JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Clemson Track & Field program added four qualifying national championship entries Saturday at the 2019 NCAA East Prelims in Jacksonville, Florida. Saturday’s qualifiers in Marcus Parker (200m), both the men’s and women’s 4x100m relays and the women’s 4x400m relay – in addition to the existing five Tiger entries that qualified Thursday and Friday – gave Clemson a total of nine entries for the upcoming 2019 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Both 4x100m relay teams clocked season bests in the late afternoon at North Florida’s Hodges Stadium.
The women, which consisted of Rebekah Smith, Aliyah Mallard, Sarah Hill and Zeniyah Lawrence ran 43.84 to tally Clemson’s fifth consecutive berth in the event at the NCAA Championships. The Tigers placed fifth in a competitive second heat to earn a non-automatic qualifying spot to the national meet. Clemson finished in 10th among all sections.
Fabian Hewitt, Parker, Alex Sands and triple jumper DJ Ledell was the order for the men. Like the women, the Clemson men placed fifth in their heat (3), with a time of 39.41 seconds. The Tigers were also the last man in among non-automatic qualifying teams, and placed 11th overall.
Approximately 90 minutes later, Parker ran in the outside lane of the men’s 200m quarterfinals, where he placed third in heat 1 to automatically punch a ticket to his first career Division I national championship. The sophomore clocked the third-best time of his career – 20.43 – in the event.
In the final event of the night, Kendra Clarke, Aliyah Mallard, Andrea Foster and Kamryn Mcintosh ran 3:33.54 to become the fifth and final qualifying team from heat No. 5. Clemson placed 11th overall.
In the field, Clemson was led by Grant Voeks in the men’s shot put. Voeks PR’d – 18.20m (59-8.5) – to move from No. 4 to No. 3 all-time in program history.
