LAST TIME OUT – USC OPEN

The University of South Carolina track and field team totaled nine victories at the 2021 USC Open, wrapping up their home campaign at Cregger Track on April 17. Anna Kathryn Stoddard broke the 1500m school record, her third school record of the season, while a number of student-athletes improved on their national ranking individually. 

In just her second outdoor attempt at the event it was Rachel Glenn who again stole the show in the high jump. The true freshman reached 1.85m (6-0 3/4) for the first time outdoors to win the event. For Glenn, it’s the second-best outdoor high jump mark in school history and is good enough to be tied for the fourth-best mark in the nation this year, and the best among true freshmen. 

“We know Rachel is capable of that 1.90 threshold, and even better, ” Frye said. “We know she can get the NCAAs in both the high jump and the 400m hurdles. That is the tricky thing for us to balance, but it is amazing to have an athlete who wants to do all of these events, and that’s just how the great ones are. She’s truly a great one and is a great example for the rest of our team.” 

The highlight of the day on the track for the Gamecocks was arguably William Spencer Jr. breaking through in the men’s 400m hurdles, clocking a 49.84, the fourth-fastest time in the nation this year. The outdoor rookie dropped below 50 seconds for the first time in his career and is now second in the conference in the event this season. Rivaldo Leacock matched Spencer Jr with a PR of his own, dropping half of a second to take third in a time of 50.67, the 14th-fastest time in the nation. 

PROJECTED STARTING LINEUP (click to expand)

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MEET INFORMATION

The event is closed to the general public, however, there is a limited number of Charlotte student-athlete parents allowed at the meet to recognize the senior athletes. Fans can follow the meet live on FlashResults.com. On Friday the meet begins at 2:30 p.m. with the Decathlon while Saturday’s competition will begin at 9 a.m. Heat sheets can be found here. 

GAMECOCKS ADD TWO REGULAR SEASON MEETS TO SCHEDULE

The University of South Carolina added the Charlotte Invitational and the UNF Invitational to its schedule, the team announced last week. The two meets replace the 126th Penn Relays that were cancelled earlier this year. The Charlotte Invitational will take place from April 23-24 in Charlotte while the UNF Invitational will take place in Jacksonville, Fla. It will be the first time the Gamecocks take part in these meets that will lead up and give more opportunities to qualify marks before the SEC Outdoor Championships and NCAA East Regionals in May.  
 

GAMECOCKS RECORD 10TH-HIGHEST GPA

The South Carolina women’s cross country team has been recognized as one of the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association’s (USTFCCCA) 2020 NCAA Division I Women’s Cross Country All-Academic Teams.
 
This season’s honor marks the Gamecocks’ 20th-consecutive season as an All-Academic Team. Carolina finished 10th out of 255 programs with a GPA of 3.789. The Gamecocks finished as the top SEC team with Alabama coming in second at 38th and a 3.72 GPA. Overall, 13 SEC schools were recognized for their academic success by the USTFCCCA, including South Carolina, Ole Miss (3.67), Vanderbilt (3.646), Arkansas (3.625), Georgia (3.54), Missouri (3.565), Mississippi State (3.71), Alabama, Texas A&M (3.53), Auburn (3.31), Kentucky (3.418), Tennessee (3.21) and LSU (3.582).

GAMECOCKS IN THE TOP 50 (click to expand)

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GAMECOCK INVITATIONAL – APRIL 10

The University of South Carolina track and field team returned home to dominate at the Gamecock Invitational on April 10. The Gamecocks had 12 victories and a number of additional collegiate victories at their second home meet of the outdoor season. 

Of Carolina’s 12 victories it was William Spencer Jr. who’s performance shined the brightest at the Gamecock Invitational. The outdoor freshman clocked a 50.26 in the 400m hurdles, the seventh-fastest time in the nation this year and setting a new personal record for the outdoor rookie. 

Fellow sprinters Evan Miller and Jackson Junkins joined Spencer Jr. in the winner’s circle on Saturday. Miller clocked a 10.34 in his first straight-away sprint since the 2019 indoor season to win the 100m while Junkins stopped the clock in the 400m in a time of 46.59 for the victory. For Miller, his 10.34 is the 29th fastest time in the country while Junkins’ time is the 16th fastest time in the East region this season. 

The Gamecocks swept the Gamecock Invitational shot put competitions with Eric Favors claiming the men’s title while Alycia Springs won on the women’s side. Favors tossed a mark of 19.07m (62-6 3/4) while Springs toss was 15.91m (52-2 1/2). South Carolina also won both high jump competitions with Jackson Marseille leaping over a bar set at 2.05m (6-8 1/4) and Jordan Fields matching her outdoor personal record of 1.75m (5-8 3/4) to take home the title. 

Other victories on Saturday included Hailey Sweatman in the women’s pole vault with a season-best outdoor vault of 4.16m (13-7 3/4), Sean Petersen in the men’s 1500m in a time of 3:52.19 while both the men’s and women’s 4x400m relay teams won their respective events and the men’s 4x100m relay earned a win as well.  

FLORIDA RELAYS – APRIL 2-3

The University of South Carolina track and field team concluded its time at the 2021 Florida Relays on April 3, 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). Glenn’s mark of 1.75m ties her for sixth on Carolina’s all-time top 10 high jump marks outdoors. Alycia Springs also had a strong showing in the field for Carolina. 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). On Friday of the Florida Relays Anna Kathryn Stoddard broke yet another Carolina record, this time in the 5000m. Stoddard crushed the record by 30-seconds, clocking a 16:12.77, giving her school records in back-to-back meets after breaking the 3000m record at the Weems Baskin. 

