A flock of Gamecocks are participating in the NCAA track and field championships from Wednesday to Saturday. Thirteen events earned national bids after the NCAA East Regional meet Saturday.
Competing Wednesday, Josh Awotunde placed seventh in shot put, earning first-team All-American, in his first national championship appearance. The sophomore threw a personal record, placing himself second in the school's history.
Kaleb Zuidema performed well in the javelin, throwing his third-best distance this season. He earned honorable mention All-American but did not qualify for the final round.
Also Wednesday were the semifinals for many of the mens events, including the 110m hurdles, the 200m dash 400m hurdles.
Dondre Echols joined Jermaine Collier in the 110m hurdles. Echols qualified for the Friday finals with a time of 13.67. Echols not only won the regional championship in the event but won with the time of 13.35 — the second fastest in all of national qualifying times. Echols missed last year’s championships with an injury. Collier participated in his first championships, and placed 15th. He earned second team All-American.
"I'm just really excited, I've been here for three years and I missed it by one spot freshman year, one spot sophomore year, then I had a crazy injury right before prelims my junior year," Echols said. "My goal was just to get through and focus on myself and I did that."
Titi posted a personal best of 20.55 in the 200m at the SEC Championships, placing him 11th in the nation, but pulled in 16th place and second team All-American in the national prelims Wednesday.
In the 400m hurdles, Jussi Kanervo made his third championships appearance and qualified for the finals.
Thursday, the Gamecock women kicked off with the 4x100m, javelin, 400m, 400m hurdles and 4x400m.
The 4x100m, an event loaded with seniors, was represented by Gabby Gray, Tyler Brockington, Ahtyana Johnson and Taranisha Taylor. The team placed 18th, not high enough to move onto the finals. The 2016 Outdoor Championships are the first appearance for Taylor and Gray, the second for Johnson and the third for Brockington.
Another women’s relay qualified for the championships, and has qualified for the finals. The 4x400 team of Aliyah Abrams, Erika Rucker, Brockington and Precious Holmes, which finished second in the SEC Championships and Regionals, ran 3:30.44. This was the fifth best time in the prelims, and qualified them to compete at the Saturday finals.
Abrams also ran the open 400, competing with high hopes as the fastest freshman in the event nationwide. She had the eighth highest preliminary time at 52.33, but due to the qualifying system with spots guaranteed to heat winners, did not qualify for the finals. Abrams earned second team All-American.
Brockington, the only South Carolina athlete to compete in three events, rounded out her day of prelims with the 400m hurdles. She finished 14th overall and earned her seventh All-American honor.
In field, Shelby Freedman was the first lady Gamecock since 2000 to earn All-American honors with her 13th place finish after throwing 164-1.
Coming up Friday, Natasha Dicks, who broke the South Carolina school record in triple jump, will go into the meet after qualifying fourth overall in the region. Her performance earned her a 44-7 1/2 mark. The previous record was 44-2, which she tied at the 2016 SEC Championship.
Also Friday will be the finals for Echols in the 110m hurdles and Kanervo 400m hurdles.
The Gamecocks did not place as well as they wanted to last year as a team. But this year, the team has a good plan ahead of them, as told by their head coach.
"Our goals at NCAAs is to find a way to get 15 points, and if we get 15 points on both sides then we will have a great meet," head coach Curtis Frye said. "It's going to take a lot for us to get 15 points at the NCAAs, so that we can get ourselves into the top 25 on both sides."