University of South Carolina Upstate Athletics
Hilton Garden Invitational
Upstate Achieves Two School Records on Opening Day of Hilton Garden Invitational
1/31/2014 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Winston-Salem, N.C. – The first day of the Hilton Garden Invitational featured two school records broken and 13 personal-bests attained by the USC Upstate track and field team Friday at the JDL Fast Track.
Two Upstate newcomers, KeAndrea Ladson and Alexis Jacobs, both set new school indoor records during the event hosted by Wake Forest University. Ladson qualified for the 60-meter hurdle finals after breaking her own school record, and personal-best, with a time of 9.24 to finish 19th overall. Jacobs also broke her school indoor mark in the shot put after registering a personal-best throw of 13.70-meters (44-11.50) to place sixth in the event.
The Spartans also had three other athletes qualify for the finals of their respective events tomorrow. Ronald Collins ran a personal-best time of 8.73 to earn a spot in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles, while Dominique Nock and Brenicke Johnson each qualified for the 60-meter dash finals. Nock placed 18th in the preliminaries with a time of 7.76 and Johnson was 25th on her time of 7.86.
Collins was one of five Upstate men to record personal-best times or marks on day one. Ross Oden (15:32.56) and Cody Ellison (16:43.02) both registered personal-bests in the 5000-meter run, while Michael Smith had a personal-best leap in the triple jump of 13.75-meters (45-01.50). Ethan Dopp posted a personal-best time in the 800-meter run of 2:03.36.
Oden and Smith compiled the top finishes on the men's side during the first day of competition. Oden was 11th in the 5000-meter run and Smith also finished 11th in the triple jump. Jake McKown also had a sixth-place finish in the shot put heptathlon.
The Spartan women picked up eight personal-bests on Friday from eight different athletes including Ladson and Jacobs. Hannah Chaney earned a new personal-best in the 5000-meter run with her time of 20:08.32 and was joined by Erin Gethin's personal-best of 11:38.62 in the 3000-meter run. Brittany Walls and Draneisha Griffin both set personal-bests in field events as Walls had a throw of 11.74-meters (38-06.25) in the shot put and Griffin 10.95-meters (35-11.25) in the triple jump. Essence Jackson (2:24.01) and Rebecca Elliott (2:27.71) followed in the 800-meter run.
Jacobs logged the top finish of the day for Upstate with her sixth-place finish in the shot put. Ladson and Meagan Bailey also had top-five finishes as part of pentathlon events. Ladson was fourth in the 60-meter hurdles pentathlon and Bailey third in the shot put pentathlon.
Day two of the Hilton Garden Invitational begins at 9 a.m. Saturday morning with the throws sector and goes until the men's 4x400-meter relay at 4:40 p.m.
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