The South Carolina track and field squad competed this weekend at the 2023 SEC Outdoor Track and Field championships. For the third year in a row on the men’s side and for the second time in three years for the women, the Arkansas Razorbacks won the SEC Championship. The sweep was also Arkansas’ second men’s and women’s SEC Championship sweep over the past three seasons. This weekend wasn’t the best showing for the Gamecocks as a team, but several individual South Carolina competitors performed well.
The men’s 1500-meter winner was Anass Essayi. Essayi’s victory should come as no surprise as just earlier this year, he posted the second-fastest 1600-meter time in collegiate track and field history. The 1500-meter and 1600-meter events are (obviously) closely related, and Assayi beat the rest of the competition by about four seconds in the 1500-meter championship event, a large margin. There was no 1600-meter event at the SEC Championship.
The women’s 1500-meter winner was Silan Ayyildiz, meaning the South Carolina track and field team swept the 1500-meter events. Ayyildiz ran a time of 4:17.67 and was near the front of the pack for the entire race. The final stretch of the race saw her separate from second place by a few feet, and she held on to bring home the gold. Ayyildiz became the first Gamecock woman to ever win the 1500-meter SEC Championship.
The Gamecocks also brought home two other medals. Carolina freshman Sylvia Chelangat won the silver medal in the women’s 800-meter event, the first Lady Gamecock to score in the 800-meter since 2005. The third-fastest 10K time in school history now belongs to Rogerio Amaral who also took home the bronze medal.
Dillon McCarthy did not bring home a medal but secured points for South Carolina in the pole vault event; he finished fifth while putting up the fifth-best vault in school history at 5.30 meters.
Filip Demsar also scored as he finished 6th in the men’s 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.85 seconds.
Kobe Franklin logged a 6th-place finish in the high jump by jumping 2.09 meters.
In the individual 400-meter, Evan Miller ran a 45.96 to finish 8th.
KD Young placed 8th to score points in the women’s shot put by throwing 16.45 meters.
In the men’s shot put, Dylan Targgart finished 4th with a throw of 19.53 meters.