KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Rhianwedd Price-Weimer was in third place entering the final 200 meters, but she surged through the turn to win the 1,500 Sunday at the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Price-Weimer, the SEC champion and NCAA leader, led the down the homestretch to win in a time of 4 minutes, 18.79 seconds. The victory helped her add a conference title to her 2015 NCAA crown in the event.
“I don’t really know what happened, but I think maybe it was a mental thing where I was dying,” Price-Weimer said. “I knew with 150 meters to go that we’ve done a lot of pace change work at 150. I knew I needed to dig in and go now.”
Price-Weimer capped her night with a fifth-place finish and four more points in the 5,000. In her first collegiate 5000 on the oval, she clocked a 16:42.36.
Price-Weimer’s finishes helped the MSU women finish 12th with 30 points.
No. 9 Florida edged No. 1 LSU 91-88.5 to win the women’s title. No. 23 Ole Miss finished fifth (74 points) and No. 17 Alabama was ninth (53.5).
n On Saturday, Price-Weimer turned in the fastest qualifying time in the 1,500.
Alicia Viveros added to her freshman record, bumping her personal best in the shot put up to 14.41m (47 feet, 3 ½ inches). In the long jump, Alexis Farley advanced to finals with a personal-best jump of 6.16m (20-2 1/2).
n Ole Miss’ fifth-place finish was its highest at the SEC meet. It topped the sixth-place finish in 2008.
“I am really proud of our women,” Ole Miss coach Connie Price-Smith said. “They came out and did a great job. They were going after wins and points, and I’m just extremely proud of how they got out there and competed.”
Three Rebel women earned bronze medals, including the third medal of the weekend from Janeah Stewart. The senior All-American won her third-straight Commissioner’s Trophy, which is awarded to the meet’s top scorer.
“She is one of the quiet leaders,” Price-Smith said. “She doesn’t always say a lot, but she leads by example. She gets in there and she takes care of business. Despite her hand injury and some bad luck, she refused to lose, and that’s just the kind of attitude that you have to have. She’s been like that since she’s been here. I’m really proud of what she has done here, and the way that she has done it.”
Stewart finished third in the discus with a six-inch season-best 54.91m (180-2). She ended the weekend with 24 points to win the Commissioner’s Trophy, the most by an SEC woman since Florida’s Genevieve LaCaze tallied 30 in 2012.
Freshman Shey Taiwo was eighth with an eight-foot PR of 48.72m (159-10).
Senior Lindsey Murray, who missed the 2017 outdoor season due to injury, finished third in the pole vault with a school-record 4.35m (14-3 1/4).
Junior Maddie McHugh finished third in the 800 (season-best 2:05.54) for the second-straight conference meet.
Shelby Brown was sixth (16:43.51) and Clio Ozanne-Jaques was seventh (16:45.67) in the 5K.
n On Saturday, Shelby Brown became the first Ole Miss woman to win the steeplechase with a time of 10:05.58.
Brown took the lead for good over the second-to-last water barrier, as she got stronger as the race went on and held off Kentucky’s Katy Kunc, the reigning champion.
Ole Miss freshman Lisa Vogelgesang chased down Kunc in the final 100 meters to finish second (16-second PR of 10:06).
Senior Hannah Christen finished sixth (four-second PR of 10:27.30).
Earlier in the day, Stewart earned her first SEC Outdoor gold medal with a four-inch PR of 17.97m (58-11 1/2) to win the shot put.
Sophomore Kieshonna Brooks set a new personal best in five of the seven events en route to a historic performance in the heptathlon. Brooks finished fifth at a new career-best score of 5,338 points.
n For Alabama, freshman Tamara Clark finished third in the 100 in a school-record time of 11.02.
The High Point, North Carolina, native added another bronze medal to her day with a third-place finish in the 200 an hour later. Clark posted a personal best of 22.65.
Junior Portious Warren finished fourth in the discus with a personal best throw of 171-9 (52.35). Alabama’s 4×100 relay of freshmen Daija Lampkin, Clark, sophomore Symone Darius and freshman Demi Washington finished fourth in 43.27.
Junior Nicole Gardner finished eighth in the 1,500 (4:29.91). Senior Britainy Smith tied for seventh in the pole vault with a clearance of 13-3 ½ (4.05m). Senior Kaitlin Walker finished fifth in the 400 hurdles in 58.28, the ninth-fastest time in school history.
The 4×400 relay of Lampkin, Darius and sophomores Katie Funcheon and Takyera Roberson capped the day for the women with a sixth-place finish in 3:29.71.
n On Saturday, junior Portious Warren set a school record in the shot put with an effort of 56-11 ¼ (17.35m) on her final attempt of the competition.
Junior Kiara Williams finished seventh with a personal- and Alabama-season best leap of 20-10 (6.36m).
Senior Filippa Fotopoulou finished eighth at 20-4 ¼ (6.20m).
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