Clemson sends three to USA Track championships

CLEMSON — Three members of the Clemson track & field program will don the red, white and blue in the next month to compete for Team USA in various national championship meets. Bridgette Owens will compete in the hurdles at the Pan American Junior Championships (July 22-24), Miller Moss in the decathlon at the Thorpe Cup (Aug. 13-14), and Justin Murdock in the short sprints at the World University Games (Aug. 12-23).

Owens will be the first to compete in a Team USA meet. The second-team All-American will compete in the 100 hurdle semifinals on Friday at 11:15 AM, with the final scheduled for 6:05 PM in Miramar, FL. Owens was the USA Junior runner-up in the event and owns a personal best time of 13.05 from the Texas Relays earlier this outdoor season. Clemson’s Director of Track & Field, Lawrence Johnson, coached two Pan American Junior champion hurdlers when he was an assistant at Virginia Tech.

Moss will make his second straight appearance for Team USA in the Thorpe Cup, an annual competition of combined event athletes from America versus Germany. Last season, he scored 7,606 points in the event. Moss, the 2011 NCAA indoor champion, is coming off bronze medal performances in the NCAA and USA Championships. He collected a personal best value of 7,996 points at the NCAA national meet in Des Moines, IA this past June.

Murdock is coming off an excellent junior season in which he qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in four different events. He will compete in two of those events – the 100 and 200 dash – at the World University Games in Shenzhen, China. Murdock established a personal best and one of the top five times in Clemson’s decorated 100-meter dash history this past spring, running a 10.13 at the Clemson Final Qualifier. Murdock was an ACC indoor and outdoor champion in 2011 as leadoff leg for the 4x400 relay.