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Clayton State Track & Field Ranked Top 10 in Community Engagement

The Clayton State men and women's track & field programs ranked Top 10 among NCAA Division II member institutions for the number of community engagement hours completed. The ranking is reported just weeks after the Clayton State women's basketball team was recognized for their service efforts, ranking #2 in the country.

The men's team led the way in completed community service hours ranking #5 among all NCAA Division II track & field programs, followed by the women finishing #10. The rankings are the highest recorded by both teams in their program's history.

The rankings are among active NCAA DII member institutions and decided on by Helper Helper. Helper Helper, an official partner of the NCAA, is a community engagement platform that coordinates and tracks community service hours. As a department, Laker student-athletes finished the season ranked #5 in the country, and to date, three teams have been ranked in the Top 10.

"I'm very proud that our student-athletes are not only excelling in the classroom and in athletics, but they are also doing a great job in our community as well," said head men and women's track & field coach, Chris Brown. "We take pride in representing Clayton State University at the Division II level with our Laker Pride! Our men being ranked #5 and women #10 shows that we are well on our way to achieving our goals and we won't stop until we are #1 at everything we do. Both teams work extremely hard and I am truly honored to coach a wonderful group of student-athletes."

During the 2019-20 academic year, Clayton State Athletics partnered with iTHINK Financial to focus greater efforts on community engagement activities. Each month, the Lakers select one event to highlight on their iTHINK Financial community engagement webpage. The track programs were selected as the iTHINK Financial Community Service Project of the Month for November 2019, when they hosted Be the Match on "Main Street" in the University Center.

In operation for the past 30 years, that organization is dedicated to leading the charge in finding bone marrow matches to help individuals with life threatening blood cancers. The National Marrow Donor Program currently manages the largest and most diverse marrow registry in the world. The Lakers would help grow that list as they registered 41 students during the several hours that they helped coordinate the drive.

"Our teams were honored to partner with this important mission of identifying potential donors who can actually save lives," said head cross country coach, Mike Mead. "This is our third drive in the past five years."

Although the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in all, Clayton State student-athletes logged over 2,000 hours of community service.  Each team recorded multiple service projects helping a wide variety of activities, organizations, and charities.

For more information on Clayton State community engagement activities, please visit: https://claytonstatesports.com/sports/commserv

 
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