The Mississippi State women’s track and field team took first place in the Distance Medley Relay at the 77th annual Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays. MSU set a school record along with a Mike A. Myers Stadium and meet record.
Running the record-breaking time of 11:10.06, Jennifer McPherson, Nicole Dunn, Zita Magloire and Tiffany McWilliams smashed its former record of 11:21.10 from a year ago.
“In the women’s distance medley relay, we beat the second ranked team in the nation, UCLA,” said head coach Al Schmidt. “McPherson put in a lot of effort and took the lead for us and did great; it was just an excellent performance.”
“We raced as hard as we could; all of us are really happy with the time we turned in,” McPherson said. “Coach is happy with it and that’s what matters, so we are definitely happy with it.”
MSU’s Sprint Medley Relay team of Lauren Johnson, Kia James, Dunn and McWilliams finished with a third-place time of 3:52.14.
With a measure of 150-8 in the discus, Christina Averitt finished sixth for the team and Christina Herdandez set a career best mark.
Lauren Johnson took 10th place in the heptathlon with a total of 4,742 points. She finished the 100m hurdles in fifth (14.46), third in the 200m dash (25.43), eighth in the 800m run (2:26.99) and tied at 17th in the high jump (4-11).
Receiving an illegal, wind-aided mark, Johnson leaped to 17-3 in the long jump and placed 10th. In the shot put she finished 12th (33-11) and set a career-best mark in the javelin (92-6) for 13th place.
In the men’s competition, the 4x200m relay team of LaChristopher Lewis, Jamel Ashley, Arthur Davis and Glenn McFadden finished on top with a time of 1:22.95 that set a regional qualifying mark. The 4x100m relay-team of Eliott Morant, Ashley, Davis and Lewis also earned a place at regionals with a time of 39.74, placing fifth.
“We had several injuries going into the race, so I felt pretty unsure about how we were going to do,” said Ashley. “We surprised ourselves and came out pretty good.”
In the 4x400m relay, Ashley, Lewis, Davis and Morant earned regional honors with a 3:09.14 finish and eighth place. Lewis, Ashley, Davis and Elmore McConnell placed seventh (3:19.88). Also finishing in seventh, Odom, Marlin, Moor, Fier competed in the 4x1500m relay and finished with a time of 16:19.60.
Setting a career best mark, Travis McKay placed eighth in the 3000m Steeplechase in 9:13.90. Gedamu Ege placed 10th in the 500m run and set a career best (15:03.79). Heaving the hammer, Matt Holcomb set a regional qualifying mark with a measure of 192-8. Matt Denton cleared 6-8 for a ninth place finish in the high jump.
Trey Hardee delivered a career best total of 7,746 points to earn second place in the decathlon to receive an NCAA qualifying mark. He took top honors in the 100m dash (10.58), second and a career high in the 110m hurdles (14.42), third in the 400m dash (49.39) and seventh in the 1500m run (4:42.61) and the high jump (6-4) also. Both were career bests.
In the pole vault, Hardee set a regional qualifying mark with 16-4 and tied for third. In the long jump, he finished fifth (22-8) and he tied for ninth to set a career high in the shot put (40-11). In the discus he earned fourth place (138-3) and took 11th in the javelin (157-4).
“This was a great meet for us,” Schmidt said. “You see a lot of great universities that never win anything here, and for years our team has.”
State will host its next showing, the Jace Lacoste Invitational, at the W.O. Spencer Stadium and Carl Maddox Track Saturday, April 10.