Mississippi State’s women’s indoor track team placed ninth at the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., on Sunday. MSU’s men’s team took the most points in the conference indoor championships since the expansion of the conference before the 1992 track season. The 1991 unit picked up 30 points while tying for seventh place.
This was the most points for MSU’s women since 1997, when they finished tenth in Gainesville, Fla. The Lady Bulldogs took their highest place since 1992, when they placed eighth.
Junior Pierre Browne led the 21st-ranked Bulldogs, as he placed third in the 200 (20.76) and fourth in the 60 with a 6.68, tying his MSU indoor record mark run earlier this year in the same venue. Browne’s 200-meter time automatically qualified him for the NCAAs in two weeks.
The men got valuable points from Marquis Davis and Dion Crabbe. The senior Crabbe placed 8th in both the 60 (6.76) and 200 (21.15) meters. Davis, the sophomore from Memphis, Tenn., took fourth place in the 200 with a mark of 20.88.
The men also picked up points from a couple of freshmen in the field. J.D. Erickson took seventh in the shot put with a toss of 51-8. And in the high jump, Matthew Denton took seventh after a leap of 6-8. The men’s distance medley relay team of Jason Odom, Dale Moorhouse, Elmore McConnell and Chris Boldt took seventh with a time of 10:09.05
For the women, freshmen Tiffany McWilliams and Meggan Hodge picked up a pair of eighth places in the mile and 5000 meters, respectively.
McWilliams’ time of 4:55.04 is her fastest mark as a Lady Bulldog and the third-best time in MSU history. Hodge ran a 17:49.02 to pick up eighth in the 5000m.
The Lady Bulldogs’ distance medley relay team of Christine and Janice Zawaski, Kristin Tallent and Tiffany McWilliams took sixth place with a time of
11:58.87, the third-fastest time in MSU history.
The Arkansas men’s team took first place in the team competition with 137 points, while Florida won the women’s team competition with 147 points.
The Bulldogs who have provisionally qualified will have a chance to improve their times next weekend in Gainesville, Fla., at the Fast Times Qualifier on Thursday, Feb. 28.