March 8, 2008

CHARLESTON, S.C. - The USC Upstate men's and women's track and field teams braved the cold and windy elements Saturday and put together some solid individual performances in its first-ever outdoor track meet at the Buccaneer Invitational at Charleston Southern University.

"There were some rough conditions we had to deal with," Upstate track and field head coach Jimmy Stephens said. "The wind was blowing hard, but everyone had decent performances today."

Freshman Perrish Goggins, fresh off of a great performance at the Atlantic Sun Indoor Championships last weekend, continued to excel, finishing tied for second in the men's high jump at 1.88 meters and third in the men's long jump at 6.76 meters.

"(Perrish) obviously cut back on what he did last weekend after being in the heptathlon," Stephens said. "He's going into spring break to get some rest, but he's had a great run these last few weeks."

In his first competition in the men's javelin, junior Marc Wartenberger came in second with a throw of 42.15 meters. Senior Thomas Smith finished in fourth with a throw of 40.11 meters.

In other men's results, freshman Justin Crawford was third in the pole vault clearing 4.15 meters, freshman Josh Kirby was fifth in the discus with a throw of 36.96 meters, freshman James Miles was sixth in the shot put with a throw of 13.41 meters and freshman DeNeal Cotton was fifth in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 1:02.43.

On the women's side, freshman Kiah White put together a good performance in the 400 meter dash finishing in the fifth place at 1:02.43. Freshman Kathryn Neely also had a fifth place performance in the 100 meter hurdles competing them in a time of 17.13.

"(Kiah and Kathryn) each had a good run. Kathryn was running into a head-wind and Kiah came into one in the last stretch, but they did a good job," Stephens said.

Also of note, junior Kayla Speed was ninth in the hammer throw with a throw of 28.13 meters. It was Speed's first time competing in the event.

All of the Upstate distance runners were given the weekend off and Stephens said that they will be competing in the Spartans next meet.

"We wanted to give our distance runners some rest and get our first outdoor meet under our belt," Stephens said. "It was a good meet with some good teams in it."