Twelve Tigers Earn Bids to NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships

March 8, 2010

CLEMSON, SC – A total of 12 student-athletes from the Clemson track & field program earned official bids to this year’s NCAA Indoor Championships late Monday. The NCAA released the declaration list for the indoor national meet. Nine Tiger women and three men will compete at this weekend’s meet, held at the Tyson Track Complex in Fayetteville, AR. The nine participants from the women’s team is an all-time Clemson record for the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Four members of the ACC Championship women’s team earned automatic spots in the field, led by April Sinkler in a pair of events. The Stafford, VA native auto qualified in the high jump and long jump, and also earned an at-large spot in the triple jump field. She was recently named the ACC Most Valuable Field Event Athlete after capturing conference titles in the high jump and long jump.

Liane Weber and Patricia Mamona are making return trips to the NCAA Indoor Championships. Last season, Weber finished sixth in the pentathlon to earn her first-ever All-America honor. This year, she is ranked No. 1 nationally in the event after producing an ACC-record 4,262 points in winning her third league pentathlon crown in a four-year span. Mamona will compete in the triple jump for the third straight season, and she is seeking her first All-America performance. She was the ACC runner-up in the event last month.

Kim Ruck was the fourth female to earn an automatic spot in this week’s meet. The sophomore from Greer, SC burst onto the national distance runner scene at the Tyson Track Complex last month with a provisional 5K time in a win. She followed suit by improving her school-record time to 16:04.02 in a rout at the ACC Indoor Championships. She is Clemson’s first female distance runner to participate in the NCAA indoor national meet since Perry Fields ran the mile in 2001.

In addition to Ruck, five females will be making their NCAA Championship debuts this weekend for the Tiger program. The ACC Champion 4x400m relay team – comprised of Brittany Pringley, Brianna Rollins, Sonni Austin and Jasmine Edgerson – earned an at-large berth after running a time of 3:35.76 in Blacksburg at the conference meet two weeks ago.

Rollins will also compete in two individual events, the 200m dash and the 60m hurdles. She and teammate Michaylin Golladay will be the first Clemson females to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the hurdles since the 1999 season. The two rank 1-2 in Clemson history in the event. Rollins is also the reigning ACC Champion in the 200m dash.

Three members of the Clemson men’s team were extended bids Monday, led by auto qualifier Miller Moss of the heptathlon. The ACC runner-up in the heptathlon, Moss is the school’s record-holder after tallying a point value of 5,699 at the league meet two weekends ago in Blacksburg. Moss competed in just the opening event of the heptathlon last season, before withdrawing due to injury.

A pair of newcomers on the men’s team – Xavier Tromp – also received at-large spots in the field of their respective events. Adams will be one of 19 student-athletes competing in the 60m hurdles, Clemson’s first male participant in the event since Roy Cheney in 2004. Tromp, a French exchange student, has cleared a season-best 17’7.75″ in the pole vault, second-best in Clemson history.

The two-day championship meet gets underway Friday with the first four events of the heptathlon set to begin at 10:00 AM.