The University of Mississippi Athletics
Friday, January 24
Lexington, Ky.
All Day
Ole Miss
at
Rod McCravy Memorial
Rebels Travel to Kentucky for Rod McCravy Invitational
1/23/2020 | Track and Field
<i class="icon-paper"></i> Ole Miss Notes (PDF)<i class="icon-tv"></i> Watch (SECN+)<i class="icon-stats"></i> Live Results<i class="icon-calendar"></i> Schedule
Portions of Meet to Air on SEC Network +
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Ole Miss track and field will be field-heavy when a handful of athletes travel to Kentucky for the 2020 Rod McCravy Invitational, held at UK's Nutter Field House on Jan. 24-25.
TEAM NOTES
• The meet will air live both days on SEC Network +, beginning at 4:08 p.m. CT on Friday (Jan. 24) and 11:38 a.m. CT on Saturday (Jan. 25). The Rebel distance runners and most of the sprinters will take off this week.
• Ole Miss will be one of 17 schools in competition. Among those schools, ranked in men's competition are No. 16 Iowa and No. 25 Penn State, while ranked in women's competition include No. 7 Minnesota, No. 10 Kentucky, No. 13 Iowa and No. 14 Penn State.
• Currently, the Rebels own 29 marks or times that rank within the NCAA top-50 (18 men, 11 women), including six that rank within the top-three of the SEC.
• Head coach Connie Price-Smith is in her fifth season at the helm of the Ole Miss men's and women's programs and her 19th season overall. In her tenure with the Rebels, Price-Smith has mentored 74 First or Second-Team All-Americans, 32 SEC Champions, while also earning four NCAA event titles and coaching athletes to three different collegiate records. In her head coaching career at both Ole Miss and Southern Illinois dating back to 2002, Price-Smith has collected 12 NCAA event titles and mentored 143 All-Americans on the track.
• In its history indoors, Ole Miss has finished in the NCAA top-25 of the team standings 15 total times (11 times on the men's side, four times on the women's side). Under Price-Smith, the Rebels have recorded their highest women's team finish ever indoors (12th, 2017) and the fourth-best indoors for the men (16th, 2017).
MEN'S NOTES
• Junior Waleed Suliman opened his 2020 season in spectacular fashion, running the NCAA's top mile time, winning at Vanderbilt at 3:57.03. Last season, Suliman set the Ole Miss record at 3:56.78 at Boston University's David Hemery Valentine Invite on Feb. 9, 2019. Only two other Rebels have ever broken the four-minute barrier in the mile, and they have all come within the last two years: All-Americans Sean Tobin (3:58.28, Feb. 3, 2018; 3:59.91, Feb. 15, 2014) and Derek Gutierrez (3:58.55, Feb. 9, 2019). For his efforts, Suliman was named the SEC Co-Men's Runner of the Week.
• Ole Miss also had a great open in the 800-meter, with John Rivera Jr. running the NCAA's No. 2 time and SEC's top time at a career-best 1:48.13. He now ranks fifth all-time at Ole Miss, and that time stands as the fastest overall by a Rebel since All-American Craig Engels clocked 1:47.54 at the 2017 SEC Championships. One week earlier, Rivera broke the Ole Miss record in the non-standard 600-meter at 1:17.90, toppling Thomas Johnson's 1991 time of 1:18.75. Everett Smulders also ran an NCAA top-20 time in the 800-meter, currently ranking No. 18 nationally and No. 4 in the SEC at 1:51.62.
• Senior Michael Coccia also represented the Rebel distance runners well, clocking the SEC's top time in the 3K, winning at 8:06.58. Coccia now ranks seventh all-time in Ole Miss history.
• Senior sprinter James Burnett had a superb day at Vanderbilt last week, running an Ole Miss career best in the 400-meter dash at 47.21 -- the 11th-best time in program history. He currently ranks second in the SEC and 10th in the NCAA at that time.
• Burnett was also the leadoff leg of a Rebel men's 4x400-meter relay that ran 3:13.11 alongside Elijah Dryer, Andrew Raspo and Alvin Westbrook, currently the eighth-best time in the SEC and No. 32 in the NCAA.
• Dryer also had a strong outing at Vanderbilt in the 200-meter dash, coming within one hundredth of a second of his PR at 21.41, finishing as a runner-up. He currently ranks No. 34 in the NCAA and No. 13 in the SEC.