“Our 5K group had one heck of a day,” South Carolina head coach Curtis Frye said. “AK is on a great progression right now and today’s performance shows that. Where we go with her in the coming weeks in regards to either a 10K or a 5K, we’ll have to explore that as a staff but it is looking right now that she could be getting to an NCAA qualifying standard which is very exciting. Our plans will continue to evolve, and even Heather [Stone] is ahead of schedule where she was a few years ago when she scored for us in the 10K at the conference meet.”

WEEMS BASKIN – MARCH 26-27

The University of South Carolina track and field team earned seven total victories during the 2021 Weems Baskin that concluded on March 27 at Creggar Track. Anna Kathryn Stoddard’s broke the school record in the 3000m on Saturday, a record that also goes down as the facility record. 

“Today we just saw a huge improvement across our entire team from last week to this week,” South Carolina head coach Curtis Frye said. “I’m thrilled with AK’s performance today, and honestly both of those girls in the 3000m. They almost ran at the Raleigh Relays but we kept them here because it might be too hot for them up there. We made an adjustment and put them in this event today, it wasn’t planned, but for them to adapt like that is great for us as we move forward and they shift their focus to events that could help us at the conference meet down the road.”

Stoddard’s time of 9:29.72 was an impressive one that was done through hot track conditions. The senior fought through to crush the previous school record by 14 seconds, a record that was held for 27 years by Tracey Capper. Arguably more notable is that Stoddard’s time is the 35th-fastest time in the world this year, according to the IAAF website. Throughout the meet the Gamecocks had a number of quality performances with Evan Miller’s 200m time being one of them. Miller, fresh off his 200m All-America honor, ran his first outdoor open in the event since 2019 on Saturday. Miller clocked a 20.50, the sixth-fastest time in school history, to finish as the runner-up in the event.

TIGER TRACK CLASSIC – MARCH 19-20

A portion of the Gamecocks began their outdoor season last weekend at the Tiger Track Classic in Auburn, Ala. The Gamecocks picked up five victories during the meet with All-Americans Filip Demsar and Aliyah Abrams highlighting the weekend. 

“I’m really happy we got going today with some good runs and performances,” South Carolina head coach Curtis Frye said. “Our team knows the urgency of the season because not every day is guaranteed. Having Filip [Demsar] get out and put up a solid time and Malik [Paul] putting up just a solid marks. Those are really great starts for them and then Aliyah [Abrams] in her open and also her split on the 4x400m team was just fantastic. I’m proud of the whole group and especially those marks.” 

Demsar began his outdoor career with a 13.77 in the 110m hurdles to win the meet. Demsar’s time was good enough to put him among the top five in the nation in the first weekend of the outdoor season. For Abrams, in her first action with Carolina since the 2019 SEC Indoor Championships, clocked an impressive 52.01 in the 400m to easily win the event. Abrams wasn’t finished with a 51.1 split in the 4x400m relay later in the afternoon that helped the team finish second at the Tiger Track Classic. 

In the field it was Malik Paul who highlighted the weekend for Carolina. Paul earned the victory in the discus event with a toss of 56.63m (185-9), a new personal record for the senior. The mark also propelled Paul to ninth on the Gamecocks all-time top 10 outdoor list in the event, a list that he previously sat 10th on. Hailey Sweatman was also victorious in the women’s pole vault for the Gamecocks on Saturday. The 2020 All-American cleared 4.15m (13-7 1/4), a season-best mark indoors or outdoors, to earn the first victory in her 2021 season. Finally the men’s 4x400m relay got off on the right foot with a 3:09.32 with the team of Evan Miller, EJ Richardson, Jackson Junkins and William Spencer Jr., winning the meet handily. 

GLENN HIGHLIGHTS 2021 NCAA INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Gamecocks enter the outdoor season on the heels of one of the program’s best NCAA Indoor Championships in recent past. The Carolina women finished tied for 20th, the third time since 2014 they have finished among the top 20 indoors with the highest finish coming in 2019 when the team finished seventh. The Gamecock men tied for 46th. 

The highlight of the meet was Carolina’s national runner-up in the women’s high jump with freshman Rachel Glenn. Her 1.87m (6-1 1/2) was just shy of the national champion mark of 1.90m. Glenn set three personal records during the incredible meet to nearly reach the top of the podium in her national championship debut. Glenn came into the meet ranked near the bottom of the qualifiers with a 1.80m, but used the third-best high jump mark, indoors or outdoors, in school history to snag eight points at the indoor national meet for Carolina. 

Glenn’s finish was one of three events that captured first-team All-America honors during the weekend. The women’s 4x400m relay team of Knowledge Omovoh, Glenn, Ashton Lindley and Stephanie Davis finished the meet with a seventh-place finish. For Glenn it gave her two first-team honors while it made Davis the 26th female in school history to earn five different All-American laurels. 

Filip Demsar was the final first-team All-American, and the only male to earn the distinction in 2021. Demsar qualified near the bottom of the 16 participants coming into the meet but used a PR of 7.74 to reach the final. Demsar matched his new PR of 7.74 in the final to catapult him to a sixth-place finish, snagging three points for Carolina and earning a third-straight All-America nod for the Gamecocks in the 60m hurdles.

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