Gamecocks Wrap Up Indoor Regular Season at Home
“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.
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| 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 | |
