Mississippi State
SEC Championships (O)
Mississippi State's Harris Wins SEC Heptathlon
May 16, 2008 | Track & Field
AUBURN, Ala. ? Mississippi State junior Marrissa Harris scored an automatic national qualifying and school-record 5,600 points to win the heptathlon at the 2008 Southeastern Conference Track and Field Championships. Harris becomes the fourth Lady Bulldog to win an outdoor title and the first in the combined events.
"It means a lot to me to win this," Harris said. "I've been so close for the past two years. It's a great boost for me and our team. We've started the weekend off very well."
Harris took second in the day's first event ? the long jump leaping 20 feet, one inch and finished third in the javelin (114-03).
LaQuinta Aaron finished fourth, scoring a provisional national qualifying 5,174 points, good for third on the all-time list. Aaron set a personal-best in the 800-meter run, crossing in 2 minutes, 28.75 seconds to finish sixth. She also took sixth in the long jump.
State's Bridgett Rose just missed scoring in her first heptathlon with 4,522 points to finish 10th. State's Dorothy Youmans finished 12th despite being hampered by injuries for much of the season.
In the decathlon, State took the sixth, seventh and eighth positions. Senior Joseph Queen scored a personal-best 6,775 points to finish as the team's top finisher. Darryl Brady finished seventh and also tallied a new personal record with 6,651 points. Martin Lee (6,641) finished eighth in his first decathlon. Queen tied for second in the pole vault competition, clearing 15-03.
Brady tallied a personal best in the day's first event, running 16.82 in the 110-meter hurdles. He also set a new personal mark in the discus throw, finishing fifth (125-07). Competing in his first decathlon, Lee set personal records in the discus throw (139-05, third) and pole vault.
The only other finals contested on Friday were those in the 10,000-meter run. On the women's side, freshman Simone Domingue ran her in first 10,000-meter race in 37:03.51 to finish 11th. State's Robert Scribner (30:20.10) also finished 11th on the men's side and Ashenafi Arega (30:52.07) recorded a personal best with his 12th place finish.
Friday also marked the start of preliminary qualifying for the remainder of the weekend. Both Bulldogs competing in the men's 800-meter preliminaries advanced to Sunday evening's final. Chris Woods posted the top qualifying time in the event, running a regional qualifying 1:48.47 and Golden Coachman qualified with a time of 1:50.09, also a regional mark.
In the men's 200-meter dash qualifying round, John Bailey advanced after finishing seventh with a regional qualifying and personal best time of 21.00. Jamil Hubbard ran a regional qualifying time of 21.33 but finished 10th. Both Emmanuel Mayers (51.57, seventh and personal best) and Kyle Roberts (51.71, eighth) ran regional qualifying times and qualified for Sunday evening's 400-meter hurdles final.
State's Diamond Marks set a personal best in the women's 800-meter preliminaries but did not advance.
"The multi-events did a great job today," said MSU head coach Al Schmidt. "The 10,000-meter runners ran well, but just not good enough to score. We did well with Bailey, Roberts, Mayers, Coachman and Woods qualifying in their events. We're where we needed to be after this round of preliminaries and have more tomorrow."
Action resumes at 12:30 p.m. CT from the Hutsell-Rosen Track on the University of Auburn campus.
MISSISSIPPI STATE LADY BULLDOG SEC CHAMPIONS
Falilatu Ogunkoya (1989, 1990) ? 400-meter dash
Sharon Simmons (1990) ? shot put
Tiffany McWilliams (2003, 2004) ? 800-meter run and 1500-meter run
Marrissa Harris (2008) - heptathlon
Players Mentioned
