Mississippi State’s indoor track teams both placed fifth Friday in the SEC Regional in Fayetteville, Ark. The Bulldogs finished with 91.5 points, 1.5 points behind rival Mississippi and just 14.5 points behind 4th-ranked Louisiana State University. The Lady Bulldogs amassed 81 points to place fifth. Alabama claimed the crown on the men’s side, while host Arkansas took the title on the women’s.
“We are really happy as a staff and as a team about today’s results,” MSU assistant coach Steve Dudley said. “We had a great team effort that brought a number of personal records today.”
MSU was led on the men’s side by a pair of NCAA qualifiers. Junior Pierre Browne placed first and provisionally qualified in both the 60 (6.68) and 200 (20.86) meters. Sophomore Marquis Davis added the 200-meter dash (21.00) to the events he’s provisionally qualified for at the NCAA Indoor Championships, after qualifying in the 60m last week in Carbondale, Ill. Davis placed third in the 200m and fourth in the 60m (6.75).
Junior Kelvin Harris placed third in the 60-meter high hurdles with a time of 7.92, just .02 away from a provisional qualifying mark. Junior Kevin Pittman placed second in the pole vault (15-1), while MSU senior throwers Tim Huddleston and Viktor Mara had their best day ever. Huddleston recorded personal-bests in the shot put (51-5 1/2) and the weight throw (56-10 3/4) en route to placing fourth in both. Mara took third in the weight throw with his career-best toss of 57 feet.
On the women’s side, LeKisha Barnaby-Pope claimed fourth in the 60-meter hurdles with a personal-best 8.61 mark. The Lady Bulldogs also had a good showing in the distance events, with freshman Meggan Hodge and junior Christine Zawaski, placing second (10:07.35) and fourth (10:14.75) in the 3000 meters, respectively. Senior Ronni Watjus placed fourth (18:41.68) in the 5000 meters, with freshman Cassie Hanan crossing the line fourth with a time of 19:25.38.
The Lady Bulldogs’ distance medley relay team took another first-place finish with a time of 12:06.76. In the women’s mile, freshman Tiffany McWilliams finished fourth (5:03.60) with Hodge taking sixth (5:05.12).
MSU will travel to the University of Florida on Feb. 10.