Track And Field Begins Bid For Nationals At Mideast Regional
STARKVILLE, Miss. ? A total of 14 Mississippi State track and field athletes vie for spots at the upcoming NCAA Championships this weekend at the NCAA Mideast Regional. Action begins Friday at 11 a.m. and continues Saturday at John McDonnell Field on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville.
Entering the regional meet, the MSU men’s team is 23rd in the nation in the latest USTFCCCA Division I Men's Outdoor Track and Field poll and 20th in the Track and Field News’ rankings.
Senior Jamil Hubbard, the fourth ranked 400-meter runner in the nation, ran 45.24 seconds to win the men’s 400-meter dash finals at the 2008 Southeastern Conference Track and Field Championships. Hubbard’s time is a personal best, regional qualifying mark, a Hutsell-Rosen Track record and the fourth fastest time in school history. Hubbard becomes the second Bulldog to win the event at the conference meet, following Jude Monye in 1995.
Freshman O’Neal Wilder took second in the event, running a regional qualifying and personal best 45.54 seconds. His mark ranks fifth on the all-time list. He is ranked eighth in the event.
In addition to Hubbard and Wilder, eight other Bulldogs scored on the final day along with both relays posting top eight finishes. John Bailey took seventh in the 400, running a regional time and personal best of 46.44. In the 800-meter run, Golden Coachman (1:48.26) and Chris Woods (1:48.71) posted regional qualifying marks to finish fourth and sixth, respectively. Woods’ season-best time was run at the Bulldog Invitational (1:48.40).
The Bulldogs’ 4x100-meter relay team of Kendall May, Bailey, Hubbard and Wilder ran a regional qualifying 39.42 to finish third. State’s 4x400-meter relay squad of Woods, Hubbard, Emmanuel Mayers, and Wilder tallied a season-best and regional mark of 3:05.26. State’s relay squads enter the weekend ranked seventh and ninth, respectively.
Mayers ran his season-best in the 400-meter hurdles at the SEC meet, clocking 51.35 to finish seventh. Kyle Roberts ran his season-best regional time of 52.02 at the Mississippi Open. May ran 10.35 seconds at the SEC meet, his season-best time in that event. Allen Cassell cleared his regional and season-best mark at the Bulldog Invitational when he leaped 7-00 ?.
On the women’s side, the ladies send their first relay squad to the regional meet since the meet began. State’s women posted their best time of the season in the 4x100-meter relay, running a regional-qualifying 45.16. LaQuinta Aaron, Marrissa Harris, Bridgett Rose and Priscilla Gaines also posted the third fastest time in school history. En route to becoming the fourth Lady Bulldog to win an outdoor title and the first in the combined events, Harris shattered the school record in the 100-meter hurdles, running 13.20 during the heptathlon.
Harris (20-01 ?) finished second in the long jump at the Penn Relays, currently ranks in the top 50 in the country in the event. Joining her in the competition will be Wendy Copeland (20-01 ?) and Bridgett Rose (20-01 ?). Rose will also compete in the 100-meter hurdles, having run her season-best time of 13.68 at the Ole Miss Invitational. Aaron (13.77) qualified for the event at the SEC Championships.
The top five finishers in individual events and top three in the relay events advance to the 2008 NCAA Championships, June 11-14, at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa. One MSU runner has already advanced to the national meet. Harris scored an automatic national qualifying and school-record 5,600 points in the heptathlon at the SEC Championships.