The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Prepares For SEC Indoor Championships
2/24/2000 | Track and Field
Feb. 24, 2000
OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss men's and women's track and field teams travel to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark. to take part in the 2000 Southeastern Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships all day Friday and Saturday.
Both teams are looking to improve over last years eighth place finishes in the always tough SEC, which currently boasts nine nationally ranked men's teams, including Ole Miss, with five ranked women's teams.
The two-day competition will start off with one of the nation's hottest battles, the men's long jump competition. Rebel Savante' Stringfellow, a junior from Jackson, currently ranks second in the nation and finished second last season in the long jump, will square off with Melvin Lister of Arkansas, who leads the nation in that discipline.
In six competitions this season, Stringfellow has been defeated only once on the collegiate level. His jump of 26-5 broke the 17-year-old Ole Miss record and qualified him for the United States Indoor Championships and the Olympic Trials.
Kino Mosley, a junior from Meridian, will also compete for the Rebels in the long jump, where he currently ranks 10th in the SEC and 23rd in the nation this season. Kyle Wallace, a senior from Anna, Ill., will participate in the men's pole vault on Friday morning. He currently ranks fifth in the conference and tied his personal best jump earlier this season.
On the women's side, one of the early events will feature Lady Rebel junior Brandy Barnett in the women's high jump. Barnett ranks third in the SEC with an NCAA provisional qualifying mark ranking her 17th in the nation, behind Latifah Long of Georgia and Nakeitra Jones of Auburn. She finished second at the SEC Indoor Championships a year ago. Also competing for the Lady Rebels will be freshman Cindy Bowling, who ranks eighth in the SEC in the high jump.
On Friday, the running events will feature mostly preliminary races, with the exception of the men's and women's 3000 meters. Saturday will feature the high profile running event finals.
Leading the way in the track events are Ole Miss' James Shelton and Teneeshia Jones. Shelton, a freshman from Toomsuba, ranks seventh in the SEC and 32nd in the nation in the 60 meters, while Jones, a junior from Shannon, ranks in the 60 meters, 60-meter hurdles and the 200 meters on the conference level and the 60 meters and 200 meters on the national level. She finished fifth in the 55 meters and 200 meters at the championships a year ago.
Also competing for the Lady Rebels is Chika Chuku, who currently ranks fifth in the SEC in the 800 meters. Chuku, a sophomore from Largo, Md., finished third at the championships last season as a freshman.
The indoor championships will take place at the newly-opened Randall Tyson Track Center on the University of Arkansas campus, site of the NCAA Indoor Championships in March, which boasts a state of the art 200-meter banked track. Field events begin at 10:00 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, with running events scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. both days.