The Future Is Here For Upstate Track & Field
12/2/2008 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Dec. 2, 2008
SPARTANBURG, S.C. -
2008-09 T&F Season Preview:
The 2007-08 season was not only the first season, but also a distinct beginning for the track and field program at USC Upstate. With the move to Division I in 2007, the university needed to add three new athletic teams in order to meet the Division I requirements of 14 teams. After careful consideration, Upstate decided to revive the men's and women's cross country teams and create the men's and women's track and field programs.
Now in its second year of existence, the track and field program is looking to continue to build upon the new foundation of excellence under head coach Jimmy Stephens. Last season, the men finished sixth and the women eighth at the Atlantic Sun Indoor Championships, highlighted by many new individual firsts, personal records and accomplishments. The program is now continuing to grow and mature.
The Spartans will begin their indoor season on Friday, Dec. 5, as they will travel to Boone, N.C., to compete in the Appalachian Invite. From there, they will compete in four additional meets throughout the indoor season, including the Appalachian Limited, UNC Classic, ETSU Invitational and Tiger Invitational before A-Sun Championships on Feb. 20-21.
The Spartans will then begin their outdoor track and field season on March 20-21 at the Charlotte Invitational. They will also participate in the Winthrop, Duke and Furman Invitationals, the Georgia Bulldog Limited, the prestigious Penn Relays, the Duke Twilight and the Orange & White Invitational before the A-Sun Championships on May 15-16.
Coaching Staff:
Jimmy Stephens returns to the USC Upstate Track and Field program in his second season as the head coach. Stephens brings 14 years of coaching experience to the table, as he spent time at schools such as South Carolina, Furman, Wofford and Alabama. He has ties to the area as a native of Spartanburg and a graduate of Dorman High School. Stephens graduated with a bachelor's degree in sport administration from South Carolina where he was a member of the track and field team for two seasons before he suffered a career-ending shoulder injury.
Ed Schlichter will enter his second season as Stephens' assistant coach for track and field, with a primary focus on the distance side. Prior to coming to USC Upstate in 2007, Schlichter spent two seasons coaching at UNC Charlotte, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in English and a minor in communications, and was a member of the 49ers' track and field and cross country teams from 2000-05.
Also on the coaching staff this season is Jeremy Longshore, a 2008 graduate of Gardner-Webb University. Longshore was a four-year member of the Runnin' Bulldogs track and field program and earned a bachelor's degree in sport management.
"It is very exciting to see our track and field program progress and develop," said USC Upstate head track and field coach Jimmy Stephens. "We are still a long way from where we want to be, but we are far ahead of where I expected the program to be in only its second year of existence. We have some really strong building blocks for the future and as we continue to add to them, we are going to be a formidable program in the years to come.
"I am very proud of the quick maturity of the distance program. Coach Schlichter has done a fantastic job in developing the distance runners. I am also very excited and eager to see the development of our field event athletes. Many of them have come a long way in just a year and are ready to compete at the Division I level.
"Like any program, the ultimate goal is to win," Stephens said. "We'd like to win conference and have some of our athletes qualify to go to Regionals and Nationals. However, we understand that with a new program, you have to be patient and build upon it. In our first year, we had set short-term and individual goals, all of which we blew out of the water. Therefore, our expectations for the second year of the program are much higher. This is going to be an exciting year for Upstate Track and Field!"
Men's Preview:
The men's indoor track and field team finished sixth at the Atlantic Sun Indoor Championships last season. Perrish Goggins sparked the men with a second-place finish in the heptathlon and tied for third in the high jump, while Justin Crawford finished sixth in the pole vault. The Spartans then finished seventh at the outdoor conference championships as Goggins took fourth in the high jump and sixth in the triple jump. One of the most notable points of the 2008 outdoor season for Upstate was defeating Wofford, 91-33, in the dual-meet, taking first-place in each individual event.
This year's distance program will look to supplement the improvement that the Upstate men's cross country team saw in the fall. Led by freshman James Jackson, the men's program finished eighth of 11 teams at the Atlantic Sun Conference Cross Country Championships. Jackson earned All-Freshman honors after posting a 30th-overall finish at the conference meet. Kevin Brabham, Brent Durden, Conrad Goeringer and Matt Henderson also competed in the cross country season and will return to the indoor team on the distance side as well, with the addition of newcomer transfer Joe Holzinger from Anderson University.
Newcomers Adam Bailey, Devin Blue, Reggie Garnett, Mike Meissner, and Steven Washington will join the Spartan sprinters and are expected to make a visible impact. DeNeal Cotton returns as a sophomore after posting the school's top five times in the 400-meter hurdles in the 2008 outdoor season. He competed in the 60-meter hurdles for the Spartans at the A-Sun Championships, breaking his own school record at the event. Billeto McGee and Mack Reed are also in the Spartan mix for sprints.
Perhaps the highlight of the 2007-08 Upstate men's track and field team last season was Perrish Goggins, the Atlantic Sun Conference's Indoor Track and Field Most Outstanding Freshman. He posted a total of 4,417 points, the second-best in A-Sun history, during the heptathlon en route to a second-place finish at the A-Sun Championships, and set school records of 6-8.25 in the high jump, 22-9.25 in the long jump, and 44-9.50 in the triple jump. Senior Marc Wartenberger will also be competing in jumps and multi-events, as he recorded the second-best scores in school history in the heptathlon and long jump during the 2007-08 indoor season. Wartenberger is listed among last season's top five performances in four individual events and looks to finish his senior campaign strong for the Spartans.
