AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn track & field team will return to competition for the first time in 2023 when it travels to the Clemson Invite on Friday and Saturday. Kickstarting the action from the Clemson University Indoor Track will be the women's long jump at 2:00 p.m. with running events beginning with women's 1,000m at 2:10 p.m. ET on Friday.
This weekend's meet marks the debut of Auburn's first-year head coach LeRoy Burrell. A former world record holder and United States Olympian, Burrell spent the previous 23 years at this alma mater, the University of Houston. There Burrell led the Cougars to 41 conference championships and had over 150 All-Americans.
"We are in the midst of a big change in the program but at the same time we need to perform," Burrell said. "It is time to put the spike to the track and see exactly where we are and work on figuring out what we can do."
Amongst the heavy hitters returning to action for the Tigers in 2023 are veteran school record holder and first team All-American Madi Malone, SEC and NCAA indoor medalist Dontavious Hill and second team All-American Alex Spyridondis, SEC indoor medalists Kyle Brown, and James Courson.
Auburn looks to continue the momentum set at the UW Oshkosh Early Bird meet on December 10. The Tigers brought home three event wins and five new personal best marks. Brown and Malone swept the weight throw while teammates Maura Huwalt and Erik Ebel took gold and silver in the shot put, respectively.
"We are really excited about what we have done thus far, and think we can build a championship team," Burrell said.
Also joining Auburn's squad this season are accomplished transfer student-athletes in SoCon and NCAA medalist Justin Stuckey (high jump), Big East champion and All-American Sanaa Barnes (jumps), and SEC champion and NCAA medalist Favour Ashe (sprints).
"We are looking forward to this weekend to see who we have and what we can do," said Burrell.
Among the teams competing this weekend will be host Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kansas and Tennessee.
The meet will be streamed live on ESPN.com with live results located at https://results.adkinstrak.com/meets/19420.
