State Men Dominate Bulldog Invitational
STARKVILLE, Miss. ?€“ The Mississippi State University men's outdoortrack and field squad hosted the Bulldog Invitational on Saturday atthe W.O. Spencer Stadium/Carl Maddox Track. The Bulldogs won sevenindividual events and one relay and set five NCAA regional qualifyingmarks.
It was a good win, said MSU head coach Al Schmidt. The men's 4x1qualified for regionals, and we had two individuals qualify in the400-meter dash. We scored a lot of points and won pretty big.
Sophomore all-American Chris Woods (Atlanta, Ga.) ran 1 minute, 48.90in the men's 800-meter run, besting the next competitor by threeseconds. Woods' time is a personal best and ranks fifth on the MSUall-time superlatives list in the event.
In the 400-meter dash, junior transfers Bruce Davis (Phenix City, Ala.)and Ezra Jones (Wildwood, Fla.) qualified for June's NCAA MideastRegional. Each ran personal bests with Jones taking the meet title in46.99. Davis was third in 47.24. Junior all-American Arthur Davis(Mobile, Ala.) finished fourth, barely missing the regional mark with atime of 47.37.
Jones and B. Davis also ran the 200-meter dash. Jones finished eighth(21.95), while Davis was 10th (22.08). Junior Eliott Morant (KansasCity, Mo.) also ran the race, taking 12th in 22.27. Morant clocked10.85 in the 100-meter dash finals. Also in the 100, sophomore AdianSanderson (Ewing, N.J.) ran 10.80.
In the 4x100-meter relay, freshman Adian Sanderson (Ewing, N.J.),sophomore all-American Elzie Coleman (Newburgh, N.Y.), A. Davis andMorant combined to win the event in a regional-qualifying 40.54.B.Davis, Woods, junior transfer Nathan Daniels (New Iberia, La.) andJones recorded a regional mark in the 4x400-meter relay, running3:08.59.
State's distance corps dominated the 3000-meter run field. JuniorTravis McKay (Edmonton, Alberta) won running 8:26.51, a new SpencerStadium/Maddox Track record and personal best. Senior Gedamu Ege(Atlanta, Ga.), sophomore John Brigham (Mobile, Ala.), redshirtfreshman Pad Judd (Cushing, Wis.) and junior Wade Martin (Cullman,Ala.) all finished in the top 10.
In the 1500-meter run, junior Phillip Moore (Hoover, Ala.) won therace, running a personal-best 3:57.23. McKay finished fifth (4:05.01).Sophomore Tim Williams (Pensacola, Fla.) won the high jump with aclearing of 6-08¾. Freshman Allen Cassell (Port Gibson, Miss.) finishedin a tie for third (6-04¾).
Sophomore Isaiah Marshall (Detroit, Mich.) ran a personal best in the400-meter hurdles, clocking 56.46. In the pole vault, sophomore JosephQueen (Jackson, Miss.) cleared 14-06 to take the meet title.
Junior Jerald Wilson (Port Gibson, Miss.) saw action in the long andtriple jumps. In the long jump, Wilson leaped 21-01½ to finish sixth,while he took fifth in the triple (45-04¼). Wilson also ran apersonal-best 11.00 in the 100-meter dash. Teammate redshirt freshmanKeith Hewlett (Detroit, Mich.) finished second in the long jump(23-00½).
In the discus throw, freshman Daniel Zabaldano (Brandon, Miss.) tooksixth (145-09). The javelin throw saw two MState athletes compete.Freshman Darryl Brady (Vancleave, Miss.) finished third (144-03) andZabaldano was fourth (143-03).
As a team, the Bulldog beat out Louisiana Tech by scoring 147 pointscompared to La. Tech's 105. Southern Miss placed third (99), MissouriState (91) was fourth, Memphis (78) was fifth and Alabama-Huntsville(18).
Mississippi State returns to action next week, Apr. 5-8 at the 79thClyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin.