McPherson, Woods, 4x4 Head To Sacramento For NCAA Championships
When you come out here, you're looking to win a team title and becomean all-American, said MSU head coach Al Schmidt. Our (4x4) relay istrying to win a championship. We're right there in the hunt. We may canscore with them and Chris and finish top 20. Jen's doing well, too.
Woods will be the first MSU athlete to take to the track in the men's800 preliminaries at 5:55 p.m. CT on Wed., June 7. The following day,McPherson runs in the women's 1500-meter run prelims at 8 p.m. CT,with the men's 4x4 set for a 8:55 p.m. CT start. Woods' semifinal, should he advance, is at 6:05 p.m. CT.
McPherson enters the national meet having received an at-large bid tojoin the 28-person field in the women's 1500-meter run. At the MideastRegional, McPherson ran 4:27.18 in the final to finish eighth overalland at the Southeastern Conference Championships, also finished eighth(4:31.24). Her top time came at the Auburn Invitational on April 22.There, she posted the second-best time in the conference this season,winning the meet title in 4:22.26. In addition to the win at Auburn,McPherson won the Jace Lacoste Invitational title on April 15 (4:28.11).
Woods' top time of 1:48.90 ranks second overall in the SEC this yearand brought a win for the all-American at the Bulldog Invitational onApril 1. His second-best time -- 1:48.94 -- came at the AuburnInvitational. Woods automatically qualified for the national meet,having posted the fifth-best qualifying time in the 800 (1:49.91) andtaking fifth in the final at the Mideast Regional (1:49.14). Afterrunning 1:51.19 in the preliminaries of the SEC meet, Woods was unableto compete in the final due to injury.
State's 4x400-meter relay team features a quartet of juniors in BruceDavis (Phenix City, Ala.), Ezra Jones (Wildwood, Fla.), Arthur Davis(Mobile, Ala.) and Nathan Daniels (New Iberia, La.). The team ran animpressive 3:03.09 to take third in the Mideast Regional final. Thetime is the third-best in the NCAA this season and third-best in MSUschool history.
Should McPherson, Woods or the 4x4 qualify for the event finals, thoseare scheduled for Sat., June 10 at 3:52 p.m. CT, 2:15 p.m. CT and 4:45p.m. CT, respectively. CBS Sports will broadcast two hours of livecoverage from Sacramento beginning at 2:30 p.m. CT on Saturday.