Meet Central
CLEMSON, S.C. — The Clemson track and field program is set to start its journey towards the NCAA Outdoor Championships this week as the Tigers compete at the NCAA East Region Prelims from May 26-29 on the campus of the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla. The four-day meet brings together the region’s top 48 individuals and top 24 relays for each event to determine qualifiers for the 2021 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
This week’s action in Jacksonville will see the men compete on Wednesday and Friday, and the women compete on Thursday and Saturday. The top 12 individuals and top 12 relays in each event during this week’s east region prelims will advance to Eugene, Ore., to join the qualifiers from the west region for the NCAA Outdoor Championships from June 9-12 at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.
“We’re represented well across the board and hopefully we can continue to build on this,” said Clemson’s Director of Track & Field Mark Elliott. “You have to take stock of what you’ve been doing all year and what your best performance was, and if you can put that down here, that should give you a great chance of moving on to the finals. There’s all quality here, not just quantity, but everyone here has quality.”
Wednesday’s action will feature five men across three events, with the men’s 110-meter hurdles featuring Giano Roberts, Devon Brooks and Lafranz Campbell. Kameron Jones will contest the men’s 800m as the region’s top seed after running a school-record time of 1:45.47 during the ACC Outdoor Championships in Raleigh, N.C., on May 15. Marcus Parker will contest the 200m at the NCAA East Prelims for the second time in his career and will look to punch his ticket to Eugene after entering the meet as the eighth-fastest qualifier in the event.
Thursday’s action will feature 10 women competing across six events, with Rebekah Smith serving as the lone Tiger set to contest two events during the evening’s slate of action. The women’s events will get started at 6 p.m., as Sidney Marshall and Trishauna Hemmings look to advance in the 100m hurdles and Veronica Fraley competes in the discus. Lakeisha Warner will start her journey to potentially qualifying for her third national championship in the 400m hurdles at 8:20 p.m. and will be joined in the event’s first round action by Kori Carter and Nicolee Foster. After contesting the 100m at 7 p.m., Smith will be joined by Antoinette van der Merwe in the opening round of the women’s 200m. Laurie Barton will headline the day’s schedule, as Barton enters the weekend with the top seed time in the women’s 800m. Barton will be joined in the third heat of the half-mile by freshman Leah Disher.
All relay events will be contested across the final two days of competition, with the 4x100m starting both Friday and Saturday’s action on the track, and the 4x400m concluding each day.
Live results for all events can be accessed here, while specific information pertaining to Clemson’s participation this week can be found in our Meet Central.
For all of the most up-to-date information regarding Clemson’s Track & Field program, be sure to reference clemsontigers.com and follow @ClemsonTrackXC on Twitter.
