April 7, 2016

ATHENS, GA. – The South Carolina track and field team caps its week at Georgia with the Spec Towns Invitational. The two-day meet starts Friday and will feature a small but talented field of schools. Of the seven other schools attending the meet, three have top-25-ranked men’s programs and three have women’s programs in the top 25.

The week started Wednesday with the Bulldog heptathlon and decathlon at Spec Towns Track, Sarah Graham and Alexandre Asselin had their second combined event competitions of the season. That wraps up Thursday before the Spec Towns Invite, where the full rosters will be in action.

South Carolina had a busy weekend down in Gainesville in its last time on the track, competing at the 76th annual Florida Relays. Junior Clarence Gallop started the three-day meet off with a dramatic finish to win the men’s hammer throw on Thursday night. After fouling his first two attempts, he earned a spot in the final round with a throw of 62.25 meters. In the finals, he went for a new personal best of 65.11 meters to move to the top of the rankings. Ole Miss’ Nathan Loe took over the lead after the fifth round of throws, giving Gallop just one more shot to beat his top mark of 65.41 (214 feet, seven inches). He would do just that, hitting 65.45 meters to beat out Loe by two inches. Not only did he pick up the win, but Gallop also added two full feet to his personal best and moves up into the top 15 nationally.

In the men’s team’s other event for the first night, Kaleb Zuidema placed fourth overall in the javelin. He topped out at 220 feet, three inches on his final throw of the night to move up in the standings. The women had two track events Thursday night. The open 400m dash started things out, with Erika Rucker and Precious Holmes competing. Rucker ran her first 400 of the season at 54.84 to take 15th overall, with Holmes behind her at 55.23. Closing out the night was the 5K, with three women running for Carolina. Christine Kent had the team’s top time at 17:13.76, good for seventh all-time in program history. Monica York finished 26th with a new personal best of 17:32.

Individual track events ruled the schedule on day two, and the Gamecock hurdlers would provide the highlights with four season-best times across four races. Isaiah Moore supplied the early highlight for the Gamecocks, as the sophomore earned the top time by a collegian in the 110m hurdles. He posted a time of 13.54 to finish sixth overall in the field of 58 runners, putting him comfortably in second nationally among college runners. More notably, it was the top wind-aided time (2.3 wind) in the IAAF Senior rankings.

The 400m hurdles would also be a highlight for the Gamecocks, on both the men’s and women’s side. Tyler Brockington finished third behind a season-best time of 57.38, moving her comfortably into the top 10 nationally. It also puts her in the top 20 in the world, currently 15th. Jussi Kanervo finished second overall in the field of 53 runners in the men’s 400mH. His time of 50.44 was also a season best, and moved him up to 19th in the world.

Away from the hurdles, Ncincilili Titi led a group of three sprinters who finished in the top 10 of their respective events. Titi ran in the 200m Invitational race, and finished fifth with a time of 20.68. That matched his personal best that he set last summer at the World University Games, which is good for tenth in school history.

The field battled the elements Saturday to wrap up the meet. Thunderstorms overnight threatened to delay the start of the final day, but ultimately it would just be wet conditions the field would have to contend with. The men’s shuttle hurdle relay continued the weekend tradition of starting fast, picking up a win in the first event of the afternoon. The team of Dondre Echols, Jermaine Collier, Isaiah Moore and Alexandre Asselin won in a time of 56.63, seventh-best in school history.

The women’s SHR ran well in a showdown with the eventual collegiate champion Florida, but a slip on the last leg pushed them down to seventh in a time of 56.82. The women would pick up a new mark in the record book in the next race, the sprint medley relay, running 3:58.39 with a team of Precious Holmes, Maiya Dendy, Maya Evans and Allie Mueller that ranks third in school history.

Both the men and women finished with season-best times in the next race, the 4×100. The men’s team of David Winters, Ncincilili Titi, Dondre Echols and Ryan Bermudez ran seventh overall with a time of 39.75. They were the top Division I finisher in the field, and moved up into the top 10 nationally thanks to their new season best.

The women’s 4×1 also jumped up in the national ranks, running 44.50. The team of Gabby Gray, Briana Haith, Alexis Murphy and Tyler Brockington finished ninth overall and sixth among college teams. The top women’s relay finish Saturday came in the 4×200, where a time of 1:33.81 would be second-fastest among collegiate teams and fourth overall.

Not to be ignored, the field events wrapped up with several solid performances. Michael Wamer finished fourth in the triple jump and moved up into the top 10 nationally after reaching a distance of 52-1 3/4. That added well over two feet to his previous season high, and came just a few inches away from his own school record. In the women’s triple jump, Natasha Dicks hit a season-best mark of 42-7 1/2 on her opening jump, and carried it to a fifth-place finish

Closing out the meet were the invitational 4x400m relays, and they featured plenty of dramatics for the women. The Gamecocks held a third-place position heading into the final leg, but anchor Marisa Bellamy was slowed on the back stretch and moved back to fifth. She would more than make up for it on the home stretch, kicking back up to third in the final 100 meters to dive through in third. The men finished sixth in their mile relay, crossing in a season-best time of 3:08.84.

Live results from Athens will be available through GamecocksOnline.com, and fans can follow along on Twitter at @GamecockTrack.