MSU Track And Field Set For SEC Championships At New Arkansas Facility
STARKVILLE, Miss. ?€“ Following a week off for final exams, theMississippi State University track and field squads return to actionbeginning Thursday at the 2006 Southeastern Conference Outdoor Trackand Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. The event runs throughSunday afternoon at the newly constructed John McDonnell Field on theUniversity of Arkansas campus.
We go into this meet every year knowing this is the best track andfield conference in the country. SECs are usually a better meet thannationals, said MSU head coach Al Schmidt. It's going to be a greatevent. Arkansas has a new facility, and we're looking forward to seeinghow some of our kids will perform. We've got a good shot on both sidesto do something big. This is the best women's team we've had in a while.
We can't put any pressure on these athletes. We're going to do wellwith some of the athletes we have competing. Our guys are going to dowell, and our women are in real good shape.
As the nation's premier track and field conference, this weekend's meetis expected to showcase some of the nation's ?€“ and world's -- besttalent. A combined 10 teams from the conference's 12 schools are rankedin the latest installment of the Trackwire 25. The LSU men's team isthird in the country, while the Tigers' women's squad is eighth. Alsoon the women's side, Georgia is in a tie for fourth place with Auburn(seventh), South Carolina (ninth) and Tennessee (16th) finishing outthe spots. Host Arkansas is sixth on the men's side with Tennessee justone slot behind the Razorbacks in seventh. Florida is fourth men's teamto rank in the top 10, placing 10th this week. South Carolina is tiedfor 23rd.
Previously this season, the Lady Bulldogs have met 11 regionalqualifying marks, while the men's squad has 22 marks.
Junior Joy Griffith (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) broke the women's 3000-metersteeplechase record at the Penn Relays, finishing 10th in 10:35.31. Atthe MSU-hosted Jace Lacoste Invitational on April 15, senior JasmineWalls (Picayune, Miss.) cleared a school-record 5 feet,10-and-three-quarters inches in the high jump. Junior Nicola Wilson(Trenton, N.J.) has twice set the school record in the shot put thisseason, throwing 50-01 3/4 on two occasions.
In relay events, junior Jen McPherson (Nampa, Idaho), sophomore AndreaWahlin (Cold Spring, Minn.), junior Liz Grube (Sherwood, Wis.) andsenior Zita Magloire (Tallahassee, Fla.) ran 8:47.84 in a second-placefinish in the 4x800-meter relay at the Texas Relays to set a new schoolrecord in the event. At the Penn Relays, McPherson, Griffith, Magloireand sophomore Annie Falor (Flagstaff, Ariz.) ran 18:09.43 to set thetop mark in the 4x1500-meter relay.
In men's action, the lone school record set this season was by TravisMcKay, who ran 8:26.51 in the 3000-meter run at the BulldogInvitational on April 1.
For MSU last season, LaChristopher Lewis captured the men's long jumptitle, leaping 25-01 1/4 and Steve Mullings won the 100-meter dashtitle, setting a new Vanderbilt track record with his 10.15 winningtime. The Bulldogs went on to finish seventh, while the Lady Bulldogsaccumulated 12 points to finish in a tie for 11th with Vanderbilt.
Mississippi State's lone SEC championship came during the 1962 seasonwhen the men's squad won the team title in Baton Rouge, La.