Lady Bulldog senior Marrissa Harris set a new school record Saturday in the 60-meter hurdles at the Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.
Harris broke her own 2008 record Saturday and earned an NCAA qualifying mark with a time of 8.29 seconds at the Randal Tyson Track Center.
“The highlight of the day was the school record Harris broke in the 60-meter hurdles,” said Coach Al Schmidt. “Not only did she set a school record, but she won the 60-meter hurdles as well.”
Harris, of Memphis, Tenn., said she feels happy about how well she ran, but she knows many more meets will come.
“I felt like I exceeded expectations, but it was more or less about getting a good mark at my first meet,” Harris said.
With the provisional qualification, Harris said the goal is to take this good time and do well in her bigger focus, the pentathlon. A provisional qualifying mark is set by the NCAA for an at-large bid to the NCAA championships.
“I’m not going to say it’s not a big deal, but it helps my confidence more for hurdling well in the pentathlon,” Harris said.
Harris’ first pentathlon of the year is Saturday. She said does not want to set unreachable goals, but she is hopeful for a good performance.
“I just want to go out there and get a good mark,” Harris said. “I can’t really go out there and set high standards, then get disappointed.”
Schmidt said Harris, junior Wendy Copeland, sophomore Simone Domingue and freshman Loren Bruce stood out from the team at the meet.
“We are very pleased with how Harris, Copeland, Domingue and Bruce performed,” Schmidt said. “The younger kids had some difficulty, which was expected but the older ones did exceptionally well.”
Copeland finished fifth in the long jump with a mark of 5.87 meters. Oklahoma’s Tianca Mock placed first at 6.39 meters.
Domingue and Bruce competed in the 5,000 meter run. Domingue finished third with a time of 17 minutes 52 seconds. Bruce finished at a time of 18 minutes 43 seconds. First place honors went to Kimi Shank of Missouri Southern at a time of 17 minutes 2 seconds.
The Lady Bulldogs return to action at the New Mexico Multis and Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M., Jan. 30.