Clark’s Third-Place Showing in 5000m Leads Clemson at ACC Indoor Championships

Feb. 29, 2008

Chapel Hill, NC – Matt Clark earned his second straight All-ACC honor in the 5000m run to pace the Clemson men’s track & field team Friday at the conference indoor meet at the Eddie Smith Field House. Clark is the first student-athlete from Clemson to earn all-conference recognition in the 5000m in consecutive years since Joe Gibson achieved the feat in 1998-99.

The Tigers are tied for fourth in the team standings with 25 points heading into the final day of competition. Florida State leads with 35 points, while North Carolina and N.C. State are second (30). Clemson is tied with Georgia Tech and Virginia.

Clark finished third in the 5000m with a time of 14:29.37. Clark and teammate Bryce Iverson stayed in the front pack for the first half of the race, with Iverson leading much of the way. In the final four laps, Clark could not hold off a surging John Crews of N.C. State who won in 14:27.51. Clark was beaten just before the line for second by Ryan Foster of Virginia. Iverson finished 11th (15:03.10).

C.J. Spiller qualified for Saturday’s final in the 60m dash. Padgett ran a 6.68, an NCAA provisional qualifying time, which was the effort by anyone on Friday in the short sprint. Padgett is hoping for his second All-ACC honor in the event, as he previously finished runner-up as a freshman. Spiller scored in the 60m last season as well. The 60m final will be Saturday at 1:10 PM.

A trio of Tigers qualified for the finals of the 200m dash, led by Padgett. The Shelby, NC product had a time of 21.96, fifth-best on the afternoon. C.J. Spiller and Corey Brown also qualified, with both running a 22.02 in Friday’s prelims. It was Spiller’s first action this season in the 200m dash.

Travis Swaggard made the finals of the 400m dash after posting a time of 49.35 in the fifth preliminary. The final will be Saturday at 12:50 PM. Jasen Turnbull had a solid time of 1:56.56 in the 800m run. He finished 14th out of 30 competitors.

Matt Hughes was the team’s top performer in the mile run and missed qualifying for Saturday’s final by one spot. He recorded a time of 4:15.75, just shy of his season best, to take 11th place out of 33 competitors. Matt Bruce (4:21.72) and Tyler Morey (4:25.78) also competed in Friday’s mile prelims.

The distance medley relay team of Hughes, Andrew Porter, Turnbull, and Bruce posted a time of 10:13.37 to finish 10th place Friday.

George Fields, still working his way into form this season, hit a mark of 23’6″ in the long jump and finished eighth. He won the event last year at Clemson’s indoor facility.

In the heptathlon, Joey O’Rourke had the top mark in that event for the Tigers (14’8″). Feathers ran strong to open Friday action with a time of 7.76 in the 55m hurdles. His time was second-best among the 12 competitors. Feathers also competed in the 60m hurdles, where he finished 10th but did not make the finals. He posted a personal best time in that event (8.26).

Moss finished with a personal best, a total of 5,206 points. He had the fourth-best time in the 1000m run to finish strong Saturday. Moss ran a 2:48.83, with Feathers close behind with a personal best time of 2:49.25. Feathers posted 5,164 points, eclipsing his previous best of 5,131 at the 2006 ACC Championships. It marked the second time in three years that Feathers placed inside the top six at the league meet in the heptathlon.

The Tigers return to action Saturday at 11:30 AM. The first men’s event scheduled is the high jump.