COLUMBIA– Gamecock track and field heads to Bloomington, Indiana, for the penultimate meet of the collegiate season. Tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Championships are on the line. The top 12 individuals and top 12 relays from the East Regional earn a berth to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, which are set for June 8-11 in Eugene, Oregon, at Hayward Field. Carolina sends 20 individuals and four relays to the regional round of competition this week.

Follow the Meet
Live results can be found here.

A live stream of the meet (track events only) will be made available here.

Fans can follow along with updates on Twitter @GamecockTrack. A full recap will be posted on Twitter, Facebook and GamecocksOnline.com.

Meet Schedule
The four day regional competition is set up to mimic the NCAA Outdoor Championships with each day holding competition for either men or women.

At the East Regional, the first and third day will see men’s competition and days two and four see women’s competition.

On the first two days, prelim action is held in running event while select field events will be contested. The final two days will have tickets to Eugene on the line for running athletes as well as the remaining field athletes.

Wednesday’s action is set to begin at 6 p.m. with the first round of the men’s 110-meter hurdles.

Thursday starts at 10 a.m. for the Gamecocks with the women’s hammer throw.

Friday is slated for a 2:30 p.m. start with the men’s high jump.

Saturday is also set to begin for Carolina at 2:30 p.m. with the women’s high jump.

Coach Frye on the Meet
On what he’s looking forward to at the NCAA East Regional meet this week
“We want to keep improving on what we did two weeks ago. At this meet, everyone earned the right to be here. It was not given to them. A lot of times at conference meets, you go because you were the next entry. At the NCAA meets, you selected yourself. All of them deserve to be here. I think the reward for a job well done is to be a qualifier to NCAA competition. We’ve got 20 individuals and four relays, if we can advance half of those individuals would be a win for almost everyone here. We’ve got 27 athletes here. If we get 15 to Oregon, we would be excited. We reasonably feel like we have some people who can be in the top two in their event. First step is to make the next round. You have to make it from 48 to 24. At this point, you aren’t guaranteed another meet. If you don’t make it, you’re home for the summer. I think they understand how serious that is. I tell them that they are the CEO of their own company. You get the chance to represent your brand. This is the time you withdraw from your account full of the investments you made during the year. If you don’t have anything in the bank, you have to borrow from a gift called talent. Hard work beats talent when talent does work. But when talent works and doesn’t miss work, it’s hard to beat. We have enough kids that have talent and didn’t miss anything.”

On prioritizing surviving the meet compared to performing to your seed
“It’s important to be in the top 12. I like the ‘survive and advance’ for the first round, and we have two rounds here. In the second round, seeding is so important, so you need to get in the top 12, but seeding is so important and there’s a strategy to surviving and advancing. We have taken tough tests this year.”

On how running at competitive meets helps athletes at the NCAA East Regional
“It’s been a great help. You know you’ve faced these people before. The conference meet is a scary place for some athletes. In the SEC, you’ve got one shot to make the final. You have to be at your all time best at the SEC meet. In the NCAA finals, you’ve got three more guns to get to that point, but at SEC’s, you have to do that the first night. You can make an error at a Regional track meet. When they drop form 48 to 24, being in the SEC helps our kids because you know you’ve got a good shot to be in the top 24 of this region. It’s an easier psych job. They know where they’re at and they know about everyone else.”

Qualified Candidates
The Carolina track and field team is sending 20 individuals and four relay teams to Bloomington, Indiana, for the East Regional.

Eleven women and nine men are making the trip to the Hoosier State for regional action.

On the men’s side, Evan Miller (200), Anthony Greenhow, Jr. (200), Doval Simmonds (400), Anass Essayi (1,500), Filip Demsar (110H), William Spencer Jr. (400H), Jackson Marseille (HJ), Carson Lenser (PV) and Dylan Targgart (SP) will compete in their respective events.

For the Gamecock women, Jayla Jamison (200), Tierra Frasier(200), Makenzie Dunmore (400), Stephanie Davis (400), Angel Frank (400), Aaliyah Pyatt (400), Jahnile Registre (400), Destinee Rocker (100H), Rachel Glenn (HJ), KD Young (HT, SP) and Kayla Racine (HT) are set to compete.

Both the men’s and women’s squads also send 4X100- and 4X400-meter relay teams to Indiana.

Look for plenty of Gamecocks to finish in the top 12 and advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

SEC Championships Recap
The Gamecocks traveled to the campus of Ole Miss to compete at the SEC Outdoor Championships.

The men’s team finished 12th with 30 points and the women’s team scored 32 points for an 11th-place team finish.

Rachel Glenn earned her second SEC silver medal of 2022 with a runner-up finish in the high jump. Glenn cleared 1.86m/6-1.25 for her third SEC medal.

Dylan Targgart took seventh in the men’s shot put to get the Gamecock men on the scoreboard. Targgart threw the shot 18.78m/61-7.50 on his fifth throw to improve his scoring position to seventh.

KD Young scored for the Gamecock women in both the shot put and the hammer throw. She took seventh in the hammer throw and became the fourth woman in program history to throw the hammer over 60 meters. Young also finished in eighth in the shot put.

Weather Report
WEDNESDAY
– Conditions: Scattered Thunderstorms
– Temperature: High of 84°
– Chance of Precipitation: 54%

THURSDAY
– Conditions: Thunderstorms
– Temperature: High of 72°
– Chance of Precipitation: 82%

FRIDAY
– Conditions: Scattered Thunderstorms
– Temperature: High of 68°
– Chance of Precipitation: 58%

SATURDAY
– Conditions: Partly Cloudy
– Temperature: High of 76°
– Chance of Precipitation: 14%