Holmes continues impressive freshman season
The South Carolina men’s and women’s track teams will compete in the Pepsi Florida Relays in Gainesville, Fla., this weekend; field events are scheduled for Friday before the track events begin on Saturday.
After getting the outdoor season started with the Shamrock Invitational in Myrtle Beach two weeks ago and Weems Baskin Invitational in Columbia last weekend, the Gamecocks will head to the University of Florida to compete against stiff collegiate and international competition.
Head coach Curtis Frye has been impressed with the performances of both teams so far this season and hopes to keep the momentum carrying as the competition begins to heat up.
“Talking about momentum, I’m kind of in shock because we’re well ahead of where I’d thought we’d be at this time,” Frye said. “So obviously we’re going to try and continue that. We’ve got a very young team, so I don’t want us to get our expectations too high right now after the first two meets, but we’ve showed a lot of promise.”
On the women’s side, true freshman standout Precious Holmes has been one of the top runners in the country at the 400 meter race, and Frye hopes that she will continue to get better as the season progresses.
“We want her to get to the finals in the SEC,” Frye said. “She’s very talented but very young. These Florida relays — going up against top competition — will give us an idea of where she can go. When she goes up against some of those All-Conference and All-American runners we’ll see if this 17-year-old can match up.”
Along with Holmes, freshmen Briana Haith and Marisa Bellamy and sophomore Tyler Brockington make up the indoor All-American 4-x-400 meter relay team that will look to continue their success in the outdoor season. The team has finished first in each of the last two meets.
Senior Jeannelle Scheper and sophomore Sarah Graham, who compete in the high jump and the heptathlon, respectively, are two athletes to look out for in this meet in their events.
On the men’s side, senior Chris Royster looks to continue his rebound off of a disappointing indoor season and build off of his strong performances in the 100 meter race in the last two meets.
Now that the Gamecocks are in the full swing of their outdoor schedule, Frye is optimistic about what could come of this year’s campaign.
“I think this team can do great things,” Frye said. “I don’t want us to get too ahead of ourselves because we can mess up and make mistakes later on, but the main thing is we have a lot of talent and lot of potential.”