SPARTANBURG, S.C. – USC Upstate women's track and field had just completed a successful indoor season before outdoor season was unfortunately canceled, bringing the year to an abrupt halt. Leading the way for the women's squad this year were Adanma Uzor and Angelnique Bryant, who both defended their conference titles in the triple jump and 60m, respectively.
"There were a total of seven school records broken this indoor season along with 93 personal records. This shows that the work the athletes put in over the winter paid off with their best every performance. It was one of our best seasons on the books," said head coach Carson Blackwelder.
Uzor took home the triple jump conference title at the Big South Indoor Championships for the second year in a row. Her first place leap of 12.61m set a school record and is the fourth-best mark in Big South history. She also took fourth place in the long jump with a 5.61m mark. The junior finished her season with six top-5 finishes.
Bryant set a school record with a 7.40 in the 60m prelims at the Big South Indoor Championships before taking gold in the event with a time of 7.41. Her prelim time was also the second-best in Big South history. Additionally, she finished fourth in the 200m at 24.86. The sophomore was twice named Big South Indoor Track Athlete of the Week and finished her season with six top-5 finishes.
Megan Deimeke had a strong performance at the Buccaneer Invitational with a pair of sixth-place finishes and personal bests in the weight throw and shot put. She hit a mark of 15.53m in the weight throw and would later reset her personal best in the shot put at the Big South Indoor Championships with a 12.34m mark.
At the Virginia Tech Challenge, Brittany Cox broke a school record in the 60m hurdles before breaking it again in the finals for a third place finish of 8.66. She later tied that record at the Big South Indoor Championships.
The sophomore duo of Arianna Krcik and Allie Leavitt had strong seasons as Krcik set two personal bests and had eight top-10 finishes, and Leavitt set four personal bests with three top-10 finishes including a runner-up 1000m finish at the Virginia Tech Challenge.
Saleia Porter and Tiana Gray both set a school record at the Clemson Openeras Porter ran a 41.03 300m and Gray ran a 1:48.27 600m.
"We had a lot of potential this outdoor season and were looking to put good athletes in positions to do great things. We feel all of our athletes would have seen personal records along with school records broken. There was opportunity for our athletes to repeat as conference champions and qualify for the first round of nationals. We look forward to next year to claim those titles," said Blackwelder.
