BATON ROUGE, La. (May 12, 2023) – South Carolina Track & Field capped off day two of the 2023 SEC Outdoor Championship, qualifying for four additional finals on Saturday. In addition, the Gamecocks also scored in three events on the day.
Dylan Targgart and Kobe Franklin each placed in their respective events, earning points for the Gamecocks. Targgart, a veteran thrower, scored for the second straight season in the shot put as he placed fourth with 19.53m (64-1). The Michigan native earned five points for the Garnet & Black. Franklin secured points for the second time in his outdoor career, snatching three points when he finished sixth in the high jump after tying his personal best of 2.09m (6-10.25).
South Carolina posted three qualifying marks on the men’s side as well, with Filip Demsar, Anass Essayi and Evan Miller stamping their names into Saturday’s heat sheet. Demsar earned an automatic qualifying spot in the 110-meter hurdles when he finished third in his heat and sixth overall following 13.76 (2.7). Essayi reached the finals in similar fashion in the 1500m, finishing third in his heat to automatically qualify with a time of 3:43.13. Miller was the final Gamecock to qualify on the men’s side, doing so in the 400m after posting a new personal-best time of 45.11.
On the women’s side, it was KD Young who became the first Gamecock scorer for the SEC Championship, finishing eighth in the shot put. The veteran thrower reached the finals thanks to her third throw of 16.45m (53-11.75), bumping her up to fourth all-time in Carolina history. Young captured one point for the Gamecocks following her personal best.
Silan Ayyildiz was the lone female Gamecock to qualify for a Saturday final, doing so in the 1500m. The Turkey native won her heat and threw the spurs up to the crowd as she crossed the finish line with a time of 4:23.84 to secure her automatic spot into Saturday’s finale.
“It was another exciting day at the track,” added Head Coach Curtis Frye. “I loved watching Dylan and KD compete to the best of their ability and earn points for the Gamecocks. KD was able to throw a new personal best and Dylan finished three spots better than last season. It was also great to see Kobe match his outdoor best and put more points on the board for Carolina. As a coaching staff we challenged them this morning to just compete and leave it all out there. Don’t worry about fouling or getting beat, just go out and give it your all. I feel like we…