Spartans to Face Strong Competition at Tiger Track Classic
3/31/2011 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate men's and women's track teams will hit this road the weekend to participate in the Tiger Track Classic Saturday at Auburn in Auburn, Ala.
Upstate will not only compete against teams from the ACC, SEC, Big South, Southern and the Atlantic 10 conferences, the Spartans will also battle A-Sun foes Kennesaw State and Lipscomb. The Spartans have turned in two strong performances in the first two meets of the season and will look to continue to improve with the A-Sun Outdoor Championships just two weeks away.
"This is our last quality meet before the A-Sun Championships and we are looking to improve on our previous performances," said Upstate associate head coach Carson Blackwelder. "This should be a great meet with good competitions and quality athletes. It should be a good meet for all of the athletes and this is the time of the season where their hard work starts to pay off."
Upstate opened the season by breaking five school records on the men's side and four on the women's side at the Shamrock Invitational March 18-19. Despite competing in heavy rain, the 4x400-meter relay team of Cameron Thomas (Niceville, Fla.), Josh Powers (Spartanburg, S.C.), Mike Johnson (Elgin, S.C.) and Mike Meissner (Cottage Grove, Minn.) set a school record at last week's Catamount Classic, turning in a time of 3:22.76.
Perrish Goggins (Columbia, S.C.) won the high jump in last week's Catamount Classic at Western Carolina and turned in a third-place finish in the Shamrock Invitational to start the outdoor season. The field at the Shamrock Invitational was strong with nationally- and regionally-ranked teams in competition. He will look to continue to impress in the high jump while also participating in the long jump and 4x100-meter relay.
Meissner ran his best time of the season in the 400 meters at the Catamount Classic and will use the Tiger Track Classic this weekend to continue to build toward defending his A-Sun title in the 400 at the league championships in two weeks.
On the women's side, Ashley Edmond (Columbia, S.C.) has been strong throughout the spring and will look to continue to turn in strong performances in the 200- and 400-meter races. She broke the school records in both distances at the Shamrock Invitational two weeks ago.
