Junior Nicola Wilson set a new MSU women’s indoor track and field school record, and four Lady Bulldogs left the Bayou Bengal Invitational Friday evening with first-place finishes.
Wilson took top billing in the shot put with a distance of 48-00 3/4.
Freshman Emily Sanders recorded a season-best 51-05 1/2 in the 20-lb. weight throw, only a week removed from making her way onto the all-time superlatives list in the same event. Junior Christina Hernandez finished fourth with a throw of 47-09 3/4, also a season-best.
Juniors Mina Thorstenson and Liz Grube dominated the field in the mile run, finishing 1-2 with runs of 5:06.77 and 5:08.09. Sophomore Annie Falor ran 10:16.19 and finished as the top collegiate participant (second overall). Junior Joy Griffith placed seventh in 10:31.79.
Freshman Dot Youmans cleared 5-06 en route to a first-place finish in the high jump. Senior Jasmine Walls took seventh (5-04 1/2).
Three Lady Bulldogs, including Wilson, were among the top 10 finishers in the shot put. Hernandez posted another personal-best on the day with 43-03 in a fourth-place effort, while Sanders was eighth.
In track events, freshman Gabrielle Dillion improved on her time in the 60-meter dash, running 7.70 in the preliminaries. Dillion finished 12th in the event finals, running 7.71.
Sophomore Natalie Neely matched her personal-best in the pole vault with a clearing of 10-04. Senior Lauren Johnson recorded a season-best 18-01 in the long jump and finished eighth. Also in the long jump, sophomore Alexandra Rozefort leaped 17-08 to set a new personal record.
State sophomore Andrea Wahlin finished second in the 800-meter run (2:17.96). Running the sixth-best qualifying time in the 60-meter hurdles, freshman Marrissa Harris advanced to finish fifth in the finals by running 8.96.
Next up for The Lady Bulldogs is the Tyson Invitational, to be held Feb. 10-11 in Fayetteville, Ark.
Terrier Classic
State seniors Jennifer McPherson, Meggan Hodge and Zita Magloire all came away with top 10 finishes in the mile run at the Boston University-hosted Terrier Classic on Saturday.
“Meggan had a great first half of her race. It’s encouraging to see her run like that since she’s been working on rebuilding her career after that devastating injury,” said long-time MSU head coach Al Schmidt. “Zita ran the mile to try to get some speed since she’ll be running some longer distance events at the Tyson Invitational. This was Jen’s first real race in almost a year.”
McPherson ran the mile in a season-best 4:55.51 and finished sixth overall (fifth collegiately). Magloire crossed the line in a personal-record 4:57.75, placing ninth (sixth collegiately).
Hodge, who has come back strong from a 2004 back injury, also clocked in at 17:57.23 in the 5,000-meter run, finishing 30th overall (22nd collegiately).