Jan. 18, 2008
AUBURN, Ala. - The Auburn men's and women's track and field teams opened the 2008 indoor season Friday evening at the Clemson Invitational. It was the first collegiate competition for several of the young Tigers who made the trip to Clemson, as the Tigers did not bring a full squad to the meet.
"We brought a lot of young kids out here and they competed really well," said head coach Ralph Spry. "For the most part everyone was solid, and we advanced a lot of people into tomorrow's finals. I hope to come out tomorrow with another solid performance, and if we compete like we did today, I think we can get a couple of national qualifiers."
Senior Ty Akins had the opening day's top performance, just missing the NCAA provisional qualifying time in the 60m hurdles while posting the field's top time in the prelims. Akins overcame a slow start to finish in 7.91 seconds, just .01 off the provisional mark. Also advancing in the men's 60m hurdles were junior Jhak Keegan, who was eighth in the prelims in 8.54 seconds, and sophomore Jager Livingston, who finished 13th in 8.80.
Auburn's men also had three sprinters advance in the men's 60m dash. Senior Gregory Rogers was 10th in the prelims with a personal-best time of 6.93 seconds, while redshirt freshman Stephen Fly (6.98) was 12th and freshman Brandon Johnson (7.01) was 15th.
The women's 60m dash once again saw Auburn advance three runners into tomorrow's competition. Freshman Joanna Atkins placed fifth in the prelims in 7.55 seconds, while sophomore Shaquela Williams (7.64) was eighth and junior Amelia Anderson (7.77) was 16th.
Sophomore Danielle Gilchrist moved on in the women's 60m hurdles, racing to a fourth-place time in the prelims of 8.60 seconds.
Sophomore Mark Fleming recorded a fourth-place finish in the men's 5000m, racing to a time of 15:36.64. Freshman Gerard Brown placed ninth in the long jump with a mark of 6.78m (22-3).
Also for the women, junior Danielle Threatt was eighth in the long jump (5.46m, 17-11), and the distance medley relay team of sophomore Laurel Pritchard, senior Tracy Ann Rowe, sophomore Katelyn Simpson and freshman Allison Smith was sixth in 13:05.72.
Competition at the Clemson Invitational will conclude on Saturday. Action begins at 11 a.m. ET and concludes shortly after 5 p.m. ET.