Meet Central || Live Results
CLEMSON, S.C. – The Clemson track and field program will host its final regular season meet on Feb. 12-13, as the Tigers welcome 15 schools for the 2021 Tiger Paw Invitational. Action on Friday, Feb. 12, will begin at noon with the women’s long jump, men’s shot put, women’s pole vault, and the qualifying heats of the women’s 60-meter hurdles.
“I think the season is going as best as we would expect,” said Clemson’s Director of Track & Field Mark Elliott. “I think, overall, we’re doing pretty well, and I hope this weekend’s performance will help solidify some areas that we need to have solidified before the conference meet.”
The women’s 60m hurdles will prominently feature Clemson’s Trishauna Hemmings — currently ranked No. 6 in the nation for the event — in the first qualifying heat. Hemmings will contest the hurdles with a personal and season-best time of 8.12 from her world-class performance at the Bob Pollock Invitational on Jan. 29. Hemmings will be joined by teammates Kori Carter and Antoinette van der Merwe in the event’s qualifying heats, with the top performer from each of the four heats, along with the next four fastest times, set to advance onto the final later in the day.
Saturday’s action will start with what is sure to be one of the nation’s best women’s 800m races of the season, as Andrea Foster and Laurie Barton headline Clemson’s entries for the event. Barton enters the weekend with the fifth-fastest performance in the nation for the half-mile, having already run 2:05.10 during the 2021 Clemson Invitational. Foster returns to the track following a spectacular weekend of competition at the South Carolina Invitational on Feb. 6, a meet which saw the senior ran 54.14 for a personal-best in the quarter-mile and followed it up later that day with a 54.22 opening split as part of the 4x400m relay.
Friday’s men’s mile will see Clemson’s John Ward toe the line with heaps of momentum, as the senior from Greenville enters this weekend with personal bests of 4:08.92 in the mile and 1:52.04 in the 800m from this year’s Bob Pollock Invitational. Ward is joined by Colt Griffith and Marlin Young in the opening section of the event.
Nicolee Foster will return to the track to contest the 400m on Friday after setting a personal best in the event at the Bob Pollock Invitational. Foster, the Tigers’ top quarter-miler from 2020, will look to capitalize off her consecutive 55-second performances in the event over the past two weeks. On the men’s side, Jevon Williams will be Clemson’s lone quarter-miler this weekend, racing in the event’s fifth heat.
Aliyah Mallard will contest the 200m on Saturday, returning to the event as the Tigers’ top performer this season. In the women’s 3,000m, Lauren Hayes and Josie Wirtz are slated to lead the Tigers’ effort during the 15-lap race.
Saturday’s field events are highlighted by a pair of jumpers, as D.J. Ledell will compete in the men’s triple jump after coming up eight centimeters short of his personal best during his season debut in the event at the Hokie Invitational. Ledell’s personal best of 15.66 meters (51 feet, four and one-half inches) currently ranks No. 6 on Clemson’s all-time list. Anthony Hamilton will look to capture his third victory of the season in the men’s high jump, while also aiming to improve upon his season and personal-best in the event of 2.15m (7-0.5).
In the latest national poll released by USTFCCCA, Clemson’s women’s team is ranked No. 17, making it the third time this season that the Tigers rank within the top 25. This weekend’s Tiger Paw Invitational will host some of the nation’s top teams, with Georgia, Kentucky, NC State, North Carolina A&T, Tennessee, Virginia, and Virginia Tech all entering with either their men’s or women’s team nationally ranked.
For all of the most up-to-date information regarding Clemson’s Track & Field programs, be sure to reference clemsontigers.com and follow @ClemsonTrackXC on Twitter.
