After leading at the end of day one and standing fourth after two days, MSU women’s indoor track and field team placed ninth at the SEC Indoor Championships, scoring the second highest total in school history at 28 points.
Tennessee won the women’s title with 111 points. LSU and Arkansas rounded out the top three with 105 and 97 points, respectively.
“We had a great meet overall,” head coach Al Schmidt said. “I think with the youth on this team we performed very well and beat some big-time performers finishing ahead of Alabama, Georgia and Vanderbilt.”
Senior Marrissa Harris began her last SEC Indoor Championship with a second-place overall finish in the women’s pentathlon Friday night. Harris finished first in the pentathlon 60-meter hurdles, running 8.39 seconds. She also scored a season best 3,945 points in the event to provisionally qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships for the second time this season.
“[Harris] is golden,” Schmidt said. “We really can’t ask for anything else from her this weekend.”
Harris led the pentathlon through the first four events, but was bested by Kentucky senior Ashley Trimble. Trimble jumped from fifth place to first with an 800-meter time of 2:14.72, which gave her 897 points and a five-event total of 3,991 points.
Harris placed fifth with a personal best in the pentathlon 800 with a time of 2:27.25 scored. The 728 points she received was not enough to maintain the lead overall.
Harris was positive about the weekend, though.
“Of course, I did not win the pentathlon, but I did score as many points as I could for my team,” she said. “It was a pretty good close to my indoor season.”
Junior LaQuinta Aaron followed Harris, finishing in fourth place with a personal best score of 3,917 points. Aaron also provisionally qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championship in the pentathlon, setting a personal best in four of the five events.
Also competing in the pentathlon for the Lady Bulldogs was junior Bridgett Rose, who scored 2,511 points to finish in 17th place.
“[Aaron] having a personal-record in the pentathlon, and provisionally qualifying was really special,” Schmidt added.
Harris broke her own 60-meter hurdle record for the second time this season, posting a time of 8.27 seconds to finish with the second-fastest run going into Sunday’s final. Also in the 60-meter hurdle preliminaries, Aaron ran 8.66 seconds to finish 12th.
Standout Harris completed her SEC Championship with a fifth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles final. Harris ran another NCAA provisionally qualifying time of 8.41 seconds in the event.
“[Harris], as always, had a wonderful weekend for us,” Schmidt said. “She scored eight points alone which is really big.”
Junior Wendy Copeland, of Tupelo, matched a personal-best jump of 39 feet, 7 inches in the triple jump to take seventh place. Also, senior Trumesa Banks threw a personal best 41-01 in the shot put to finish in 19th place. Freshman Favian Cowards threw a personal best 40-03.50 to finish 20th.
“Wendy really came through for us this weekend,” Schmidt added. “She had a really big weekend in the jumps.”
Copeland jumped 19-08 1/4 in the long jump to finish in sixth place. Also, senior Priscilla Gaines jumped an indoor personal best 19-06 to take seventh in the event.
“The highlight was that more people scored this year than last year,” Aaron said. “I think everybody stepped up.”
All Lady Bulldogs who finished in the top eight this weekend earned Indoor All-SEC honors.
Mississippi State women’s track and field team was in fourth place after two days of competition at the SEC Indoor Championships. After the first night of competition, MSU was tied for first with Kentucky.
The amount of depth MSU had at the meet was a factor, but that makes the team’s accomplishments that much more impressive, Harris said.
“We [MSU] are spread thin, so after a couple of events we are tired,” she said. “We cannot go to anyone else, but [the top schools] are known for their depth.”
Aaron said she enjoys the competition of the meet.
“I love going to a track meet and having good competition because it pushes you more, as opposed to a track meet that does not push you enough,” she said.
The women travel to Jacksonville, Fla., on March 7, for the Last Chance Meet to have one more shot at qualifying for the NCAA Indoor Championships.