ATLANTA – May 3, 2008 – Clayton State senior Eric Simmons and junior Ahmad Rolle both improved their chances of advancing to this month’s NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships with strong performances on Saturday at the Division II South Region Championship.

The pair won their respective events in school record efforts and exceeded their NCAA provisional marks to lead the Lakers to a fourth place finish at the Division II South Region Championship meet at Morehouse.

Albany State won the men’s team title in the 14-team field, edging host Morehouse by four points, 122-118. Harding was a close third with 113.5 points, while Clayton State totaled 88 points. Fifth place went to the Alabama-Huntsville with 81.5.

The Lakers came away with four wins and three school records in the season finale for a majority of the Laker squad.

Simmons solidified his chances of making his fourth outdoor national meet, winning the 400-meter dash in 47.03 and bettering his own school record set in 2005. He also helped the Lakers’ 4x400-meter relay team of Rolle, Lawrence DeShields and Josh Tiggs to victory, running 3:17.76.

Rolle won the triple jump with a leap of 48-7¾ feet to improve his Division II standing and add his name to the Laker record book in the event. Rolle will be seeking to make Division II All-American honors at outdoor nationals after earning the honor at indoor nationals in March.

"Everything came together nicely today, despite the weather," said Laker head coach Mike Mead. "Ahmad and Eric needed this meet to lock up their spots for nationals and we had several guys come through with either personal or season-best efforts today."

The third school record came from Au Nguyen, who finished third in the 10,000-meter run with a time of 33:32.61, bettering his own record by almost 28 seconds. He also came back to finish sixth in the 5,000-meter run. In addition, DeShields ran a season-best in the 400-meter hurdles to win the event, and picked up a second place finish in the 110-meter hurdles.

The Lakers also received breakout performances from freshmen Ronreaco Lee, Tim Moran and Sherard Polite.

Lee jumped 21-4 in the long jump and ran 15.72 in the 110-meter hurdles, both personal-bests. Moran ran 10.90 in the 100-meter dash for a season best, while Polite finished fifth in the 400-meter hurdles in 57.19 for a personal-best by more than 1.5 seconds.

Clayton State also got another steady effort from freshman Walid Berkhedle, who finished third in the 1500-meter run in 4:01.51.

Simmons and Rolle now must wait a week to receive official notice of making the field for this year’s NCAA Division II Outdoor Championships. In the meantime while the pair prepares for the May 22-24 championships, Simmons will earn another honor when he receives his diploma on May 10 at Clayton State’s spring commencement ceremonies.