NASHVILLE, TN. - Clayton State's Eric Simmons provisional qualified for the 2006 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field National Championships Sunday, finishing third in the 400m race at the Tennessee State Invitational in Nashville, TN. 

Simmons, a former outdoor All-America in the 1600m relay, finished with a time of 48.96 and had the top performance for the squad. He is currently 18th on the list of the top performances in the 400m this year after the top-20 made last year's event in Boston, MA, also this year's host for the national meet. 

"Eric has already run a faster time at this point in the season than former teammate Carlos Guyton's time that got him to last year's indoor national meet where he earned All-American honors," said head coach Mike Mead. "Eric didn't have anyone to push him (Sunday) so we know he has plenty of room for improvement." 

On the women's side, freshman Jon Taylor came within 15-hundredths of a second of the provisional mark in the 55m dash in only her second collegiate meet.  She placed 13th in the race with a school record time of 7.38 and also set a new school mark in the 200m with a time of 26.38, placing 16th. 

Josh Myers finished fifth in the 3,000m with a time of 9:20.62 and was a member of the squad's distance medley relay team that set a new school record of 11:16.01. Also on the relay team were Peter Gajda, Billy Joe Brown and Manuel Aguilar. Clayton State freshman Alfred Dixon set a school record in the high jump, clearing 6-4 ¾ to finish eighth in the event. 

Other top finishes for the women's squad was turned in by the team's distance medley and 4x200m relay squads. The DMR team of Heather Krehbiel, Wynona Rice, Katelyn Stache and Allison Kreutzer finished sixth with a time of 13:04.50, while the 4x200m relay team of Rice, Stokes, Stache and Taylor finished ninth with a school record time of 1:57.21. 

Up next, Clayton State will compete on Saturday, Feb. 4th , at the Tiger Invitational at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN.