Jennifer McPhearson and the Mississippi State University women’s indoor track and field squad are gearing up for the upcoming 2005 Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships.
The event is scheduled to be held Feb. 25-27 in Fayetteville, Ark., at the Randal Tyson Indoor Track Complex at the University of Arkansas.
“The SEC indoors is an important competition,” said McPhearson, a junior from Nampa, Idaho. “If you can do well at the SECs, you can do well at nationals.”
McPhearson recently moved up to No. 5 on the Trackwire Dandy Dozen list in the mile run, tops in the SEC.
She can add this to her growing list of accomplishments this season, which also include a second-place finish at the Boston Terrier Classic and victories in the 800-meter run and mile run at the Clemson Invitational.
In the Boston Terrier Classic on Jan. 29, McPhearson ran a personal-best of 4:42.79 in the mile.
In the SEC Indoor Championships, McPhearson is scheduled to run in the mile against Erica Sigmont of Arkansas.
Sigmont is ranked No. 11 in the country, second behind McPhearson. The two were scheduled to meet at the Tyson Invitational, but due to an Achilles injury, McPhearson withdrew, building the anticipation of this matchup.
McPhearson, however, is only thinking about what she has to do.
“You just have to focus on your own race and do what Coach wants,” said McPhearson. “You can’t really think about the other competition.”
McPhearson also said her Achilles “feels good,” and that, hopefully, the feeling will carry over through the weekend.
Mississippi State has never won an indoors conference championship, although the Lady Bulldogs have three individual conference titles. Tiffany McWilliams has won the indoor mile back-to-back years (2003, 2004), and the distance medley relay team, comprised of McPhearson, McWilliams, Zita Magloire and Nicole Dunn won in 2003.