CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Clayton State sprinter
Eric Simmons led the Laker track & field team Saturday, winning the 400m race at the Carolina Invitational, defeating a host of NCAA Division I runners at the meet in Chapel Hill, NC.
Simmons won the race with a time of 48.70, lowering his NCAA Division II provisional time for the national meet in the event. Also in his first 200m race of his career, he provisionally qualified for the 200m with a time of 22.23, placing sixth in the race.
"Congratulations to Eric," said head coach
Mike Mead. "In improving his time and winning the race, he is pretty close to securing a trip to the NCAA D-II indoor nationals in March Also in his first-ever 200m race, he just bettered the provisional mark. He might be in line to equal former teammate
Carlos Guyton's feat of going to indoor nationals in the 200 and 400m."
In addition to Simmons' accomplishments at the North Carolina meet, the Laker women set two school records.
Allison Kreutzer came just two seconds from hitting a provisional time in the mile, placing eighth with a time of 5:07.81. She joined
Kisha Chaney,
Katelyn Stache and
Heather Krehbiel to place third in the distance medley relay with a school record time of 12:55.69.
Along with the Clayton State runners at the UNC meet, the men's and women's teams also set four school records at the Tiger Invitational at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN Saturday.
Jon Taylor had the top performances with two school records, placing second and third in the 200m and 55m events, respectively. Her time of 7.33 in the 55m was a tenth of a second from the provisional mark and her time of 25.98 was three-tenths of a second from a provisional mark. She, along with
Kara Stokes,
Wynona Rice and
Cassandra Bolivar, placed fourth in the 4x400m relay team with a time of 4:28.17.
On the men's side,
Joshua Tiggs won the 55m hurdles with a school record time of 8.02, while
Alfred Dixon cleared a school best 6-foot-4 to win high jump competition.
Peter Gajda finished second in the 800m with a time of 2:06.67, Manny Aguilar third in the mile with a time 4:44.06 and
Josh Myers fourth in the 3000m with a time of 9:24.46.
The Clayton State teams will return to action on Friday, February 17th in the Tennessee Indoor Classic in Knoxville, TN.
