As the 2002 track and field season opens up with its indoor schedule, expectations are high for the MSU men’s team. ‘National Champions’ is a term you will hear a lot when talking with coaches and athletes. That’s how good this team is. While a lot of people are focused on basketball and baseball this spring, head coach Al Schmidt and his squad are quietly putting together a very solid contender on the national level.
“We have big goals, we want to try to compete for the national championship in men’s track and field. Right now we’re ranked eighth and we think we’re a little better than that,” Schmidt said. “The power we have is in the sprints and we have good young athletes in other events. We feel really strongly about our chance to vie for that championship both indoor and outdoor.”
Members of the team have high standards as well as their coach. The core of the sprinters is senior Pierre Browne, who recently tied his own school record in the 60 meter run at the SEC West Challenge indoor meet. Browne returns for his final season to lead a squad of solid speedsters, who could be the best in the country.
“I want to win the NCAA’s in both the 60 and the 200. I think we are better than eighth right now because we have about five or six guys that can qualify for nationals,” Browne said. “This team has made a lot of change and really developed into a unit over the past few years. I think we have a good chance of winning the championship.”
Senior Dion Crabbe joins Browne, along with senior Kelvin Harris, junior Marquis Davis and sophomores LaChristopher Lewis and Glenn McFadden. Senior Chris Boldt will be the main competitor in the distance events. Harris, Davis and McFadden have joined Browne to already qualify for the NCAA indoor championships. Harris said, “With our work ethic I think it’s possible for us to win. This is my fourth year here and our team has changed so much. This past meet we had devotion, and that got everybody on one accord heading for the same goal.”
“I think we’re the best sprint group in the country right now,” Schmidt said. “We just need a little help in a couple of other areas and we have a good chance to compete.”
The MSU women’s team is perhaps at the other end of the spectrum from the men. While the men are experience laden and lead by the sprinters, the women are young and deep in the distance groups. Tiffany McWilliams, only a sophomore, broke the school mile record by 12 seconds at the SEC West Challenge, and has provisionally qualified for the national meet.
“I think McWilliams is the cornerstone right now. We have another good sophomore runner in Meggan Hodge and those two can lead us to the top 15 this year in the nation,” Schmidt said. “Kesha Barnaby-Pope is right there as well. I think in the future we are just going to be better and better; right now we just want to dominate in the distance events and get some contributions in other areas.”
Coach Schmidt has done a terrific job of building this program over the past few years, and with the talent he has for this year’s squad, MSU’s first national championship team could come on the track. The indoor National Championships are March 14 and 15, while the outdoor season gets started March 22 in Starkville at the SEC Quadrangular Meet.