South Carolina Track and Field recorded three wins and set seven new Top 10 program marks at the Tom Jones Memorial meet in Gainesville, Florida, on April 18.
The meet was highlighted by a new program record in the women’s 4×400 meter relay. Akala Garrett, JaMeesia Ford, Cynteria James, and Zaya Akins finished with a time of 3:23.42. This performance also marked the second fastest relay time in the National Collegiate Athletic Association this season.
In addition to the relay success, Alexis Brown, James, Joslyn Hamilton, and Ford won the women’s 4×100 meter relay with a time of 42.62 seconds. This matched the fastest time in the NCAA this season and became the second fastest ever for South Carolina.
Individually, Brown and James both ran season-best times of 11.04 seconds in the women’s 100 meters invite event. Brown’s performance moved her into fourth place all-time for South Carolina athletes in that event. Hamilton posted a wind-legal personal best of 12.93 seconds to finish as runner-up in the women’s 100-meter hurdles invite final—the third fastest mark ever by a Gamecock hurdler.
On the men’s side, Josiah Wrice won his section of the men’s invitational 400 meters with a personal best of 44.72 seconds—improving his third-place standing on South Carolina’s all-time list—while teammate Devan Crumpton finished second at 44.93 seconds for fourth place on that same list.
The team will next compete at Auburn University during next week’s Tiger Track Classic—the venue for this year’s Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championship scheduled for May.
