Mississippi State
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Bulldog Invitational (O)
MSU Track Teams Earn More NCAA Qualifying Marks; Defend Home Turf At Bulldog Invitational
March 29, 2008 | Track & Field
STARKVILLE, Miss. ? The Mississippi State track and field squads were successful in defending their home track by winning the Bulldog Invitational as part of Super Bulldog Weekend activities on Saturday, March 29 at the W.O. Spencer Stadium/ Carl Maddox Track. The Bulldogs tallied 234 points, while the Lady Bulldogs scored 137 points through 19 events.
In the much anticipated relay events, the men's 4x100-meter relay squad (sophomore Kendall May, junior John Bailey, senior Jamil Hubbard and freshman O'Neal Wilder) earned their second qualifying mark of the season with their season-best time of 39.62 seconds to finish in first place. The 4x400-meter relay (senior Chris Woods, Hubbard, senior Golden Coachman and junior John Bailey) qualified regionally for the second time this season with their first place-time of 3:07.70.
May sped past the field in the 100-meter dash, earning his second regional qualifying of the season with a first-place time of 10.46. Woods grabbed his first individual qualifying mark of the season in the 800-meter run, carding a time of 1:48.40 to take first place. Senior Kyle Roberts competed in the 400-meter hurdles, earning his first regional qualifying mark of the season in 52.28. Wilder, who also competed on the 4x100-meter relay team that earned a regional qualifying mark earlier in the day, earned his second standard of the day in the 200-meter, legging out the race in 21.08 to finish second.
During 3000-meter steeplechase competition, junior Jonathan Rono nabbed a new personal-best, finishing the race in 9:09.32. Senior Pad Judd crossed the line second behind Rono with a time of 9:17.36. In the 1500-meter run, the Bulldogs swept the top five spots, collegiately, with freshman Matthew Cameron capturing the individual crown with his personal-best time of 3:50.22. Freshman Adam Lenz won his first collegiate event in the 3000-meter run, clocking a time of 8:31.13. Senior Robert Scribner finishing a close second in a season-best 8:32.30.
Junior Allen Cassell scored a huge personal-best in the high jump, elevating himself seven feet, and a fourth to garner first place honors in the event. In the men's hammer throw, junior Kiley Aguar eclipsed his personal-best by over 30 feet, throwing the hammer 183-01 to take first place in the event.
“I thought that the 4x100 did great,” said MSU Head Track and Field Coach Al Schmidt. “O'Neal Wilder got a faster time. Kyle (Roberts) made it in the 400-meter hurdles. Allen (Cassell), of course, a big personal best. He jumped over three inches in the high jump. It was a tremendous day for the men. They just plowed through the competition. They doubled the score on everybody so I am really pleased with that. I have not been able to look at all of it (the results), but I am very happy. Again, like I said last week, we are supposed to win a home meet, but it was tricky because we were down some pretty important people on the women's side, but we did a good job.”
Sophomore Wendy Copeland, junior Priscilla Gaines and junior Janelle Finley dominated the long jump, sweeping the top three spots in the competition. Copeland jumped a personal-best 20-01 ? (first place), while Gaines leaped a personal-best 19-08 ? (second place) and Finley finished with a jump of 18-11 ? (third.) Both Copeland and Gaines notched NCAA Regional qualifying marks with their jumps.
Freshman Simone Domingue carded a time of 4:49.39 to take second place in the 1500-meter run and blew away the field in the 3000-meter run, finishing in a personal-best 10:05.08 to take first place.
In women's relay action, the Lady Bulldog 4x100-meter relay team (junior Gabrielle Dillon, Copeland, sophomore Bridgett Rose and Gaines) were eight-tenths of a seconds shy from qualifying for NCAAs with their time of 45.78, despite taking first place in the event.
“We felt like we did a good job,” said Schmidt. “We won the meet by 10 points. That was without three of our big multi-event performers, who at home meets do three or four events apiece and score a lot of points for us. We did it without them and I felt the rest of the ladies did a great job. Wendy (Copeland) had a NCAA qualifier and so did Priscilla (Gaines) in the long jump. Both of them set personal bests and Simone (Domingue) came up big again in both the 1500 and 3000 and set a personal best in the outside 3K. I thought it was a really good day for the ladies. We ran a 45.78 in the 4x100, they just missed qualifying. That is a good time after a long drought of not having a good 4x100. So we were happy on the ladies' side.”
With little recovery time, both teams will bounce back and compete in the prestigious Texas Relays in Austin, Texas on the campus of the University of Texas on Wednesday-Saturday, April 2-5.
Players Mentioned
