Clemson Track & Field – 2010 Outdoor Season Review

July 15, 2010

Clemson Women Claim ACC Team Championship For the first time in school history, the Clemson women’s track & field program swept the indoor and outdoor ACC championships in the same season. The Tiger women won the 2010 ACC outdoor crown on April 17.

It was Clemson’s first ACC outdoor title in women’s track & field since the 1999 season. The Tigers won by a wide margin, posting 177 points to Florida State’s 124. Thus, the Tigers won the indoor championship by a margin of 52.5 points and the outdoor crown by a total of 53 points.

Clemson won three individual championships – April Sinkler in the high jump and long jump, and Liane Weber in the heptathlon. The Tigers also won their first conference crown in the 4x100m relay since 2001 when the group of Michaylin Golladay, Stormy Kendrick, Kristine Scott and Jasmine Edgerson ran a time of 44.36 in the finals.

In addition to the conference champions, Clemson displayed its depth with 12 All-ACC performances. Among the most notable, Kendrick was runner-up in both short sprints (100m, 200m) and Patricia Mamona was All-ACC in the triple jump and heptathlon. Kim Ruck earned All-ACC status in both the 5K and 10K.

Women’s Team Finishes 18th at NCAA Championships For only the sixth time in Clemson history, the women’s outdoor track & field team finished in the top 20 at the NCAA Championships. It was Clemson’s first top-20 team finish in women’s outdoor track & field since the 2001 team finished in seventh place. The team scored 15 points over only two events. However, one of the events was Patricia Mamona’s individual NCAA crown (and 10 points) in the triple jump. The other five points came courtesy of the 4x100m relay team, which finished in fourth position.

Six Tigers Earn All-America Distinction When the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) released the official list of 2010 outdoor All-Americans the Monday following the NCAA Championships, Clemson boasted six student-athletes that combined for seven of the honors. April Sinkler once again led the way with a pair of accolades. Her best finish was 10th in the long jump. Mamona earned her second career All-America award by virtue of her first-place finish in the triple jump. The four members of the 4×1 also earned All-America accolades, with all but Jasmine Edgerson earning the award for the first time. The first-time All-Americans were Michaylin Golladay, Stormy Kendrick and Kristine Scott.

The seven All-Americans tied for second-most in Clemson history for women’s outdoor track & field. Only the 2001 team had more selections with 12. The 1991 team that tied for 12th place also boasted seven All-America performers.

Mamona Brings Home a Gold Medal in Triple Jump Clemson standout Patricia Mamona showed at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March of 2010 that she would be a factor on the national level in her best event, the triple jump. However, she took her performance to a new level on June 10 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, OR. The indoor runner-up in the event, Mamona had a solid mark of 45’3.5″ and wrapped up the win prior to her last attempt.

The Lisbon, Portugal native was loose and with a capacity crowd behind her, Mamona went out and put together the greatest jump of her life. She hit a school record and jumped 45’11.75″, which sparked a massive personal celebration for the 11-time All-ACC athlete. It was the eighth women’s track & field NCAA crown in school history, and first since Gisele Oliveira won the indoor triple jump in 2005.

Mamona Named ACC Field Performer-of-the-Year Following her national championship performance in the triple jump, red-shirt junior Patricia Mamona was named ACC Outdoor Field Performer-of-the-Year for the 2010 season. The honor was determined by a vote of the conference’s 12 head coaches. It was a fitting end to a brilliant all-around season for the Tiger jumper.

Mamona was also the ACC runner-up in the triple jump and third-place finisher in the heptathlon. Not only did she compete in both events in April at the ACC Outdoor Championships, but she also scored in the open long jump and competed in the 100m high hurdles final as well. She was an integral piece of the puzzle to Clemson’s dominance (+53 over Florida State) at the outdoor league meet in Tigertown.

Johnson Repeats as ACC, Southeast Region Coach-of-the-Year Clemson’s Director of Track & Field Lawrence Johnson was named ACC Coach-of-the-Year and Southeast Region Coach-of-the-Year by the USTFCCCA for women’s outdoor track & field in 2010. Johnson led the Clemson women to their first ACC outdoor championship since 1999, and to the first-ever indoor/outdoor sweep in the school’s history. He also led the Tigers to an 18th-place finish as a team at the NCAA Championships, just the sixth top-10 finish in program history. He coached seven Tigers to All-American honors this outdoor season, including multiple honoree April Sinkler. His student-athletes established eight women’s outdoor event school records in 2010 alone.

