State Track And Field Teams Return Home To Host Jace Lacoste Invitational
* Meet Notes
STARKVILLE, Miss. ?€“ Returning home for the second time this season, theMississippi State University track and fields squads will host the 11thannual Jace Lacoste Invitational. Action begins Saturday morning at 9a.m. at the W.O. Spencer Stadium/Carl Maddox Track on the MSU campus.Admission to all MSU track and field meets is free of charge.
This meet will be a little more low-key than the last one (the BulldogInvitational), said MSU head coach Al Schmidt. It's a developingmeet. We're looking to qualify (for regionals) in some areas and giveour athletes a rest in others. The competition is setup that way. We'relooking to have some good regional qualifying marks at home.
Other squads scheduled to compete include Mississippi College,Birmingham Southern Tennessee-Martin's women, Samford, UAB's women,Bevill State (Ala.) Community College's women and Wallace State (Ala.)Community College.
Entering the meet, State's athletes have posted regional qualifyingmarks in eight events. On the men's side, junior transfers Bruce Davis(Phenix City, Ala.) and Ezra Jones (Wildwood, Fla.) have qualified inthe 400-meter dash, while sophomore all-American Chris Woods (Atlanta,Ga.) ran 1 minute, 48.90 seconds at the MSU-hosted Bulldog Invitationalto qualify in the 800-meter run. Junior Travis McKay (Edmonton,Alberta) ran a season's best 9:00.35 in the 3000-meter steeplechase atthe Texas Relays to post his second regional mark in the event.Sophomore high jumper Tim Williams (Pensacola, Fla.) has cleared 6feet, 10-and-three-quarters inches twice this season to meet the markin that event. MSU's relay squads have qualified in the 4x100- and4x400-meter relays.
In women's events, freshman Marrissa Harris (Memphis, Tenn.) posted apersonal best time in the 100-meter hurdles to qualify for June'sMideast Regional after running 13.90. Junior Nicola Wilson (Trenton,N.J.) set the MSU school record in the shot put, throwing aregional-qualifying 50-01¾ at the Alabama Relays. Wilson tied the marklast week at the Texas Relays.
Named in honor of MSU's late all-Southeastern Conference decathlete andteam captain, who was killed in a 1995 automobile accident, the JaceLacoste Invitational has been held annually since 1996. Lacoste wasnamed to the SEC Academic Honor Roll from 1987-1990, president of theM-Club, State's student-athlete community service organization, astudent senator and a member of the MSU Hall of Fame. He was also amember of various other MSU organizations.
In addition, the Jace Lacoste Award is presented each year to the mostoutstanding Bulldog track and field athlete. Past recipients of theaward include: Rayton Archer (1996), Terry Day (1997), Dedric Ruffin(1998), Fred Collier (1999), Rod Newton (2000), Pierre Browne (2001,2002), Marquis Davis (2003), LaChristopher Lewis (2004) and JamelAshley (2005).