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    Tiger Track And Field Teams Head Back To Clemson Back to Clemson

    Jan. 27, 2011

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    AUBURN - The Auburn men's and women's track and field teams will compete in their second indoor meet of the season Friday and Saturday, returning to the site of their first meet - the Clemson Indoor Track and Field Complex. The Tigers will be among several teams throughout the Southeast competing at Clemson's JRF Combined Events Invitational.

    On Friday, the multi-event athletes will begin competing at noon, while the rest of the meet begins at 5 p.m. ET. Saturday's competition begins at 12 p.m. ET for both the multi-event athletes and other field events, with running events starting at 1 p.m. ET.

    "This weekend is going to be a little bit bigger meet," said Auburn head coach Ralph Spry. "There are probably 10-12 teams at this meet, and we just want to pick up where we left off and get a little better each weekend."

    The Tigers will enter the meet ranked ninth nationally in the women's rankings, and 13th in the men's rankings. Both squads dropped two places from their spots in the preseason rankings, although several of Auburn's top performers did not compete in the opener.

    "At our first competition two weeks ago, we didn't set our expectations too high because school started late and then we had cold weather," said Spry. "We need good weather to adequately prepare and get sharp. We've had two weeks now to get ready for our second competition, and the weather hasn't been perfect, but we've still been able to get a lot done in terms of technical things."

    The Tigers will take a larger group to this weekend's meet than the group that competed in the opener. Despite not having a full squad for the Tigers' first competition, the men's and women's squads still have a combined nine athletes that rank in the top 50 of the nation on the descending order lists.

    For the men, redshirt freshman Stephen Saenz is the highest-ranked athlete, ranking sixth in the shot put (18.59m, 61-0), just ahead of sophomore Harry Adams, who is tied for seventh in the 60 meters (6.67). Senior Eric Werskey is 24th in the shot put (17.65m, 57-11), freshman DJ Smith is tied for 24th in the high jump (2.13m, 6-11.75) and senior Michael DeHaven (6.76) and freshman Keenan Brock (6.80) are tied for 35th and tied for 49th, respectively, in the 60 meters (6.76).

    Two women are ranked in the mile, as senior Stephanie Barnes is 34th (4:51.32) and senior Holly Knight is 37th (4:51.65). Junior Ashley Cruder is tied for 34th in the 60 meters (7.46).

    Spry expects to add several more athletes to that list during this weekend's competition, particularly with such a large group making the trip.

    "This is probably the only meet where we'll take just about everybody on the team to give them a chance to compete," said Spry. "After this all of the meets are really fast and we'll work on getting our top athletes through to nationals. This meet is a prelude to the meat and potatoes of our season, so hopefully we can get some great performances."

    Complete information on the JRF Combined Events Invitational can be found on Clemson's website at www.clemsontigers.com.

     

     

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