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A spirit that is not afraid

Tigers race to top spots

The Auburn Track and Field team traveled to Clemson University this weekend to compete in the Clemson Games.

The Games are a national indoor qualifier and no team score is kept, but Auburn head coach Ralph Spry said he thought his team would've placed towards the top.

"I saw a lot of fight and hard work from my team," Spry said.

Spry, who said he is confident in his athletes and feels they are right where they need to be, was particularly proud of the weekend's two stars.

Sophomore Marcus Rowland and junior Sheniqua Ferguson both finished first in their respective 60-meter dashes and each had the fastest time in the nation for the year.

Ferguson, who was an automatic qualifier for the NCAA Indoor Championships with her time of 7.22 seconds, said her No. 1 goal for the weekend was to perform at her best ability.

"The win was just an extra bonus for me," Ferguson said.

Rowland, whose 6.61 seconds was the second best time in school history, missed the automatic qualifying time by a hundredth of a second.

Rowland knows how it feels to miss out on the chance by a hair.

Last year, his personal best missed the cut by three slots.

This year he is going to try and keep that from happening.

"I'm only a sophomore so I'm just enjoying it," Rowland said. "But I'm always up for a challenge. So I'm going for the 6.5 and am going to take a different approach from here."

Rowland might be a little disappointed that the nation's fastest time was not good enough for the automatic qualifying time.

Spry is not worried about Rowland or any of the other athletes.

"We try to train so we run our best later in the season," Spry said. "So I feel confident we'll continue to get better because of how we train."

After this weekend, Spry said his confidence is well-founded.

Between the two days, Auburn walked away with seven automatic or provisional qualifiers, as well as six first place winners in the individual events.

Auburn earned first place finishes in both the men and women's mile races.

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For the men, sophomore Jeff Sanders won with a 4:17.08, while junior Amber Riley took the women's race with a time of 5:03.97, according to auburntigers.com.

Outside of these great finishes, Auburn had many who placed among the top three.

Junior Joanna Atkins finished behind Ferguson in the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.32 seconds. Junior Gerard Brown finished second in the men's triple jump with a leap of 14.25 meters.

Many others finished either first or in the top three, leaving both Rowland and Ferguson excited for what was to come this season.

"I am very confident in the team we have this year," Ferguson said. "I know when we go to the championships everyone will know who Auburn is."

The men and women's track and field team heads to Penn State Feb. 5 for the Sykes-Sabock Challenge Cup.

The Cup is a competition that Spry said will be tougher and will really show the caliber of the team.


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