Johnson is the first coach in Clemson women’s track & field history to be named ACC Coach-of-the-Year both indoor and outdoor in the same season. He also accomplished another double in 2010. He was USTFCCCA Southeast Region Indoor Coach-of-the-Year in March, giving him a pair of honors from the coaches organization this season.

Sinkler Honored by USTFCCCA, ACC for Outdoor Accomplishments Clemson jumper April Sinkler earned another pair of accolades in 2010 for her outdoor accomplishments in the field events. She was named ACC Most Valuable Outdoor Field Event Athlete at the conclusion of the 2010 league meet, when she took home her first-ever outdoor ACC crowns in the high jump and long jump. A few weeks later, she was voted Southeast Region Outdoor Field Event Athlete-of-the-Year for women’s track & field. Sinkler won both honors during the indoor season as well.

Sinkler competed at the NCAA Championships in two events and earned All-America honors in both. She finished 10th in the long jump at the national meet with a solid mark of 20’4.25″. She also won the honor in the triple jump as one of the top eight American finishers. Sinkler also broke the Clemson record for the high jump (6’1.25″) during the 2010 outdoor season.

Kendrick Named ACC Outdoor Freshman-of-the-Year Clemson rookie Stormy Kendrick was named ACC Freshman-of-the-Year for women’s outdoor track & field, as determined by a vote of the league’s 12 head coaches. Kendrick, the school’s first outdoor ACC Freshman-of-the-Year since Erin Nett in 1999, earned All-America status after helping the 4x100m relay team to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA national meet in Eugene, OR. Kendrick also competed at the NCAAs in both the 100m and 200m dash events. Kendrick a native of Gastonia, NC, was runner-up in both short sprints at the ACC Championships. She also led the 4×1 to its first ACC event championship since the 2001 season.

Kendrick Runner-Up at USA Junior Championships Kendrick had an outstanding postseason during her inaugural campaign with the Tiger track & field program. She advanced to the finals of the 100m dash and 200m dash at the USA Junior Championships in Des Moines, IA. Kendrick was runner-up in the 200, earning a spot in the event at the IAAF World Championships in late July. She was the first Clemson female to earn junior All-America status in two events since April Sinkler (high jump, long jump) in 2008.

Relay Team Matches Best-Ever NCAA National Finish Arguably the best storyline coming from Clemson’s top-10 team finish at the 2010 NCAA Indoor Championships was the all-freshman 4x400m relay team. The group finished in fifth place with the youngest squad at the competition, following up on an outstanding ACC championship run by the group a month earlier.

The outdoor season brought about a similar feel-good storyline in the relays. Clemson’s women won the ACC championship in the 4x100m relay, the first claimed in the event by the Tigers since the 2001 season. The team of Michaylin Golladay, Stormy Kendrick, Kristine Scott and Jasmine Edgerson went on to finish fourth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, matching the program’s best finish (2001) ever in the event.

Edgerson was the common link between the two All-America relays. Not known as a short sprinter, she solidified the relay during the outdoor season in the absence of fellow freshman star Brianna Rollins, who red-shirted the outdoor campaign due to injury.

Moss Sets Clemson Decathlon Record Red-shirt junior Miller Moss had a breakout season in 2010. He established the school’s heptathlon record at the ACC Indoor Championships, then followed with an All-America eighth-place finish at the NCAA national meet in March. His outdoor season was just as special. He broke a nine-year old Clemson record in the decathlon, scoring 7,628 points over the 10 events at the ACC Outdoor Championships in front of a home crowd.

Moss finished as the ACC’s runner-up in the event and was doing well in the competition at the NCAA Outdoor Championships before a series of unfortunate fouls in the discus throw ruined his chance of scoring for the men’s team. He showed toughness by responding with a fourth-place finish at the USA Championships in Des Moines less than two weeks later. His performance resulted in a berth on the U.S. team for the 2010 Thorpe Cup, a prestigious multi-event competition pitting America against Germany in a head-to-head competition.

Weber Wins First ACC Heptathlon Crown with Conference Record Clemson’s Liane Weber has set a standard within ACC women’s track & field that will be tough to follow. When she won the heptathlon at the league meet on April 16, she laid claim to ACC records in both the indoor and outdoor multi-event competitions. She had established the pentathlon record during the indoor season, when she won the ACC for the third time. This time, the Wangen, Germany product totaled an impressive 5,928 points over the seven events to hold off Maryland’s Kiani Profit. It was her first-ever outdoor championship and fourth overall in her fine career.

