STARKVILLE — Erica Bougard is ready for another challenge.
The Mississippi State track and field standout has prepared all season to compete on the national stage. As she counts down the time to the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Bougard is confident her training has put her in great position to realize her goals.
“I feel like I could win, but all the best competition will be there,” Bougard said. “Hopefully I can come out on top. If not I have other events I can try to come out on top in.”
Bougard, the Southeastern Conference’s two-time champion in the heptathlon, also will compete in the high jump, the long jump, and the 100-meter hurdles at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon. On Thursday, Bougard will compete in the 100 hurdles, the high jump, shot put and 200 meters in the heptathlon. On Friday, she will compete in the long jump, javelin throw and 800 to complete the heptathlon.
Also Thursday, Bougard will run in the semifinals of the 100. If she places in the top eight, she will advance to Saturday’s final. She will compete in the long jump individual Thursday and the high jump individual Saturday.
Bougard, a senior, didn’t have any eligibility left to compete in the indoor season earlier this year, which is why MSU coach Steve Dudley feels Bougard is strong enough to compete in so many events.
“She’s fresher,” Dudley said. “She may be doing more events here at the NCAA championships than compared to last year. January all the way until the middle of June is very taxing mentally and physically.”
Bougard said she will be more relaxed with several of her teammates competing with her. Marta Freitas and Ffion Price will compete in the 1,500, while Cornelia Griesche and Antonia Hehr will compete in the 3,000 steeplechase. On the men’s side, Seth Peace will compete in the high jump, Brandon McBride in the 800, Curtis Thompson in the javelin, and Alfred Larry in the 400. McBride, Larry, Justin Waters, Rasheed Tatham, Vince Castillo, and Dustin James II will run in the 4×400 relay.
Bougard, who set the meet and MSU record with 6,250 points in the heptathlon last year at the SEC Championship at the Mike Sanders Track Complex on the campus of MSU, scored 6,170 points in the event earlier this year in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She took first in the high jump and in the 800.
Javelin has been the biggest challenge for Bougard. She started competing in the discipline as a sophomore at Byhalia High School. She said she only did it during the summer and was behind when she arrived at MSU.
“I didn’t know how to throw,” Bougard said. “It took four years. I didn’t get good at the javelin until this year. I came a long way, a lot of practice, a lot of hours, switching from coach to coach, and that probably affected me mentally. One day it just clicked.
“It just takes a lot of technique. You really have to know what you’re doing. I just watched a lot of videos and I just tired to get everything together.”
At the SEC Championship, she placed fifth in the javelin with a throw of 122 feet, 2 inches. Dudley said the javelin was an event Bougard dreaded.
“It’s an opportunity,” Dudley said. “She can’t wait to get to the javelin because she is a lot better than a lot of people in the javelin.”
At the NCAA East Preliminaries last week in Jacksonville, Florida, Bougard finished fourth in the long jump (20-9 1/4), tied for 10th in the high jump (5-10 3/4), and finished 10th in the 100 hurdles (13.04).
After the NCAA Championships, Bougard hopes to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in August. The Olympic trials are next week.
Although she is ready for the challenge, Bougard is trying not to put too much pressure on herself this week. Dudley feels like she is more than capable of having a good showing.
“The best of Erica’s still out there,” Dudley said. “There’s no doubt in my mind. I feel like she feels that way as well, and I know this team knows it.”
n In related news, McBride, a senior All-American, was named Monday to the Pre-NCAA Outdoor Championships Bowerman Award Watch List.
This award is presented annually to the top collegiate tack and field male and female athletes of the year, and McBride finds himself on this list for the second-straight season.
He’s one of 10 finalists and joins three other SEC student-athletes in Arkansas’ Jarrion Lawson, LSU’s Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and Texas A&M’s Lindon Victor.
“It’s such an honor to be on this list with so many great athletes,” said the senior from Windsor, Ontario, who has also been tabbed the USTFCCCA South Region Men’s Track Athlete of the Year. “I just hope I can go out in style this week in Oregon.”
McBride, who won the 800 at the SECs and NCAA East Prelims in May, turned heads in April when he posted the third-fastest time in collegiate history at 1:44.63 during the Jace LaCoste Invitational.
“Words can’t describe how very proud I am of everything Brandon has accomplished,” Dudley said. “He’s a team leader on and off the track.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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