State Men Second, Women Fourth At Rain-Shortened Alabama Relays
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ?€“ Despite the rainy conditions over the Sam BaileyTrack Complex, Mississippi State's track and field squads concludedaction at the Alabama Relays on Sunday afternoon. Minus the majority offield events scheduled, relay finals were held. Behind a win in the4x400-meter relay, the MSU men's squad scored 57 points, finishingsecond behind host Alabama (58). The Lady Bulldogs won the 4x800-meterand distance medley relays to take fourth with a team total of 38points.
The women's 4x800-meter relay ran a tremendous time considering theweather, said MSU head coach Al Schmidt. The women's distance medleyrelay ran in a downpour. We didn't run the shuttle hurdle on thewomen's side because of the weather. It was a good day. We battled downto the wire with Alabama (on the men's side). The sprint guys ran well.
In men's relay action, junior transfer Nathan Daniels (New Iberia, La.)ran the opening leg of the winning 4x400-meter relay before handing offthe baton to freshman Pierre Allen (Water Valley, Miss.). Juniortransfers Bruce Davis (Phenix City, Ala.) and Ezra Jones (Wildwood,Fla.) ran the final two laps for State. The squad ran 3 minutes, 16.92seconds.
Junior Eliott Morant (Kansas City, Mo.), sophomore all-American ElzieColeman (Newburgh, N.Y.) and junior all-American Arthur Davis (Mobile,Ala.) combined to run the first three legs, respectively, of the 4x100-and 4x200-meter relays. In each event, the Bulldogs placed second withDaniels anchoring the 4x1 (41.23) and Bruce Davis running the final legof the 4x2 (1:24.72).
Coleman and Davis ran the opening two legs of the sprint medley relayand Jones and sophomore all-American Chris Woods (Atlanta, Ga.) ran thefinal two to lead MSU to a second-place finish in 3:20.31.
In the 4x800-meter relay, freshman Ty Williams (Panama City, Fla.),freshman Isaiah Marshall (Detroit, Mich.), junior Phillip Moore(Birmingham, Ala.) and junior Travis McKay (Edmonton, Alberta) ran7:52.16 in a third-place finish. Senior Gedamu Ege (Atlanta, Ga.),sophomore John Brigham (Mobile, Ala.), freshman Zach Greene (Milton,Fla.) and Moore finished fourth in the 4x1500-meter relay (16:41.34).
McKay, Jones, Woods and junior Wade Martin (Cullman, Ala.) recorded atime of 10:25.53 to finish fourth in the distance medley relay. In themen's 110-meter shuttle hurdle relay, State lead off with Morant andfinished with sophomore Joseph Queen (Jackson, Miss.) to take third in1:09.71.
In team scoring, only finishes from relay finals were calculated.Alabama won the men's side with 58 points, while the Bulldogs tooksecond with 57. Drake (35), Alabama-Huntsville (26), Chattanooga (18),Middle Tennessee State (18), Southern Miss (17), Winthrop (14),University of the South ?€“ Sewanee (10) and Berry (10) closed out thetop 10 teams. Conference rival Vanderbilt finished 13th with threepoints.
In the women's 4x800-meter relay, junior Jen McPherson (Nampa, Idaho),sophomore Andrea Wahlin (Cold Spring, Minn.), junior Liz Grube(Sherwood, Wis.) and senior Zita Magloire (Tallahassee, Fla.) combinedto run 8:59.30 and win the event. Clocking 11:49.39, McPherson,freshman Antrese Banks (Gloster, Miss.), Wahlin and Magloire also wonthe distance medley relay and recorded the second-best time in schoolhistory.
Sophomore Dominique Rogers (Lafayette, La.), freshman Marrissa Harris(Memphis, Tenn.), McPherson and freshman Dot Youmans (Poplarville,Miss.) took fourth in the 4x400-meter relay, crossing the line in4:03.02. In the 4x1500-meter run, sophomore Annie Falor (Flagstaff,Ariz.), senior Meggan Hodge (Beaumont, Alberta), junior MinaThorstenson (Okauchee, Wis.) and freshman Michelle Corrigan (Green Bay,Wis.) placed third by running 19:20.99.
Freshman Gabrielle Dillon (Liberty, Miss.), Banks, Rogers and freshmanAbbey Graham (Pontotoc, Miss.) ran 4:13.98 to finish fifth in thesprint medley relay, while Dillon, Banks, Harris and sophomore AngelicaPhillips (Coldwater, Miss.) took sixth in the 4x100-meter relay (47.36).
Western Michigan (55) took the women's title, followed by UAB (54),Alabama-Huntsville (46), MSU (38) and USM (36). Drake (31), BevillState Community College (20), Chattanooga (18), Alabama (13) andNorthwest Missouri State (11) rounded out the top 10 teams. Vanderbiltscored nine points in a 12th-place finish.
MSU returns to action on Saturday, March 25 at the LSU Relays, hostedby Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, La.