TAMPA, Fla. — The Mississippi State, Ole Miss, and Alabama track and field teams will begin competition Thursday at the NCAA East Region Preliminary Round Championships.
Weather already has forced a schedule change. MSU athletes will now kick off the first round of the track and field postseason at 11:30 a.m. rather than at 3:30 p.m. as originally scheduled.
Twenty-three Bulldogs are on the South Florida campus for the meet. MSU athletes will compete in 15 individual events along with three relays.
“Times don’t matter anymore, which is good because the weather could make it hard to get very impressive times,” MSU coach Steve Dudley said. “It just comes down to who you can beat on the track.”
MSU is tied for 12th in the nation with 17 men’s entries. The Bulldogs boast the most athletes in the men’s 400-meter hurdles (four) in the East region and are second only to Texas A&M (five) in the nation. The two school are tied with a nation-best six male athletes across the 110 and 400 hurdles.
The Bulldogs are one of five SEC teams that qualified for the men’s and women’s 4×400 relay. Only 25 schools across the nation achieved that feat.
Seniors Juston Waters and Ro’Derick Spears are expected to play a part on at least one relay team in addition to the 110 hurdles for Spears and 400 for Waters.
Alexis Farley will compete in the long and triple jumps. Karson Kowalchuk will run the 100 and 200.
Online live streaming of the East Prelims is available through FloTrack with a subscription.
The NCAA is divided into east and west qualifying regions. The top 48 individuals and the top 24 relays in each will be accepted into their respective preliminary meet. The top 12 athletes and relays in each event will advance to the NCAA Championships on June 6-9 in Eugene, Oregon.
Ole Miss will send 29 athletes to compete in 30 events at the NCAA East Prelims.
The Rebel men and women own 15 entries each for the regional meet, with the women sending 16 athletes and the men 13.
Senior Janeah Stewart will triple for the second-straight year in the hopes of tripling yet again at the national meet. Stewart, one of two throwers to do so at nationals in 2017, enters as the East Region leader in the shot put at her new PR of 17.97m (58 feet, 11 ½ inches), while also qualifying as the No. 2 performer in the hammer (67.70m/222-1) and No. 11 in the discus (54.91m/180-2).
The fastest 1,500 runner in the United States this season, senior Robert Domanic enters the meet with the top time at 3 minutes, 36.33 seconds.
Freshman Waleed Suliman gives the Rebels a strong one-two punch in the 1,500, ranking as the second-fastest behind Domanic at 3:39.76. Freshman Cade Bethmann (24th, 3:44.56), senior Trevor Gilley (31st, 3:44.81), and freshman Everett Smulders (42nd, 3:45.45) also will compete in the 1,500.
The Rebel women rank at No. 22 in the latest U.S. Track & Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) outdoor rankings. The Rebel men sit just outside at No. 29.
The Alabama men’s and women’s track and field teams have qualified 30 individuals (15 men, 15 women) and the women’s 4×100- and 4×400-meter relays for the meet.
The Alabama men will be joined at the east regional by 11 teams ranked in this week’s top 25, including No. 1 Florida, No. 3 Georgia, No. 10 LSU, No. 12 Florida State, No. 13 Kentucky, No. 17 Illinois, No. 19 MSU, No. 20 Ohio State, No. 22 Penn State, No. 23 Tennessee, and No. 24 Auburn.
The Crimson Tide men have eight individuals ranked in the top 12 in their respective events in the region.
The women’s east regional line-up includes eight top-25 opponents: No. 2 LSU, No. 3 Georgia, No. 7 Kentucky, No. 8 Florida, No. 10 Tennessee, No. 14 Purdue, No. 17 Virginia Tech and No. 22 Ole Miss.
Five members of the Crimson Tide women’s team are among the top 12 in their events in the region.
The Alabama men are No. 6, and the Crimson Tide women check in at No. 18 in the latest national rankings.
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