Mississippi State
SEC Championships (O)
MSU's Aaron Places Second In Heptathlon At SECs; Mullings Qualifies For 200 Finals
May 14, 2010 | Track & Field
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - After Thursday's first four events of the heptathlon, Mississippi State coach Al Schmidt was confident senior standout LaQuinta Aaron would have a huge day on Friday at the 2010 SEC Track & Field Outdoor Championships.
As it turned out, he knew exactly what he was talking about.
Despite a weather delay of more than an hour at Tennessee's Tom Black Track at LaPorte Stadium, Aaron turned in stellar performances in the long jump (19-01-50), javelin (134-00) and 800-meter run (2:17.97) to finish second with a career-high 5,563 points in the grueling seven-event competition, the second-most in school history and the fifth most nationally this season.
Alabama's Chelsea Taylor won the event title scoring 5,672 points while MSU freshman Racquel Farquharson finished tenth with a personal-best 4,956 points.
"I think LaQUinta had a fabulous second day of competition," Al Schmidt said. "She had personal best in the long jump, won the javelin part of it and ran a great 800. Her score today should definitely get her into NCAAs."
It was also another point-producing day for the men in the decathlon.
Sophomore Trevarus Christian completed his best decathlon to date scoring 6,840 points to finish sixth to give the Bulldogs three team points
"Trevarus did a great job today," Schmidt said. "Scoring 6,800 points is a lot for a sophomore. He did a really great job for us today."
Sophomore Martin Lee finished ninth and junior Antoine Lipscomb competed the day in tenth.
Dwight Mullings and Emmanuel Mayers also got off to a good start, both qualifying for the finals in their respective events. Mullings turned in the second fastest time of the day, 20.73 seconds, in the 200-meter dash to qualify for Sunday's final.
"Dwight proved that he's one of the best curve runners in the nation today," Schmidt added.
Mayers won his preliminary heat in the 400-meter hurdles, running 50.75 seconds to secure his spot to vie for the event crown.
"We've got a lot more work to do over the next few days, but I think we are right on pace for a good weekend," Schmidt said.
Both MSU team's ended the day in sixth-place after two events scored, and begin competition Saturday at 2:20 p.m. in the long jump.
