Feb. 27, 2009
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ---- The Samford University track and field teams will make their third trip to Clemson, S.C., in three weeks to compete in the Southern Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships this Saturday and Sunday. The two-day event will begin on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. CT at the Clemson University Track and Field Complex.
This will be Samford's first appearance in the Southern Conference Championships and Rob Tiffin's squad is nothing but excited and prepared.
"This weekend should be fun," Tiffin said. "We have been working towards this all season and can't wait to go compete. I feel that a top three finish on both sides in attainable. That was our goal at the beginning of the season, and I feel that we have put ourselves in position to do just that. It's a great opportunity for our athletes to perform in a conference meet relatively close to home so we hope that we can get some Samford faithful to make it to the meet."
The Samford teams have had a breakout season in 2009 as school records and personal bests have been set in every meet leading up to the conference meet.
In the first meet of the season, the Tennessee State Invitational, sophomore Kyle Brown set a new school record in the weight throw with a toss of 50'02.75". The next week, freshman Chinedu Amah, broke the school record in the triple jump (43'09.00") at the Sewanee Tiger Invitational.
On Feb. 14 at the Clemson Tiger Paw Invitational, junior transfer Patrick Wells set a new school record in the pole vault (15'10.50") while freshman Cori Christensen broke the school record in the women's 800 meters (2:15.34). Over the first four meets of the season, 36 personal bests were set by 23 different student-athletes.
Western Carolina is the defending champion on the men's and women's sides, with the men winning two out of the last three championships.
Over the last five years, Samford has only finished in the top three of a conference indoor championship. In 2006, the Bulldog men placed third in the OVC Indoor Championships. This year, the Bulldogs hope to place both teams in the top three.
The event is free to the public. Live results will be available after each event at the official time website, www.cfpitiming.com. A full recap and results will be available on www.samfordsports.com upon the completion of each day. Daily recaps can also be found at the Southern Conference website.