Weber entered the NCAA competition with the nation’s No. 2 point value in the heptathlon, however she could only compete in the opening event. She had been injured since the ACC meet, and was unable to perform anywhere close to the best of her ability. Though it was a disappointing end to her season, Weber was still the top multi-event athlete in the ACC when healthy.

Mamona, Weber Named ESPN the Magazine Academic All-AmericansLiane Weber and Patricia Mamona from were both named to the 2010 ESPN the Magazine Academic All-America teams, released June 24 by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Weber was named to the first team, while Mamona was a third-team selection.

With their selections, Weber and Mamona became the fourth and fifth student-athletes in Clemson women’s track & field history to be named Academic All-Americans. Gisele Oliveira was a two-time Academic All-American (2004-05), while Jenny Barton was the program’s most recent honoree in 2006 as a third-team selection.

In fact, Weber and Mamona are the first Academic All-Americans in any sport at Clemson since 2006 when Barton was honored from the women’s team and Danny Alge was a second-team selection from the men’s track & field squad.

Ruck Strong in Distance Events for Tiger Program Following a couple of weeks away from competition after earning indoor All-America honors in the 5K, Kim Ruck had an even busier outdoor campaign. The native of Greer, SC had a breakout season in 2010. It all started with an ACC championship in the indoor 5K. She followed with a seventh-place finish in her first trip to the NCAA Championships.

In April, she was runner-up in the 10K and third place in the 5K at the ACC Championships held in Clemson. She then advanced to the NCAA East Prelims in Greensboro, where she posted a fifth-place finish to earn automatic qualification into the national 10K field in Eugene, OR. She responded nicely with a personal best time of 33:42.88, finishing 13th against a strong field in her first-ever outdoor national competition. Ruck concluded the outdoor season No. 2 on Clemson’s all-time performance list in the 10K and third on the 5K chart.

Berg Overcomes Past Injuries with Best Year of his CareerZach Berg has dealt with his share of adversity as a Clemson Tiger. He first encountered injury problems as a freshman, missing the 2007 outdoor season.

In 2008, he fought his way back and earned All-ACC status in the weight throw indoors and hammer outdoors. But injuries persisted the following year, when he competed in a total of just three meets between the 2009 indoor and outdoor seasons.

Finally injury-free and throwing to his fullest potential, Berg has become a force within the ACC ranks. He placed third in the 35-pound weight throw, earning his third all-conference nod in February.

Berg followed with an even stronger outdoor campaign. He placed third in the hammer at the ACC Championships to earn his fourth all-conference accolade. He broke the school record early in the season, followed at ACCs with a mark of 208’3″, and then topped that with a throw of 210’7″ at the Orange & Purple Classic on May 8.

But the ultimate satisfaction for Berg came after learning he was the 12th and final transfer from the East Preliminary Round. With the finish, Berg became the first hammer thrower in Clemson history to advance to the NCAA Championships.

Wachna Returns from Torn ACL and Finishes Runner-Up in the Javelin at ACC Championships Clemson has had at least one All-ACC performer in the women’s javelin each of the last four years. One of them, Bethanie Wachna, is quite a success story. She blew out her knee in practice the week of the 2009 ACC Outdoor Championships in Miami, FL. One year later, she returned to ACCs at home and was runner-up in the javelin with a school-record throw of 160’8″. Wachna went on to earn a trip to Greensboro for the NCAA East Prelims.

Kennedy First Female to Surpass 13 Feet in Pole Vault Four years of dedication and hard work paid off for senior Caroline Kennedy on Saturday, May 15 at the Georgia Tech Invitational. The Orlando, FL native established a first at Clemson – she was the first female in school history to surpass the 13-foot mark in the pole vault.

Kennedy has a pair of All-ACC honors to her name in the vault, including the 2010 outdoor meet when she tied teammate Amy Morrison for third. She was at her best at Georgia Tech two weeks ago, when she went over the bar at 13’1.5″ to establish a school record on her first attempt at the height.

Golladay, Sinkler Claim Silver Medals at NACAC U23 ChampionshipsApril Sinkler won a pair of medals and Michaylin Golladay won a silver medal to highlight Clemson’s action at the 2010 NACAC (North American, Central American, Caribbean) U23 Championships in Miramar, FL. Sinkler won silver in the high jump with a mark of 5’11.25″, while Golladay matched her personal best in the 100 hurdles after clocking a time of 13.07 in the finals. Sinkler added a second medal in the long jump, when she hit a best of 20’9.25″ to claim the bronze. She also competed in the triple jump, the only athlete in the competition to participate in three individual events.