Former Rockmart standout sets hurdles record at conference championships
Zoryan Hendricks made history last week.
The former Rockmart track and field standout set a Big South Conference record for his time in the 110-Meter Hurdles event at last week’s Big South Outdoor Championships.
Hendricks ran a 13.49 in the qualifier before finishing third in the 110-Meter Hurdles Finals with a time of 13.81 seconds.
The Rockmart High School alumni has put together a fantastic junior campaign at Division I track powerhouse USC Upstate.
Hendricks finished sixth in the 60-Meter Hurdles at the Carolina Challenge on Jan. 22 before picking up a silver medal in the same event at the JDL Flat is Fast Invitational in Winston-Salem, N.C. on Jan. 23.
While going up against some of the top competition in the Palmetto State in late January’s South Carolina Invitational, Hendricks came in fourth in the 60-Meter Hurdles and 48th in the 200-Meter Dash.
As the 2022 schedule progressed, the Polk County native continued to tally strong finishes for the Spartans. Hendricks was fifth in the 60-Meter Hurdles at the 2022 Darius Dixon Memorial Invitational and finished second in the Big South Indoor Track and Field Championships in late February.
In the Charlotte 49er Classic in mid-March, Hendricks earned gold in the 110-Meter
Hurdles and picked up a silver medal as part of USC Upstate’s 4x100-Meter Relay team. A week later, at the 2022 ADIDAS Winthrop University Invitational, he won the 110-Meter Hurdles event and finished fifth in the 100-Meter Dash.
Hendricks and the Spartans’ 4x100-Meter Relay squad won the Newberry College Hub-City Invitational on April 8. In his last tune-up before the conference championships, the junior came in second at the Charlotte Invitational.
Hendricks’ time in the Big South Outdoor Championships’ qualifying round marked a personal best, as he ran a 13.49 at that event in High Point, N.C. He garnered a bronze medal in the 110-Meter Hurdles finals a day later, as he finished .1 seconds behind North Carolina A&T senior Cory Poole.
Hendricks and the Spartans came in fifth overall with a score of 64 points at the Big South Outdoor Championships. USC Upstate finished behind conference champions High Point, runners-up North Carolina A&T, third-place Campbell, and fourth-place Charleston Southern.
USC Upstate’s men’s track squad will pack it up and start the offseason, preparing for another impressive 2023 campaign. If nothing else, the former Yellow Jacket proved in 2022 that he is not only one of the best hurdles runners in the Big South Conference, but in the entire southeast.