Mississippi University for Women athletics had an eventful weekend, with the Owls track and field team traveling to Elsah, Illinois, to compete at the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships at Principia College. 

Head coach Dedrick Burnett saw his teams set several individual and team school records with nine Owls finishing on the podium in their respective events. 

 

Women’s track and field claims third at conference tourney

The Owls women’s track and field team finished third overall at the SLIAC Indoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday, featuring two individual medalists and two team relay medal winners. 

Freshman Brooklyn Kelley was the highest-placed athlete for the Owls, coming in second place in the shot put event. She set a new school record with a heave of 11.23 meters to earn a place on the podium. 

Sophomore distance runner Hannah Owens followed Kelley with a school record finish in the 3000-meter event, picking up a bronze medal with a time of 11:57.04.

The Distance Medley Relay and 4×400-meter relay teams also picked up bronze medals with their respective performances. Kalee Sanders, Vonisha Towns and Kendall Clay ran alongside Owens for the distance relay, clocking in a combined effort of 14:39.26. 

Towns and Clay also featured in the 4×400, joining Princess Lofton and Kamiya Witing for a 4:24.44 time. 

Kendrailia Nash, Michaiah Adams and Makayla Givan also helped contribute to the team’s point total and third overall finish. 

 

Freshman Stafford highlights men’s performance

The W men’s track team finished in sixth at the SLIAC tourney and featured two medal winners at the Saturday event. 

Freshman Malachi Stafford won the men’s high jump, setting a school record in the process with a height of 1.88 meters on his fifth jump attempt. He followed it up with a sixth-place finish in the 60-meter dash event, placing sixth with a time of 7.19 seconds. 

Sophomore Allen Fields followed Stafford onto the podium with a bronze medal in the 60-meter hurdle event, finishing with a school record time of 9.05 seconds. Teammate Cortland Earl was close behind with 9.11 seconds to finish in fourth. 

Jailon Warner, Sinaj Lynn and Noel Kellum all helped add points to the board for the team rankings as the Owls landed in sixth for the final standings. 

 

Tennis

The W’s tennis teams also saw action on Saturday, with the women taking down LaGrange College and Rust College to get into the win column for the first time this season. It was a tight 4-3 win over the Panthers before a dominant 5-2 showing against Rust later in the day, taking the Owls’ record to 2-3.

The W men’s tennis team lost both matchups to LaGrange and Rust, falling to 0-5. 

 

Baseball

The W’s baseball team returned to action with a weekend series at LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas, picking up its first win of the season on Friday. 

The Owls took Game 1, 10-5, behind the arm of Landon Clark, who got a pair of punchouts on the way to his and his team’s first win. Center fielder Matthew Windham drove in four runs and catcher Benson Avery added another three on a team-high three hits. 

The Owls were unable to keep the momentum going into the rest of the weekend, dropping a high-scoring 11-9 Game 2 before losing the series in a 10-2 Game 3. 

The Owls, 1-7 on the year, return to action on Wednesday at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Jackson.