COLUMBIA, SC. — With finishes of fourth and sixth in the javelin, Curtis Thompson and Nicolas Quijera scored eight points for the Mississippi State men’s track and field team Thursday on Day 1 of the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships at the Sheila and Morris Cregger Track.
Thompson, the 2016 NCAA Champion in the javelin, tossed 73.96m to finish fourth for five points. Quijera checked at 66.98m and scored three points.
The MSU women scored seven team points on the final event. Mia Meydrich finished third with a personal-best time of 34 minutes, 32.98 seconds in the 10,000 meters. That time is the second best in program history. Shannon Fair grabbed eighth (35:23.80).
In the decathlon, JaQuarius Wilson set three personal bests and is ninth after scoring 3,662 points. Wilson’s marks in the 100 (11.25), high jump (1.93m), and 400m (51.13) were all PR’s for the senior. The decathlon will pick back up today with the 110m hurdle, discus, pole vault, javelin, and 1,500.
Zaria Tillman and Shayla Broughton are 11th and 12th, respectively, in the women’s heptathlon. Tillman accumulated 3,187 points on the day and set a personal best in the 200 (24.94). Broughton set two personal bests while scoring 3,129 points. Her marks in the 100 hurdles (13.84) and shot put (9.67m) were each career bests.
In the preliminaries of the men’s 400 hurdles, Rasheed Tatham ran a personal-best time of 51.04 and finished sixth to qualify for the final round Saturday.
Rhianwedd and Ffion Price qualified for the final round in the 800. Rhianwedd ran 2:06.26 and finished seventh, while Ffion Price ran 2:06.91 to take eighth.
“We are happy to get on the board after the first day,” MSU coach Steve Dudley said. “We have one of the best javelin groups in the country, and we expect them to do big things for us as we move into the final stretch of the season. We expected Mia and Shannon to give us a chance to score in the 10K, and they did just that. We had several people PR today, and we are excited to see the Price twins and Rasheed qualifying for Saturday’s finals. Overall, I am pleased with our performances today, and I look forward to another opportunity for our team to compete in the best league in America again tomorrow.”
Ole Miss used big throws and gutsy runs to jump out to a strong start. The No. 16 Ole Miss
women lead the meet with 15 points, while the No. 12 men are fifth with 11 points.
Junior Anna Braswell and senior Mary Alex England combined for the Rebels’ most points ever in the women’s 10,000. Braswell finished fourth (34:35.68), followed by England in fifth at 34:40.61. Together, they gave Ole Miss a nine-point boost at the end of day one.
Junior Janeah Stewart put together a strong hammer throw series in her first SEC outdoor meet, placing third with a best attempt of 206 feet. She earned the women’s team’s first six team points of the meet. She will try to add more in the shot put (today) and discus (Saturday). At this year’s indoor meet, she won the weight throw and was runner-up in the shot put.
Ole Miss scored seven points in the final men’s race. Seniors Wesley Gallagher and Ian Carter ran among the top seven lead pack for the entirety of the 25-lap 10,000, finishing fourth and seventh, respectively. Gallagher crossed in 30:43.51, while Carter clocked a lifetime-best 30:57.12.
In the final SEC competition of his career, Dempsey McGuigan placed fifth in the hammer throw (223-0) to earn the team’s first four points of the meet. Ranked No. 7 in the nation, McGuigan will look to qualify through the upcoming NCAA East Preliminary and return to the national championships for the second-straight year.
Two Rebels advanced through their prelims and earned spots in Saturday’s finals. Craig Engels began his attempt at an 800/1,500 SEC double by winning his heat of the 800 (1:51.45) to automatically qualify for the final. The 1,500 prelims will take place tonight.
Keeping up the momentum she gained with a bronze medal in the 800 meters at SEC Indoors, Maddie McHugh made it through prelims with a time of 2:05.67, second-best of 23 runners.
The meet will be streamed live on SEC Network+ at 5:25 p.m. today and at 2:10 p.m. Saturday. The meet will also air on ESPNU as part of a two-hour show at 7 p.m. May 17.
For Alabama, Alfred Chelanga and Antibahs Kosgei finished 1-2 in the men’s 10,000 and Jereem Richards blazed to the fastest preliminary time in the 200.
Chelanga (30:25.24) edged Kosgei (30:25.27) at the finish line as the two outkicked Kentucky’s Jacob Thomson in the last 400. Chelanga covered the 24th and final lap in 58.88, while Kosgei circled the track for the final time in 58.76 to pull away from the 2016 10,000 champion. Chelanga’s victory is the first for Alabama in the 10,000 meters since Tyson David won the event in 2008 and 2009.
In preliminary action, Richards posted the fastest time in the men’s 200 in a wind-aided 19.98 to advance to Saturday’s final. Richards’ time is the fastest run under any conditions in Alabama history.
In the men’s field events, senior McLean Lipschutz finished third in the men’s javelin with a throw of 243-10, the sixth-best throw in school history. The finish is the first top-three placing for Alabama in the javelin since Mats Nilsson won back-to-back titles in 1996 and 1997.
Senior Elias Hakansson started the day off for Alabama with a fourth-place finish in the men’s hammer throw with a mark of 227-4.
The performances in the 10,000 and the throws gave Alabama the lead in the men’s team race with 29 points. Georgia and Texas A&M are tied for second with 16 points. Missouri (13) and Ole Miss (11) round out the top five.
In women’s finals on Thursday, junior Danielle McConnell finished fourth in the women’s hammer throw (200-9), the fifth-best throw in school history. In the only running event final for the women Thursday, freshman Hannah Capek finished 12th in the 10,000 (35:59.40).
The Alabama women are in eighth place with five points.
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