Gamecocks Wrap Up Florida Relays

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The University of South Carolina track and field team concluded its time at the 2021 Florida Relays on Saturday, leaving Gainesville with a number of improved marks scattered across the team’s participants. 

“The things we can take away from this meet is knowing that we belong,” South Carolina head coach Curtis Frye said. “Our team can see that there isn’t much of a difference between us and the top. Especially our young kids. For instance our women’s mile relay, we know with Stephanie Davis back, that team will drop time and that’ll put us with those leaders. Today we had a few nerves, but we raced through it and now we can move forward.”

Indoor national runner-up Rachel Glenn returned to action in the high jump competition on Saturday for the first time outdoors. The freshman finished as the runner-up at the meet with a leap of 1.75m (5-8 3/4) while teammate Jordan Fields finished 11th with a mark of 1.70m (5-7). Glenn’s mark of 1.75m ties her for sixth on Carolina’s all-time top 10 high jump marks outdoors. 

After a solid hammer competition on Friday Malik Paul returned for discus on Saturday morning. Paul ended his series with a third-place finish, tossing a mark of 55.08m (188-8). 

Alycia Springs also had a strong showing in the field for Carolina on Saturday. The senior finished fourth in the shot put with a new lifetime best of 16.16m (53-0 1/4). Springs toss catapulted her to the fifth position on the Gamecocks’ all-time top 10 list outdoors, just 0.01m past Precious Akins (2006). 

Both Aliyah Abrams and Jackson Junkins posted eighth-place finishes in the 400m on Saturday. Abrams’ in time of 52.60 while Junkins’ time of 47.02 is a new outdoor personal record for the first-year Gamecock. 

Concluding the meet was the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay. For the men, it was a fourth-place finish in a time of 3:07.51, improving the team’s season-best time with the team of Junkins, EJ Richardson, William Spencer Jr. and Evan Miller. The women’s team rounded their day off with a fifth-place 4x400m relay team with the team of Knowledge Omovoh, Abrams, Ashton Lindley and Alysia Johnson clocking a 3:33.57. 

“It was great to see Junkins PB today in the open 400,” Frye added. “Then he adds a 46.9 on the leadoff leg of the mile relay. Jackson did a great job and then a 46.4 from EJ [Richardson] and [William Spencer Jr.] ran about 46.2, so every time we have those 46s in front, we know we can get some time later this season to push us toward that 3:05 or 3:04 time in due time.”

Other notable results on Saturday included personal records from Sean Petersen (800m), Brooke Wilson (3000m) while Caitlyn Little finished 10th in the 100m hurdles, narrowly missing the final. 

Carolina returns home for the Gamecock Invitational on Saturday, April 10. The meet will be a one-day competition at Creggar Track in Columbia. 

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