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June 3, 2008

Clemson, SC - Four student-athletes from the Clemson men's track & field program earned bids Tuesday to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, which will be held June 11-14 at Drake University in Des Moines, IA. All four will be making return trips to the outdoor national meet, including East Region champions Mitch Greeley and Travis Padgett. Matt Clark and Jacoby Ford will also be competing for Clemson. One notable performer who did not receive an at-large invitation to the meet was two-sport athlete C.J. Spiller, who finished one spot shy of an automatic bid in the 100m dash.

Padgett automatically qualified in two events, the 100m and 200m. He is a two-time All-American in the 100m dash and is coming off his second East Region championship in the event. He was third place in the 200m dash at the regional with a career-best time of 20.32, a mark that ranks fifth in the country. Padgett's top 100m time this season is 9.96, which is the NCAA's #2 mark this season. He holds the Clemson record in the 100m dash and ranks fourth in school history in the 200m.

Greeley earned an automatic spot for the second straight year, this time after winning the East Region championship in the pole vault. Greeley finished fourth at last year's NCAA outdoor meet and is coming off a runner-up finish nationally indoors. He is Clemson's school record-holder at 17'10.5" and also won the ACC championship and the Penn Relays crown this season. Greeley ranks among the top vaulters in the country based on performance.

Clark was a provisional qualifier in the 10,000m, but earned a spot in the field after maintaining one of the top 15 national times in the event. He ran a 28:49.77 at the Stanford Invitational earlier this season, which broke Yehezkel Halifa's 20-year old school record in the event. Clark is actually Clemson's first competitor at the NCAA outdoor meet in the 10K since Halifa in 1988, and only the third in school history. Clark advanced to the NCAA Championships last outdoor season in the 5000m.

Ford is coming off a fourth-place East Region finish in the 100m dash, good enough for an automatic spot in the field next week. He ran a career-best 10.21 in the prelims at the regional meet. Ford was All-ACC in the 100m earlier this season. He competed last year at the NCAA national meet in the 100m dash, but was slowed due to injury. Ford is a former NCAA All-American indoors in the 60m.