Clemson Men’s Track And Field East Region Championship Qualifiers Announced

May 22, 2003

CLEMSON, SC – The Clemson men’s track and field team will send 19 student-athletes to the inaugural NCAA East Region Championships to be held May 30-31 on the campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, VA. The qualified Tigers will compete in 14 events, including the 4x100m and 4x400m relays as well as 12 individual events. The top five athletes in each individual event and the top three relay teams will automatically advance to the NCAA championship meet to be held at California State University in Sacramento, CA, from June 11-14.

In the running events, Airese Currie will compete in the 100m and 200m. Currie ranks ninth in the region in the 100m with a time of 10.40 set at the Orange & Purple Classic. He is listed seventh in the 200m with a time of 20.90 also recorded at the Orange & Purple meet. Tye Hill is the third Tiger slated to compete in the 100m. He posted a season-best time of 10.48 at the Georgia Tech Invitational to rank 21st entering the region championships. Itay Magidi enters the East Region Championship ranked fifth in the 3000m steeplechase with a time of 8:52.30 set at the ACC Championships. Roy Cheney is a qualifier in the 110m hurdles and 400m hurdles. Cheney ranks 19th with a time of 14.15 set at the ACC Championships in the 110m hurdles, and owns a season-best time of 52.17 in the 400m hurdles to rank 18th in that event. Michael Bolling, Rashad Gardner and Scott Kautz will also compete in the 400m hurdles. Bolling ranks 13th with a time of 51.93 set at the ACC Championships, while Kautz’s time of 52.04 set at the Georgia Tech Invitational puts him 16th on the region list. Gardner owns a season-best time of 52.33 set at the Clemson Invitational to rank 25th entering the region meet. The Tigers’ 4x100m relay team of Griffin, Spain, Currie and Hill as well as the 4x400m relay team of Bolling, Warren Eure, Cheney and Spain will also compete. The 400m relay team has a season-best time of 40.05 to tie for fifth entering the region meet, and the 1600m relay team ranks tied for seventh with a season-best time of 3:07.23. Both season-best times were set at the Georgia Tech Invitational.

George Kitchens is the East Region leader in the long jump with his season-best and school-record mark of 25’10.75″. Three Tigers have qualified in the pole vault, including Ryan Hunter. Lewis is tied for 11th in the region with a clearance of 16’6.75″ at the Georgia Tech Invitational, while Klotzbach and Hunter are tied for 20th with a mark of 16’0.75″. Derek Gilson and Matt Lombardi will compete in the shot put. Gilson ranks 24th with a mark of 54’1.25″ set at the Orange and Purple Classic, while Lombardi’s best mark of 53’11” puts him 30th on the region list.