State Track And Field Travels To Baton Rouge For LSU Tiger Relays
* Live Results
* Meet Notes (PDF)
STARKVILLE, Miss. - Coming off a successful weekend at the Alabama Relays, Mississippi State University's track and field squads return to action this weekend, March 23-25, at the LSU Tiger Relays in Baton Rouge, La.
"There are some good Louisiana teams at this meet," said MSU head coach Al Schmidt. "It'll be a battle with LSU. We're very strong on the women's side in the 4x800- and distance medley relays and in the 4x4 on the men's side. Regional qualifying marks are what we're going for."
Host LSU provides the stiffest competition for MSU. The national powerhouses are coming off second and seventh-place finishes at the NCAA Indoor Championships on the men's and women's sides, respectively. Also scheduled to compete are Tulane, Louisiana Tech, UL-Lafayette and UL-Monroe.
Junior Nicola Wilson (Trenton, N.J.) broke the MSU shot put school record with a throw of 50 feet, one-and-three-quarters inches. The mark qualifies Wilson for May's NCAA Mideast Regional. In addition to Wilson's throw, seven additional Lady Bulldogs set personal bests in their respective events in Tuscaloosa.
State senior Jasmine Walls (Picayune, Miss.) tied her personal best in the high jump, winning the meet title with a clearance of 5-07. Teammate and freshman Dot Youmans (Poplarville, Miss.) leaped 5-03.
Junior Joy Griffith (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) ran 11:12.31 to finish third in the 3000-meter steeplechase, while freshman Nicole Rosetti (Biloxi, Miss.) took sixth in the 5000-meter run (18:27.51). Freshman Marrissa Harris set personal records in two events ?€“ the 100-meter hurdles (14.21) and long jump (18-08). Also in the long jump, freshman Janelle Finley (Mobile, Ala.) leaped 18-10¾ to tie for the fifth-best mark in school history. In the shot put, freshman Emily Sanders (Woodstock, Ga.) threw 40-03½. As a team, the Lady Bulldogs finished third.
On the men's side, State managed to come away with a second-place finish overall, finishing one-point behind Alabama. In the decathlon, sophomore Joseph Queen (Jackson, Miss.) scored 6,167 points to finish second, while freshman Darryl Brady (Vancleave, Miss.) accumulated 5,747 points to finish fifth. In Sunday's relay events, the Bulldogs posted a win in the 4x400-meter relay (3:16.92) with junior Nathan Daniels (New Iberia, La.), freshman Pierre Allen (Water Valley, Miss.), junior Bruce Davis (Phenix City, Ala.) and junior Ezra Jones (Wildwood, Fla).
Previously this season, the Bulldogs set regional qualifying marks in the 4x4 at the FSU Snowbird with Jones, junior all-American Arthur Davis (Mobile, Ala.), sophomore all-American Elzie Coleman (Newburgh, N.Y.) and Bruce Davis running 3:09.37 to win the meet title. Sophomore Tim Williams cleared a regional-qualifying 6-10 ¾ at the FSU Snowbird, as well.
Live results for the LSU Relays are available via a link on the MSU athletics Web site, www.MStateAthletics.com.