Mississippi State
Ole Miss Invitational (O)
Mississippi State Track Teams Have Great Day At Ole Miss Invitational
April 10, 2010 | Track & Field
OXFORD, Miss. - On a nearly perfect spring day the Mississippi State track and field teams turned in top NCAA marks at the Ole Miss Invitational Saturday. The No. 11 Bulldogs had an excellent day on the track and in the field, while the Lady Bulldogs fared well in their respective events.
"Today was a really great day for us," head coach Al Schmidt said. "We put ourselves in the first rounds of the NCAA Championships in a lot of key events and solidified our place on the national level."
Junior All-American Emanuel Mayers had the performance of the day in the hurdle events. Mayers finished second in both the 110- and 400-meter hurdles. In the 400-meter hurdles he ran a personal-best 49.65 seconds.
"Emanuel had another great day for us," Schmidt said. "He is moving closer and closer to the school record and up the national list."
MSU had top finishes in the both the 200- and 400-meter dashes. Leading the way was Dwight Mullings, who had a career day winning both the 200- and 400-meter dashes. The All-American ran a personal-best 20.63 seconds in the 200 and season-best 45.74 seconds in the 400.
"I think Dwight had a phenomenal day winning both the 400 and 200," Schmidt added. "His 200 time showed he has a 44 second 400 in him, and he is only going to get better and faster."
Right behind Mullings in the 400 was O'Neal Wilder who finished second in 46.74 seconds. In the 200-meter dash Tavaris Tate finished third (20.75 seconds), Wilder finished eighth (21.24 seconds) and Gerron Hendricks finished ninth (21.36 seconds).
"Tavaris had yet another great day on the track, and O'Neal is showing us how fast he can be," Schmidt said. "They both put themselves in the first rounds in their events and are right where they need to be at this time of the year."
In the field events throw Ed Weslea threw personal-best in both the shot put and discus. Welsea threw 163 feet, nine inches in the discus to finish tenth and 54-01 in the shot put for third-place.
Freshman Allison Storey turned in the top performance of the day for the Lady Bulldogs in the javelin throw. She matched her season-best 135-11 for fifth place. In the 1500-meter run Dominique Lockhart ran 4:45.83 to finish eighth.
MSU returns to action at Auburn Invitational on April 16.
