Track & Field Head To Baton Rouge For Battle Of The Bayou
April 08, 2016 | Track & Field
STARKVILLE, Miss. – Last weekend the Mississippi State No. 11 women's team and No. 24 men's team brought home a combined eight wins. Both teams look to continue success Saturday at the Battle of the Bayou.
Forty-two MSU athletes will lace up this weekend to compete in Baton Rouge.
“I can't say enough how great a weekend we had last week in Florida,” MSU coach Steve Dudley said. “These athletes have put in a lot of work to get where they are. I expect there to be lots of strong performances Saturday.”
To kick events off on Saturday will be Haley Reynolds in the discus throw at 9 a.m. CT., before throwing in the shot put at 2 p.m.
Set to compete in multiple events, Erica Bougard will be taking on the high jump, long jump, javelin and the 100m hurdles. Bougard currently ranks second nationally in the high jump and ninth in the long jump.
Freshman Zaria Tillman will be another Bulldog on the women's team competing in a number of events Saturday. Tillman will represent MSU in the long jump, shot put, the 100m hurdles and the 200m dash. Along with Tillman, Shayla Luckett and Kimari Martin will both appear in the 200m dash.
Multi event athletes Willie Reed, Zachary Taylor and Jaquarius Wilson will also be competing in field and running events this weekend. All three will take on the discus before moving to the long jump. Reed will go on to the high jump, while Wilson competes in the shot put. Reed, Taylor and Wilson will throw in the javelin. On the track, Reed and Wilson will both be in the 110m hurdles, while Taylor will take on the 100m dash.
Ranked second in the country in the javelin, Curtis Thompson will be competing for MSU. His personal-best came two weeks ago at the Florida State Relays with a throw of 265-10.
Sydney Rodkey and Carl Pittman will compete in the pole vault this weekend, while Brianna Smith throws in the hammer throw for the second time this season. Brianna Smith's first throw of the season was 172-01, which ranks fifth in MSU history.
Taking on the 3000m steeplechase for his first time as a Bulldog, Pierce Rose will be on the track first at 12:15 p.m.
Five distance runners will take on the 1500m run. On the women's side will be Cornelia Griesche, Antonia Hehr and Carly Terp, while JT Mackay and Andrew Monaghan represent the men.
Tiffany Flynn, Leah Lott and Ste'yce McNeil and will all be in the 100m hurdles at 1:05 p.m. In the 110m hurdles will be Ro'Derick Spears before lining up for the 200m dash.
Also in the men's 200m dash is Jerome Bazile, Marshall Nunn, Philip Smith, Rasheed Tatham, Charles Taylor and Juston Waters.
Lacing up for the 100m dash will be Bazile, Nunn and Philip Smith.
Flynn will take on the triple jump for the first time this season. She holds MSU's fourth-best leap in the event with a jump of 41-01.50 from her freshman season.
Running in the 400m dash will be Alon Lewis, Madison Milhoan, Vince Castillo, Dustin James II, Alfred Larry and Rodrigo Rocha. Larry ranks fourth in the event nationally with a time 45.94.
Marta Freitas currently leads the nation in the 1500m run, but this weekend she will showcase her talents in the 800m run. Competing alongside Freitas will be Kaelin Kersh and Ffion Price, while Patrick Monaghan competes for the men. Kersh is the only one who has competed in the event this season.
The men's 4x100m relay team comprised of Rocha, Philip Smith, Crawford and Charles Taylor ran the nation's eighth-best time last weekend at the Florida relays. The foursome look to improve their time of 39.60 this weekend.
Ending events on the track will be the 4x400m relay teams. MSU is set to run two teams in both the men's and women's races.
For more information on the MSU track and field teams visit HailState.com and follow on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (@HailState.com).
