Thirteen MSU Track And Field Athletes Travel To Bloomington For NCAA Mideast Regional
Saturday's Live Results
STARKVILLE, Miss. ?€“?€“ With the conference championships finished for anotherseason, the 2005 outdoor track and field season is rapidly coming to an end.For 13 Mississippi State University track and field athletes, their seasonswill continue this weekend at the NCAA Mideast Regional in Bloomington, Ind.The event is being held on the Indiana University campus.
"Nationals depend on this weekend," said MSU head coach Al Schmidt. "They'reusing a different system this year. You have to make it through regionals now.Our goal is to make it to the next round. We've got some freshmen running thisweekend. Some of them scored for us at SECs. Scoring at our conference meet islike scoring at nationals when you consider how tough the SEC is. It's going tobe a great experience for them. There are nine other SEC schools here.Florida's the only sprint team not in this regional. We held our own againstthem and LSU at conference. We're right there with them."
Reigning Southeastern Conference 100-meter dash champion Steve Mullings startsin lane five of heat three during Friday's preliminaries. Mullings' 10.06 wasthe fastest regional qualifying time posted in the NCAA this season. He willalso compete in the 200-meter dash. His 20.31-second timing was clocked duringthe preliminaries of the event at the SEC Championships.
In the 400-meter dash, the Bulldogs have three runners, the youngest beingfreshman Elzie Coleman. Coleman will run in heat one (47.12). Sophomoreall-American Arthur Davis posted his season-best 46.17 at the Jace LacosteInvitational. Senior Jamel Ashley, a 2004 all-American in the 400, starts inheat five (45.69). Ashley finished second to Olympian Kelly Willie in the 400finals at the SEC Championships.
In relay events, the Bulldogs will turn to sophomore Eliott Morant, Ashley,Mullings and senior all-American LaChristopher Lewis in the 4x100-meter relay,who's best qualifying time is a school record 39.09. Ashley, Davis, Coleman andLewis will get the nod in the 4x400-meter relay (3:03.44).
State's lone middle distance runner will be freshman Chris Woods. Woods ran1:49.74 during the preliminaries of the 800-meter run at the SEC Championshipsto qualify for the event.
Returning to the Mideast Regional for a second season, sophomore Travis McKaywill once again compete in the 3000-meter steeplechase. McKay's current toptime of 8:59.96 is the third best mark in school history.
In field events, Lewis, the current SEC champion in the long jump, will look tocarry over his success at the regional. His top mark this season was posted inhis win at the Bulldog Invitational (25-5 1/2). Junior Kendall Pyant II (24-61/2) will also compete in the event.
In his final season at MSU, senior high jumper Matt Denton looks to improve onhis 6-9 mark from a year ago. The Hurley, Miss.-native cleared 7-0 1/2 earlierin the season and finished fourth at the SEC Championships. Freshman TimWilliams leaped 6-10 3/4 to finish fifth at the SEC Championships.
On the women's side, senior Crystal Averitt will compete in the discus andhammer throws. Averitt's top mark in the discus is 156-11, while herschool-record mark of 178-11 in the hammer qualified her for Friday'scompetition.
Junior Meggan Hodge runs in the 3000-meter steeplechase on Saturday. TheBeaumont, Alberta-native placed eighth at the Southeastern ConferenceChampionships with a school record time of 10:46.04.
A year ago at the regional in Baton Rouge, Tiffany McWilliams set a new MideastRegional record with her 2:02.27 time in the 800-meter run. McWilliams tooksecond in the 1500-meter run. Ashley finished second in the 400-meter dash(45.62). The 4x400-meter relay team of Ashley, Davis, Keston Nelson and Lewisfinished third in 3:05.66. Lewis took fourth in the long jump (25-0 3/4).