Nine Tigers Earn Spot in NCAA Outdoor Championships

May 30, 2006

The field for the 2006 NCAA Outdoor Championships was set on Tuesday. Clemson men’s track & field will be represented with nine student-athletes who will be headed to Sacramento, CA for the competition from June 7-10. The meet will be held on the Sacramento State campus at the A.G. Spanos Sports Complex. Clemson’s nine representatives will be the most for the school since 12 earned spots in the 2003 competition.

Leading the way for Clemson this outdoor season has been freshman sprint sensation Roy Cheney, Corey Brown, Padgett, and Cowin Mills. It will mark the second NCAA Outdoor appearance for Cheney, who competed with the Tigers’ 4x400m relay team in 2003. Brown and Mills will be making their first-ever appearance at the NCAA Outdoor meet, along with Padgett.

Itay Magidi and Adam Linkenauger earned automatic berths to nationals via top-five finishes at last weekend’s NCAA East Region Championships. Magidi was runner-up in the 3000m steeplechase with a season-best time of 8:48.37. He will be making his third trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Linkenauger, who also went to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2004, finished in a tie for fourth last weekend in the high jump. The six-time ACC Champion has a season-best clearance of 6’11.75″, which he accomplished April 21 at the conference championships.

Three Tigers earned at-large bids to the National Championships based upon previous performances this season. Ryan Koontz won the ACC decathlon title with 7,371 points in April. His point total is good enough for fourth on the Tigers’ all-time performance list in the multi-events competition. Koontz has the nation’s 11th-best point total in the decathlon this season.

Jason Bell set the Clemson outdoor record last weekend after he finished sixth in the triple jump with a mark of 51’10”. His mark is good enough for 21st in the nation, thus earning him his second straight trip to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Bell was runner-up at the 2006 ACC Championships in the triple jump.

Mitch Greeley, ACC Indoor Champion and All-American in the pole vault, also earned an at-large bid. He cleared 17’5″ earlier this season at the Orange & Purple Classic, which was a Clemson outdoor record. Greeley was runner-up at the 2006 ACC Championships in the pole vault.