Mississippi State
War Eagle Invitational (O)
State Ends Competition In Auburn With Top Performances
April 17, 2010 | Track & Field
AUBURN, Ala. - Mississippi State track and field teams ended competition at the War Eagle Invitational Saturday with top NCAA performances. MSU turned in Top 5 finishes in almost every event they competed in while at Hustell-Rosen Track.
"We had a great day today," head coach Al Schmidt said. "We had personal-best in a lot of events today."
The Bulldogs shined again in the sprinting events with Kendall May and Tavaris Tate leading the way. May won the 100-meter dash in 10.38 seconds, while Tate set a new facility record winning the 400-meter dash in 45.21 seconds.
"Our guys ran really well today," Schmidt said. "We had top finishes in the 100, 200 and 400."
MSU's 4x100-meter relay team also claimed the event crown running 40.23 seconds. In the 200-meter dash, State took third, fourth and sixth place. May was MSU's top finisher in 20.75 seconds followed by Tate in 20.84 seconds and Gerron Hendricks in 21.19 seconds respectively.
In addition to Tate's first place performance in the 400, MSU had three other runners finish in the Top 5. Dwight Mullings finished second, followed by O'Neal Wilder in third and Emmanuel Mayers in fifth.
Like the men's team, the Lady Bulldogs had a great day on the track. In the 400-meter dash Jody-Ann Muir ran a personal-best and 2nd all-time in MSU history 53.46 seconds to finish fifth. Crystal Wilson moved to third all-time with her seventh-place 53.86 second performance.
"The girls ran really great and got some times that will definitely put them in the NCAAs," Schmidt said.
Chelsea Rae Smyth finished second in the 800-meter run (2:15.25), while Chloe Phillips turned in a fifth-place performance in the 1500-meter run.
"Both Chelsea and Chloe had big PR's today," Schmidt said.
In the field events, senior Kendrick Poullard finished second in the triple jump and Josh tucker took second-place in the high jump. Patrick Johnson cleared 15 feet, 01 inches to finish third in the pole vault, and Laquinta Aaron finished fifth in the women's long jump.
"We just overall had a great meet, and are right where we need to be going into Penn Relays," Schmidt added. "We are coming along just as I would like us to be and are on our way to beign one of the best programns in the country."
MSU has a short week and travels to Philadelphia for the Penn Relays April 22-24.
