The Mississippi State track & field squad honored a former Bulldog with huge wins Friday and Saturday at the Jace Lacoste Invitational. The Invitational, which took place at the Carl Maddox Track Complex, is the annual memorial to former MSU track star Jace Lacoste.
Friday’s events started with weather conditions that forced a four-hour delay in action. Once action resumed, the Bulldogs claimed victory in two of the four events. In the women’s 5000m, freshman Katie Hutson took first for the Bulldogs. Hutson posted a time of 17:49.80 in the victory, ahead of teammate Dominique Lockart, who captured fourth place (19:11.60).
Clinching win number four for the Bulldogs was Ed Wesela, who won the discus (166-09).
Other action also took place outside of the invitational. Bulldogs Haley Greenwell and Adam Lentz competed in the 53rd Annual Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif. Greenwell placed seventh in distance, her personal best. Her time of 34:04.18 put her on the MSU All-Time List.
Saturday proved to be an even better day for the Bulldogs as they won 14 events and set 10 personal records. Head coach Steve Dudley said he was pleased with the individual efforts he saw on Saturday.
“I feel we had some good individual performances today,” Dudley said. “Overall, as a team, we were coming off the emotions from the Texas Relays, but the individual performances made up for that.”
For the Lady Bulldogs, sophomore distance runner Chloe Phillips claimed wins in both the 800m and 1500m. In the 1500m, she posted a time of 4:37.37, while posting a 2:19.12 mark in the 800m.
Other Lady Bulldogs with victories were Keisha Wallace (100m hurdles) and Kallie Dalton (3000m steeplechase).
Sophomore sprinter Tavaris Tate placed first in the 400m dash. Tate also anchored both the 4x100m and 4x400m relay, placing in first place, as well.
“Considering it was a small meet, we still came out with our heads on straight to run the way we are supposed to,” Tate said. “Today we did good.”
The next few events will be tougher for the Bulldogs as they travel to face a high-ranked Ole Miss squad, followed by the historic Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Pa.
“We still have a few kids who need to get qualified, and not only for NCAA play, but for the Penn Relays, as well,” Dudley said. “So going into the Ole Miss game and winning will be their shot to get that qualification in.”
Even though he has not been facing the toughest competition, Tate said he has still been training hard and will be prepared for the tougher competion in the next few weeks.
“I have been having hard practice sessions before this week,” Tate said. “So the same thing going into this week; you train hard and go for it.”
The Bulldogs will play in Oxford at the Ole Miss Invitational on April 23, an all-day event. They will then compete in the Penn Relays beginning April 28 and ending on April 30.