Track & Field to host Orange & Purple Elite Saturday

Clemson, S.C. – The Clemson Track and Field teams are set to host the second home meet of the season as the Tigers will welcome 13 teams to the Clemson Indoor Track and Field Complex for the Orange and Purple Elite on Saturday. As a team, Clemson will have competitors across 28 different events during the meet.

The last time out, Clemson hosted the Clemson Opener on Dec. 7. The meet saw 29 season best marks, four top 10 all-time marks and one school record. Marcus Parker, a senior from Phoenix, Ariz., set a school record in the men’s 300m, running a blistering time of 33.20 seconds.

The Tigers will host three ACC sides on Saturday, as Florida State, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest will have athletes competing throughout the day. Florida and Georgia will be representing the SEC.

Head Coach Mark Elliott…

“We try to get better each week, so hopefully, we are better than we were during our first meet in December. There are some exceptional teams coming, but we are focused on improving as a team. It’s exciting to see what the team will do. We don’t ever shy away from competition. When you start to learn early on how to compete against super teams and super talent, it makes it easier when you’re at the conference and national championships.”

The Orange and Purple Elite will begin promptly with the women’s pole vault, women’s long jump and men’s high jump at 10 a.m. Track events are slated to start at 12:30 p.m., with the preliminary rounds of the women’s 60m hurdles. The final event of the day will be the women’s and men’s 4x400m relay, set to start at 7 p.m.

Pre-Meet Headlines

• Kori Carter, regarded as one of the best true freshmen in the country, is slated to make her debut as a Tiger in the women’s 60mH. Carter begins her career after accumulating seven national championships, 17 All-America honors and 10 state championships in Virginia.
• LaFranz Campbell will make his season debut in the men’s 60mH, an event which he placed second in at last year’s ACC Indoor Championships.
• Rebekah Smith will return to the women’s 60m, the event which she won at the 2017 ACC Indoor Championships. Smith, a native of Irmo, S.C., is one of the conference’s best short sprinters.
• Andrea Foster and Laurie Barton will take to the track in the women’s 1000m. The duo led the way to a podium sweep for the Tigers in the women’s 600m at the Clemson Opener.
• One of the day’s best events will be the prelims and finals of the men’s 60m. Parker, Fabian Hewitt and Alex Sands will all take to the straight-away.
• Deonte Tolbert will join Parker in the men’s 300m on Saturday. Tolbert ran the fourth best time in program history in the men’s 300m at the Clemson Opener.
• Sarah Hill will return to the women’s 300m after leading the charge for the Tigers in the same event at the Clemson Opener.
• Anthony Hamilton will compete in the men’s high jump, an event which he won at the Clemson Opener, where he registered a mark of 2.12m (6-11.5). The height was one centimeter off of Hamilton’s personal best.
• The women’s shot put is set to be another excellent event for the Tigers, as the trio of Veronica Fraley, Grayce French and Janell Fullerton swept the podium in the same event at the Clemson Opener. The three athletes now hold three of the top seven spots in program history for the indoor women’s shot put.