UNC Heads to South Carolina for Gamecock Inaugural Meet

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The University of North Carolina track and field teams travel to garnet territory for South Carolina's Gamecock Inaugural from Jan. 18-19. The two-day competition will feature all-day action with the women's 60-meter hurdles, the women's weight throw and the men's shot put beginning at 10 a.m. on Friday. Saturday's start times will stagger — running events kick off at 9 a.m. with the men's 5,000 and women's pole vault starts the field competition at 10 a.m.

"After a very good start to the season at the Carolina Cup, we have a small entourage going down to the University of South Carolina," head coach Harlis Meaders said. "A lot of our athletes are going to go back into training to prepare for some of the larger competitions later in the season, but we're looking forward to building on the performances we had last week with the athletes who will be competing again this week. We're excited to have another opportunity to post ACC qualifying performances and to make our mark on the NCAA Indoor qualifying list."

Seven Tar Heels with ACC qualifying marks will make the trip to South Carolina. Though sophomore Anna Keefer will make an appearance in the women's 60 instead of the long jump, most will return to their top events. Redshirt-junior Draven Crist and senior Anna Eaton each set new personal records in their respective events at the Carolina Cup. Crist hit 7-0 1/2 (2.15m) in the indoor high jump and Eaton now ranks third all-time at UNC and second in the ACC in the women's indoor pole vault with her height of 13-5 1/4 (4.10m).

Graduate student Alex Cooke and sophomore Jill Shippee are set to compete in the women's weight throw while junior Daniel McArthur hopes to set a new season best in the men's shot put. Sophomore Ryan Saint-Germain will also return to competition after running 21.92 — 21.54 converted — in the men's 200 which qualified him for ACC Indoors.

At least nine other North Carolina student-athletes will compete over the course of the meet. On the women's side, sophomore Emerson Porter will join Eaton on pole vault and senior Kristin Hall rounds out returning competitors for the Heels. Sophomores Dontavian Smith, Cameron Douglas and Josh Mukoro will represent the men in track events while pole vaulters Liam Dixon, Bailey Frederick and Drew Pedersen have a chance to improve upon their Carolina Cup performances. Redshirt-junior Joey Souza will also make his second appearance of the season after sitting out the 2018 seasons.

"You'll see some athletes competing in their secondary events, primarily for training purposes," Meaders said. "However, you will also get to see some of our athletes who shined last week back on the track in their primary events. Draven Crist and Anna Eaton will definitely be people to watch after their great starts. Same goes to Jill [Shippee] and Alex [Cooke] in the weight throw and Daniel [McArthur] in the shot put. All of those athletes are competing in their primary events and that's where we have the greatest hopes of having people advance to the NCAA Championships."

HOW TO FOLLOW
Fans can follow the live results link as well as @unctrack_field on Twitter for updates throughout the meet. UNC Track & Field is also on Facebook and Instagram (@unctrack_field). A recap of performances and results will be posted on GoHeels.com following the conclusion of competition.

LAST TIME OUT
The North Carolina Tar Heels kicked off the season in commanding fashion as the men extended their streak of at least sharing a piece of the Dick Taylor Carolina Cup to six-straight years, the women captured the runner-up title and 10 student-athletes qualified for the ACC Indoor Championships.

UNC collectively earned 13 first-place honors and set five new career bests in just the first meet of the season.

Though Carolina did not enter any athletes into the Gene Anderson Invitational on Friday, Scott Houston (UNA) set a new facility record of 17-11 (5.46m) in the men's pole vault. The Eddie Smith Field House record was previously held by Stephan Munz of Virginia Tech with a height of 17-10 1/2.

IN THE RANKINGS
After just the first weekend of their 2019 season, the Tar Heels hold 10 top-five times/marks in the ACC and 10 times/marks that rank top-50 in the country.

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Players Mentioned

Alex Cooke

Draven Crist

Liam Dixon

Cameron Douglas

Anna Eaton

Bailey Frederick

Kristin Hall

Anna Keefer

Daniel McArthur

Drew Pedersen

Emerson Porter

Ryan Saint-Germain

Jill Shippee

Dontavian Smith

Joey Souza