MEMPHIS - The Millsaps women finished fifth overall and the men placed sixth after the final day of competition in the 2011 SCAC Championships.
The Major women finished fifth in the field of ten teams with just 13 entrants, including nine freshmen.
They were again paced by Erica Cook. The senior finished first in the 100 meter dash finals with a time of 12.13, setting a new SCAC record in the process. She also took first place in the 200 meter distance with a time of 25.29. She is ranked 16th in the nation in the 200 meter distance and has provisionally qualified for nationals with her performance. She has won every heat she has run this season.
The women's 4x100 meter relay team, consisting of Haylee Vomberg, Michelle Wheeler, Faryen Mays, and Erica Cook, took third place with a finals time of 50.20. Vomberg overcame a sprained ankle, after not running all week. Cook ran the anchor leg of the race. She took the baton with the Majors in sixth place and closed the gap on Centre to finish in third. The 4x400 meter relay team of Aymett, Navarro, Mays, and Wheeler finished fifth, posting a new school record of 4:15.15
Freshman Faryen Mays placed fifth, and was the second highest freshman, in the long jump with a final distance of 4.82 meters.
Michelle Wheeler placed fifth in the 400 meters. She is the first Millsaps athlete to score in that event and has “tremendous potential” to be a top athlete in the SCAC going forward, according to Coach Andy Till.
Courtney Aymett became the first Millsaps athlete to score points in a middle distance event in the 800 meters with her seventh place finish. She posted the fourth-fastest time of any freshman in the event to earn two points for the Majors.
The men's team finished sixth out of ten schools with a nine-member team, including seven freshmen.
Jonathan Moore took top honors in the 110 meter hurdles with a near-perfect run of 15.40. He came into the event with the third seed. The time set a new personal best for Moore and set a new school record in the event. This marks the second year running that a Majors' runner has taken the 110 meter hurdles. He placed fourth in the 400 meter hurdles later in the day with a time of 56.96. The time was Jonathan's fastest 400 of the season and the second-fastest time of any freshman in the SCAC.
The men's 4x100 meter relay team, Mitchell Keeton, JaRon Shannon, Bruce Pears, and Jonathan Moore, finished in first place with a total time of 42.68. With a team consisting of three freshmen and a sophomore, the Majors went undefeated in the 4x100 all year. Keeton had a strong start to get things underway and after a shaky handoff Shannon ran the leg of his young career to hand solidly off to Pears, who took control in the curve to hand off to Moore for the anchor leg.
The 4x400 meter relay team placed seventh, setting a personal best with a time of 3:33.45.
Mitchell Keeton placed fourth in the 100 meters, posting a new personal best of 11.28. His time was the fastest of any freshman in the event, he finished just a 1/10th of a second out of the medals. Keeton finished fifth in the pole vault with a 3.95 meter jump. Despite a six-way tie at that height, Keeton placed fifth due to the number of misses at 3.5 meters. He nearly made it into third after clearing the 4.10 meter bar, but as he came down his pole dislodged the bar to keep him at 3.95.
Bruce Pears finished fourth in the 200 meters despite a slow start, he set a new personal best with his 22.73 finals time after running a strong final 150 meters. He also placed seventh in the long jump with a distance of 6.61 meters.
The Majors also gave “outstanding performances” in the throwing events. Kasey Laird won the women's discus as a third seed with a distance of 38.07 meters. The mark set a new personal best for Kasey as well as setting a new school record. Laird accomplished her win with a strained UCL to show the conference how strong Millsaps Track & Field is becoming.
Laird also posted a personal best and school record in the shot put with a throw of 11.41 meters to finish in fourth place. Freshman Alexis Guice placed sixth at 11.13 meters. The combined efforts of Laird and Guice netted 10 points for Millsaps from the women's shot put. Guice also placed seventh in the hammer throw, setting another personal best and school record with a 39.56 meter throw.
Full Results are available at this link.
DAY ONE RECAP -----
Millsaps' Erica Cook continued her dominance in the 100 meter dash, finishing the preliminaries with a time of 12.14, two-tenths of a second ahead of Rhodes' Lindsay Svehla. She also took top position in the 200 meter event with a time of 25.25. Both times make her an automatic qualifier for tomorrow's finals.
Erica's time in the 100 meter set a new SCAC record for the event and her 200 meter time makes her a provisional qualifier for the NCAA nationals in that event. She is already a provisional qualifier in the 100 meter distance.
