Jacoby Ford Leads Track & Field to NCAA Indoor Championships

by Press Release - Thu Mar 12 09:44:00 GMT-04:00 2009

Clemson, SC – The Clemson track & field program will travel four representatives to the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships, which will be held Friday and Saturday in College Station, TX. The national meet will take place at Gilliam Indoor Stadium at the McFerrin Athletic Center on the campus of Texas A&M University. The meet will be televised via ESPN360.com on Friday, beginning at 8:05 PM, and Saturday at 5:55 PM. The ESPN 360 broadcasts will be in Eastern Standard Time.

Clemson has three participants from its 10th-ranked women’s team and one from the men’s team, although it is the nation’s leader in the 60m dash, Jacoby Ford. A junior two-sport athlete, Ford has a personal best 6.51 in the 60m dash, which is an ACC record. The two-time ACC champion in the event will look to bring home his first NCAA crown. He is scheduled for the second of two heats Friday at 5:45 PM (local time), with the final taking place Saturday at 6:10 PM.

The women’s team features a pair of student-athletes familiar with the NCAA Championships in Patricia Mamona and Liane Weber, as well as first-time qualifier April Sinkler. The first action for the women will be the pentathlon, featuring both Mamona and Weber. The five-event competition begins Friday at 10:00 AM and will conclude later that afternoon with the 800m run. Weber, ranked #2 nationally in the event, scored her second ACC championship in the pentathlon last month. Mamona is also an auto qualifier in the pentathlon and was runner-up to Weber at ACCs.

Mamona will also compete in the triple jump for the third straight indoor season at the national meet. She owns a season-best mark of 43’7” and hopes to improve on her finish of 12th place at the 2008 NCAA Indoor Championships. The triple jump will be held Saturday at 3:30 PM.

Sinkler qualified for her first national championship meet in two different events. She is coming off an outstanding month in which she won a pair of league crowns and was named the ACC’s Most Valuable Field Event Athlete. The Stafford, VA native broke school records in winning both the high jump and long jump. She is an auto qualifier in the long jump, and will compete in that event Friday at 4:15 PM. An at-large selection for the high jump, Sinkler is slated for that event the same day at 6:30.