STARKVILLE — Mississippi State track & field coach Steve Dudley says there are no surprises at this point.
With his team set to travel to Eugene, Oregon, for the NCAA Outdoor Championships, Dudley will carry a talented, title-hungry team to the Great Northwest, where he hopes to sneak up on teams with how good the Bulldogs can be.
“If they’re making the trip, there’s nothing surprising about how good these guys are,” said Dudley. “I hope if there are surprises, it will be that teams are shocked at how good we are.”
Scottie Hearn got his surprise out of the way early.
Hearn, a junior hurdler from Meridian, emerged as a serious contender nationally two weeks ago when he stepped into the spotlight by winning a Southeastern Conference championship in the 400-meter hurdles.
Competing in a race that he hadn’t lost this season, Hearn stepped onto the track at MSU’s Mike Sanders Track Complex as a relative unknown. Fighting through rainy, windy conditions, Hearn emerged as a conference champion.
“It was one of the best feelings of my life,” said the soft-spoken Hearn. “I just wanted to be aggressive, go out there and make a name for myself. It was a big deal for me and for my team to go out there and get it. My coaches believed in me, and it happened.”
Hearn blistered the track for a personal-best time of 49.39 in earning the win, a time that also ranks as the best 400-meter hurdles run in school history.
He earned the title by staying true to his coach’s mentality.
“It’s about being aggressive,” said Dudley. “I want us to be a vicious, savage team. I want us to go out there and attack races because that’s how you get points. Scottie is one of those guys who maybe surprised people at the SEC Championships, but it wasn’t a surprise to us.”
Hearn’s conference title was no fluke, either. Unbeaten at 3-0 during the regular season, Hearn carried over the momentum from the SEC win to the NCAA East Preliminaries last week in Jacksonville, Florida, where he finished third.
That big finish kept Hearn’s season going and qualified him for nationals, which will see him being preliminary competition on Wednesday.
If he advances to the final, that will be held Friday.
“I’m just trying to put my head down and keep running,” said Hearn. “I think, as a team, that we can go out there and really compete well, show the nation what we have going down here in Starkville.”
‘The right fit’
Truth be told, Hearn grew up rooting for another SEC team, though he won’t admit which one.
“I really had Mississippi State second on my list as a fan, but I can’t say which one was No. 1,” said Hearn with a smile. “But when it came time for me to be recruited, coach Dudley was there and he laid out the opportunity here. I saw what he was building and what Mississippi State track was all about.
“So I came up here and looked around, and I knew it was the right fit for me.
“It was a great decision.”
In addition to his individual accomplishments, Hearn is also part of MSU’s 4X400-meter relay team, a unit that finished in the top 12 at Jacksonville with a time of 3:04.45.
Other members of that relay team include junior Juwan Davis, junior Alfred Larry and junior Brandon McBride, the defending 800-meter national champion.
In Hearn, MSU landed a two-time state champion from Meridian High, a runner who says little but speaks loudly with his actions on the track.
And those actions aren’t limited to race day, as Alfred Williams, his track coach at Meridian, called Hearn “An incredible practice performer.
“He’s probably the hardest worker that I’ve coached,” said Meridian track coach Alfred Williams. “I’ve had three or four just outstanding athletes, but Scottie has natural talent and he understands that talent but he also understands that if he takes a day off he may fall back and he doesn’t want to fall back. He wants to be No. 1.”
Hearn seems to be on the right course for that to come true. Already a conference champion, Hearn has his sights set on a potential national championship.
“The only goal is to win, that’s always the goal,” said Hearn. “Of course I want to finish as high as possible and score for my team. But individually, I want to win a national championship.”
Hearn’s coaches aren’t the only observers impressed with the Meridian product.
“He really goes about his business the right way,” said McBride. “He’s a guy who loves running and works as hard as anybody we have on getting better, improving his craft. It’s easy to see why he became an SEC champion.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat
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