Mississippi State
NCAA Championships (O)
MSU Bulldog Sprinters End Spectacular Day In Fayetteville Tied For 14th Place
June 12, 2009 | Track & Field
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. ? Mississippi State continued to add to its spectacular trip at the NCAA Championships Friday, finishing the day tied for 14th place with Washington State. The Bulldogs have 10 points after 10 events scored.
“I'm really proud of our team today,” coach Al Schmidt said. “We have two big events left (Saturday) and can end this meet in the Top 10 if we perform to our capabilities.”
SEC foes LSU and Florida are in first and second place with 30 and 21 points, while Oregon rounds out the top three with 20 points.
With three event finals being run Friday evening, the Bulldogs collected fifth, sixth and seventh place in their respective events.
“We have seven All-Americans coming home for us,” Schmidt added. “We've got six men and one woman and still another day to race. It has been a really great week for us.”
The 4x100-meter team ran 39.06 seconds to finish fifth. Justin Christian, D'Angelo Cherry, Dwight Mullings and John Bailey earned All-American accolades and a second-place ranking in the MSU record books. Florida won the event running a time of 38.58 seconds.
Cherry continued to add to his magnificent day with a sixth place finish in the 100-meter dash final. Cherry ran 10.22 seconds to earn All-American status in the event. LSU's Trindon Holliday won the event running 10.00seconds.
“D'Angelo didn't have the best start of his life, but he really came through in the end to finish the race strong,” Schmidt added. “He's had a spectacular freshman season.”
In the men's 400-meter hurdles Emanuel Mayers ran a personal-best 50.06 seconds to finish seventh.
Lady Bulldog Marrissa Harris scored a school record 5,625 points in the heptathlon to finish tenth. Harris threw a personal-best 119 feet, 6 inches in the javelin to end her multi-event career at MSU. Harris is now the sixth Lady Bulldog to earn outdoor All-American accolades.
“Marrissa is an outdoor All-American now and she has had a wonderful weekend here for us,” Schmidt said.
Oregon's Brianne Theisen won the event having scored 6,086 points and MSU junior LaQuinta Aaron came in 21st place.
Also on the track Mullings ran 45.50 seconds in the 400-meter dash to qualify for Saturday's final. Mullings enters the race with the 5th fastest time behind event leader Jonathan Borlee from Florida State.
“(Saturday) is still a big day for us, and I think we can do well on both sides,” Schmidt said. “We have a really good chance at ending this weekend with some great races.”
Harris also competed in the 100-meter hurdle semi-final round where she ran 13.32 seconds to qualify for Saturday's final. Mullings will also be a member of the men's 4x400-meter relay for Saturday afternoon's final with the second fastest time.
Harris will compete for the last time as a Lady Bulldog at 12:52 p.m., which can be seen live on CBS beginning at noon.
