Track & Field Program Announces 2011-12 Indoor and Outdoor Schedule

Sept. 7, 2011

CLEMSON, SC – The 2011-12 indoor and outdoor schedule was announced Monday by Clemson’s Director of Track & Field, Lawrence Johnson. The Tiger men’s and women’s teams will open the 2011-12 campaign at home with the Orange & Purple Winter Classic, one of three home indoor meets and five overall. In addition, the Tigers have been invited to New York City to compete in the New Balance Invitational on Feb. 3-4, as well as the Jim Click Invitational in Tucson, AZ from Mar. 29-31.

“As our team has gotten better, it’s been tougher to attract some of the best teams to come to Clemson,” Johnson said. “Our travel schedule has increased in an effort to find more competition.”

The team will return to action Jan. 13-14 after the holiday break at the Virginia Tech Invitational in Blacksburg, VA. Following a Jan. 21 meet at the new Metro CrossPlex facility in Birmingham, AL, the Tigers return home to play host to the Clemson Invitational on Jan. 27-28.

Clemson will split its groups on the weekend of Feb. 3-4, with some athletes headed back to Blacksburg for Virginia Tech’s Elite Meet and others headed to the New Balance meet at The Armory. The Tigers will follow the next week at another prestigious meet, the Tyson Invitational at Arkansas’ home facility.

“New Balance and the Tyson meet are probably the premier indoor meets in the country,” Johnson said. “We were extended an invitation to come, which is a big honor for us. As a program, we’ve not been there (New York) as a combined group of men’s and women’s kids. We’ll see some of the top competition in the country.”

The ACC Indoor Championships will take to a new destination in 2012. The three-day meet will be held Feb. 23-25 in Boston, MA at the Reggie Lewis Center, a 200-meter banked track. Clemson’s women are two-time defending ACC team champions. The NCAA Indoor Championships will be held in Boise, ID for the first time in 2012, on the weekend of Mar. 9-10.

The outdoor season gets underway Mar. 16-17 at the Charlotte 49er Classic in North Carolina. After that, the two teams will again split and some will head to the Stanford Invitational in California, while others will head to Orlando, FL for the UCF Invitational. The addition of the Jim Click Invitational to the schedule Mar. 29-31 should add to an already competitive outdoor slate.

“Jim Click is a new meet for us in Arizona,” Johnson said. “It will feature a bunch of Pac-12 schools, as well as a few Big Ten schools. We’ll go out there and try to make some things happen on the West Coast.”

The ACC Outdoor Championships will be held in Charlottesville, VA from Apr. 19-21. The Tiger women are also two-time defending champions of the ACC outdoor meet as well. The annual trip to Philadelphia, PA and historic Franklin Field for the Penn Relays will follow the ACC meet.

For the second straight year, Clemson will host two home outdoor meets at Rock Norman Track. The Bob Pollock Spring Invitational is set for May 5, 2012, with the Clemson Tiger Qualifier taking place the following weekend on the school’s campus.

The NCAA East Preliminary Round will be held at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville in 2012. The dates of the event are May 24-26. The NCAA Outdoor Championships are scheduled for Jun. 6-9 in Des Moines, IA at Drake Stadium. It will be the second straight year Drake University has played host to the event.

2011-12 Clemson Track & Field Schedule