Joseph Jiles, the sophomore from Summerville, S.C., will also be returning and joining Goggins in jumps. Jiles is also likely to see some action in sprints as well. Dakota Speed will see action in the high jump, while Mack Reed is likely to compete in the triple jump and long jump.
Eric Chapman, a newcomer to the Spartan team, will compete in throws, joining sophomore James Miles, junior Kyle Wentzel and senior Chris Weidensee. Miles posted the school's top throws of the season in the hammer throw and shot put during the 2008 outdoor season, and set school records in the shot put and weight throw at the 2007-08 Indoor A-Sun Championships.
After battling injury and competing only twice in the outdoor season, Justin Crawford looks to return healthy this season and will compete in the pole vault. During the 2007-08 indoor season, he cleared 14-1.25 twice, including once during the A-Sun Championships where he finished sixth and he also had the top four showings in school history. Sophomore Graham Long will also compete in the pole vault and the 100-meter dash, and Terry Squibbs, a freshman from Rock Hill, S.C., will also join the Spartans in jumps and pole vault.
Women's Preview:
Last season, the women's indoor team posted an eighth-place finish at the A-Sun Championships. They were unable to compete in the outdoor conference championships last season due to conference restrictions and can now look forward to being eligible in the upcoming 2008-09 season. Numerous different athletes recorded season-best performances in the different events throughout the outdoor season and look to build upon those results this year. Kayla Speed, Dee Dee Allen, Stacie Sewell, Melissa Billups, Kelly Westfield, Kathryn Neely, Kiah White, Sheliah Williams, LaTerrica Blocker, Nicole Yancey and Emily Tangwar all posted season-best times in different events and will be returning to the team this season.
The women will be looking to build upon the success the distance program saw in its first season of track and field. Emily Tangwar led the Spartans in distance running in the 2007-08 season, being named the Most Outstanding Runner at the A-Sun Indoor Championships and both the Most Outstanding Performer and the Freshman of the Year after finishing first in the 3,000-meters, 5,000-meters and mile run.
"The distance events are one of the most competitive components of the conference's track & field championships," said USC Upstate assistant track and field coach Ed Schlichter. "With Emily taking the Most Outstanding Runner award, Freshman of the Year award, and three of the four distance events last season, she set the tone for what we hope the new distance additions plan to build upon. Our goals will be to lower the school records and score more points than we did last year amongst the many distance events. We are a deeper, stronger and faster squad this year, and I'm excited to see how the season pans out."
Also running distance races for Upstate will be freshmen Caroline Chelulei, Jemeli Sang, Lauren Walker and Joan Tangwar, sophomore Nicole Yancey (who will also compete in sprints), and senior Maria Ruvalcaba Trigueros, all who competed for the Upstate cross country program in the fall. Sang posted a team-best finish at the A-Sun Conference Cross Country Championships with a time of 19:04, good for 22nd-overall and a spot on the conference All-Freshman Team. The women's cross country program earned a seventh-place finish of 11 teams at the conference championships, a strong improvement from the 2007 season. They will look to continue their progression.
LaTerrica Blocker will return to compete in the 100-meter sprint. She earned the school's top four times in the 100-meters last year, and won the 100-meter dashes at both the Wofford and Furman Invitationals. Other sprinters who will compete are junior Alesha Dawson, senior Julie Miller and newcomers Shakoka Jemison, Erin Tyre and Shari Wright.
Ashley Moore, Adrienne Singletary, Kiah White and Sheliah Williams will also be returning as sprinters to compete in the 200- and 400-meter dashes and the 1,600-meter relay. All helped Upstate earn the first 1,600-meter relay victory in school history at the Catamount Classic on April 18. White also posted the school's top times of the year in the 200- and 400-meter dashes.
Sophomore Melissa Billups set the school record in the long jump and triple jump last season at the Atlantic Sun Conference Championships and looks to be a key performer for the Spartans again this year. She also adds depth to the sprinters, as she competed in the 100-meter dash and 400-meter relay during the 2008 outdoor season. Kathryn Neely will also bring experience, as she posted the school's top three times last season in hurdles. Angie Varnum, Kelly Westfield and Gabrielle Walker will also compete in jumps for the Spartans. Walker is a transfer from Mars Hill College, where she set school records in the 100-meters, triple jump, 400-meter, 55-meters, and 60-meters.
The women will have returning sophomore Dee Dee Allen, junior Stacie Sewell and senior Kayla Speed competing in throwing events. Last season, Allen recorded the school's top throws of the season in both the javelin and shot put and won the javelin throw at the Wofford dual meet. Sewell competed in the discus, hammer, javelin and shot put and posted the school's top throws in the discus, while Speed earned the best throw of the season in the hammer throw. LaTerrica Blocker may also see some action in throws. The variety of talent on the Spartan team will be a major advantage.
With a year of Division I experience under their belts and a diverse inventory of newcomers, the 2008-09 Spartans will look to continue to reach new heights and engrave themselves in the university's record books. Though the young team is still in the midst of transitioning, they have paved the way for a successful future.
