MSU track and field blazed past the competition to win four events at two different locations over the weekend. The majority of the team went to the Alabama Relays in Tuscaloosa, Ala., Thursday through Sunday, while four distance runners went to the Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif. on Friday.
At Stanford, senior Robert Scribner broke a 23-year-old school record Friday in the 10,000-meter run. Scribner ran 29 minutes 7.06 seconds to shatter the record set by Gerry Thome running 29:47.82 in 1986.
Head coach Al Schmidt said Scribner’s performance was easily the best performance of the weekend.
“That was a great 10,000 meters,” Schmidt said.
Scribner said he went to Stanford to run against great competition and place well, but had no idea it would come so simply.
“I impressed even myself,” Scribner said.
His time placed him in great position to return to the NCAA championships again.
“[Scribner] is definitely in the top 15 or 20 in the country, so that is quite an accomplishment,” Schmidt said.
His ability to finish more strongly and efficiently in the second half of the race is what Scribner attributed to the regional qualifying.
“I knew I was more fit than [my previous bests in the 5K], but in this race I set a personal best in the second half of the 10 K,” he said. “I cannot say effortless because it was hard, but it came a lot more smoothly, and I gained confidence throughout the race.”
Also at Stanford, sophomore Matt Cameron ran 3:45.01 in the 1,500-meter to move into second place in the MSU record books and also gathered another regional qualifying mark.
At the Alabama Relays, the Lady Bulldog distance medley relay team, consisting of freshman Dominique Lockhart, junior Crystal Wilson and freshmen Chelsea Rae Smyth and Anais Dechamps, won with a time of 12:05.46.
Schmidt said he thought the team ran evenly and each runner did what they were called to do, but Dechamps gave a little extra at the end to seal the win.
“[Dechamps] had a great kick in the last 200 meters to put it away actually,” he said. “I think she did her last 400 right around 67 or 68 seconds, so she put UAB and Ole Miss away with the last 400-meter sprint.”
In the multi-events, senior Marrissa Harris and junior LaQuinta Aaron both qualified for regionals in the heptathlon, coming in first and third, respectively. The two led the Lady Bulldogs again, and Harris marked 5,397 points and Aaron 5,163 points.
Senior Darryl Brady closed Friday out with a victory in the decathlon with 6,544 points.
“[Brady] is definitely one of the best multi-athletes in the conference, so he has been no surprise,” Schmidt said.
Junior Emanuel Mayers came in second place in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 52.18.
“[Mayers] did great, and he qualified for NCAA regionals with the 400 hurdles,” Schmidt said.
Mayers said he relied on his past experiences from juniors to carry him through the hurdles event, even though he has not trained much for it. He said he feels confident he can win the race in the future.
“I thought as long as I had a clean race that I would qualify for regionals,” he said. “I am not worried about coming in second because [Ole Miss’s Lee Moore] has run three or four times this season, and that was only my first time running.”
The relay team was another story all together. Associate head coach Steve Dudley said he was not pleased with his relay teams one bit.
“Our relay teams are not very good right now,” Dudley said. “We have got a lot of work and growing up to do.”
Dudley said he was disappointed in the relay teams because they could not field a 4 x 400 meter relay team since not enough men would run the race. Also, losing to rival Alabama in the 4 x 100 did not sit well with the coach either.
Mayers said some of the sprinters have not been performing in the classroom and that might be affecting the team for training and meets.
Dudley said the team was not performing in training, at meets or in the classroom. He said he felt that some of the athletes are not ready for college athletics.
“You come to college, then you should be ready for college,” Dudley said. “If you are not ready for college, then you need to go back home.”
Mayers echoed Dudley’s opinion that some of the men are not ready for college, but Mayers said he was the same way.
“Actually, there are a few that are not ready,” he said. “When I got here as a freshman, I was not ready 100 percent, but by the second semester in the spring, things turned around.”
The team seems to expect things to be handed to them, Dudley said. He said he feels his athletes should put more work ethic and mental preparation into training and schoolwork to become top performers.
“Ain’t nothing in this world is for free,” he said. “You get out of it what you put into it.”
Mayers said he thinks the team can rebound from low grades.
“We started the season off pretty bad [academically], for a Mississippi State track team, but we have some time to turn it around,” he said.
With the Texas Relays this weekend, the team has a chance to compete against some of the best teams in the country. Dudley said he has challenged his team to come ready to do its best.
“[The team has] got plenty of opportunity to step up this weekend and show what they are made of,” he said.
The track and field squad returns to action Wednesday in Austin, Texas at the 2009 Texas Relays.