AUBURN, Ala. – After a break from competition this past weekend, the Auburn track and field team will split the squad between the Tiger Paw Invite in Clemson, South Carolina and Music City Challenge in Nashville, Tennessee this weekend.
Action from the Clemson Indoor Track begins Friday at 10:00 a.m. CT with the men's weight throw while action from the Vanderbilt Multipurpose Facility begins Friday at 11:00 a.m. CT with the men's weight throw.
"It turned out that the meet at Clemson is really, really high powered," Tigers head coach Leroy Burrell said. "We are going to have a big battle on our hands there with our sprinters and jumpers."
The Tigers enter the big pre-conference test with the men's team ranked as No. 22 in the most recent Poll. Individual event squads with national top-10 ranks include men's weight throw (No. 22), 60m dash (No. 22), heptathlon (No. 22), high jump (No. 22), and long jump (No. 22), while on the women's side long jump (No. 22), and weight throw (No. 22) round out the seven groups.
Auburn will travel sprinting trio of sophomore Favour Ashe and freshmen Azeem Fahmi and Ian Myers. Ashe ran 6.55 to move up to the No. 3 all-time performer in Auburn history at the Texas Tech Open & Multis. Fahmi ran personal bests in the first two rounds, clocking 6.72 and 6.63 two weeks ago. Myers crossed the line in 6.69 for a new personal best which he went on to lower in the semi-final, running 6.67.
Another notable performance from Lubbock, Texas was junior TJ Funches' event win in the men's high jump section B with a new personal-best mark of 2.14m/7-0.25m. The Helena, Alabama native bested his previous mark of 2.12m/6-11.50 to become the No. 10 performer in Auburn history.
On the women's side, noteworthy performances came from freshman Chante Clinkscale and Arianna Sharpe. Clinkscale set two new personal bests in the 60m dash running 7.32 and in the 200m dash clocking 23.56. Sharpe tied her career best of 53.01 in the 400m dash to finish second overall.
Junior Janaya Jones jumped out to a new personal-best of 6.21m/20-4.50 to become the No. 7 all-time performer in program history while fellow junior Lexie Leinneweber won the women's pole vault section B with a vault of 3.88m/12-8.75.
"Vanderbilt is going to be primarily a distance meet," Burrell said, "but both meets are high-powered and big time meets in their own way."
After setting new personal best times at the Vanderbilt Invite three weeks ago, distance runners junior Ryan Kinnane, sophomore Louis O'Loughlin and freshman Rex Green, Davis Plowden and Joseph Perry return to Nashville for yet another test.
Toeing the line with Auburn in Music City will be host Vanderbilt, Alabama, Duke, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Iowa, Miami (Fla.), Mississippi State, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Penn State, Tennessee, Texas Tech, and Virginia Tech.
While in Clemson, the Tigers will line up against host Clemson, Baylor, Duke, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Harvard, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Miami (Fla.), Michigan, Mississippi State, North Carolina A&T, NC State, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn, South Carolina, Syracuse, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Virginia Tech.
Live results for the Tiger Paw Invite can be found at atkinstrack.com and the live stream of the event can be found at ESPN.com.
Live results for the Music City Challenge can be found at pttimming.com and the live stream of the event can be found at ESPN.com.