• Junior Allen Gordon improved yet again in the long jump at Vanderbilt, finishing third at 7.61m (24-11.75) -- currently No. 4 in the SEC and No. 13 in the NCAA. Gordon also ranks in the national top-25 in the high jump at his season-best of 2.15m (7-00.50), ranking No. 21. He is coming off a career year in the long jump as well where he leapt 7.76m (25-05.50) to win bronze at the 2019 SEC Indoor Championships. In his career, Gordon is one of two Rebels to have ever cleared 7-2 in the high jump and 25-5 in the long jump indoors, joining Olympian and NCAA Champion Savante' Stringfellow.
• Senior Manny Foster led the Rebel men at UAB with a spectacular performance in the triple jump, winning on a huge three-foot PR of 15.71m (51-06.50) -- the ninth-best leap in school history. Foster also currently ranks No. 14 in the NCAA and No. 6 in the SEC at that distance, the longest at Ole Miss since Phillip Young's 16.27m (53-04.50) from the 2015 NCAA Indoor Championships. Foster also recorded an NCAA top-50 mark in the long jump last week at 7.37m (24-02.25), currently No. 37 nationally.
• Sophomore Demond Fleming also ranks in the NCAA top-25 in the triple jump at his new PR of 15.17m (49-09.25), currently No. 37.
• The Ole Miss pole vault duo of Peyton Weissmann and Cole Colozzo are both off to solid starts as they currently both rank within the NCAA top-35. Weissmann tied his indoor PR at Vanderbilt last week, finishing as a runner-up at 5.25m (17-02.75) -- currently No. 2 in the SEC and No. 15 in the NCAA. Colozzo, meanwhile, finished third at a new indoor PR of 5.10m (16-08.25), the sixth-best clearance in school history.
• Sophomore Joseph Benedetto dropped a massive new career best in the weight throw at UAB, launching a seven-foot PR to open the season at 20.62m (67-08.00). He now ranks third all-time at Ole Miss, and he currently stands No. 17 in the NCAA and No. 4 in the SEC.
• Junior Danny Guiliani and freshman Daniel Viveros also took aim at the Ole Miss record book at Vanderbilt, with Guiliani launching the second-best throw in school history at 17.90m (58-08.75), with Viveros right behind him with the No. 3 mark all-time at 17.65m (57-11.00).
WOMEN'S NOTES
• Ole Miss stands as the only program in the nation with multiple women ranked within the NCAA top-10 in the weight throw with three Rebels currently holding top-10 marks: junior Deborah Bulai (No. 3, 21.53m/70-07.75), junior Shey Taiwo (No. 8, 21.24m/69-08.25) and freshman Jasmine Mitchell (No. 9, 21.22m/69-07.50).
• Bulai, a three-time All-American thrower at Cloud County Community College, opened her Rebel career in stellar fashion at UAB, winning the weight throw at the No. 3 throw in school history at 21.53m (70-07.75). She currently ranks No. 3 in the NCAA and leads the SEC at that mark, which was an eight-foot PR over her junior college best of 18.92m (62-01.00).
• Junior Shey Taiwo notched a big win at Vanderbilt last week, defeating reigning SEC runner-up Madi Malone of Auburn by three centimeters at a season-best 21.24m (69-08.25). At the moment, Taiwo's toss from last week ranks No. 8 in the NCAA and No. 4 in the SEC. As a sophomore, Taiwo earned Second-Team All-American status in the weight throw after a 10th-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
• Sophomore Brandee Presley continued to light the track on fire, following up a superb freshman year with a demonstrative season open at UAB. Presley broke the Ole Miss record in the 60-meter dash twice, running 7.27 in the semifinal before winning at 7.18, currently the No. 3 time in the NCAA and No. 1 time in the SEC. All-American Teneeshia Jones' record of 7.28 had stood since 2001.
• Presley also owns the NCAA's No. 26 time in the 200-meter dash, a 24.10 run last week at Vanderbilt.
• Presley is one of three underclassmen in the NCAA to have already broken 7.20 this season. National leader Cambrea Sturgis of North Carolina A&T ran 7.15, the fastest time ever run by a collegian this early in January. Presley ended her freshman campaign in 2019 with a spectacular streak of improvements in the 100-meter outdoors, ending with the school record at 11.19 (+2.0) to become the first Rebel to ever break 11.20. In her first year, Presley earned two Second-Team All-American honors and a U.S. U20 gold medal before earning a silver in the 100-meter and gold in the women's 4x100-meter relay for Team USA at the Pan American U20 Championships.
• Senior Kieshonna Brooks is off to a stellar start to her final indoor campaign, currently ranking in the NCAA top-35 in both the long jump (18th, 6.12m/20-01.00) and 60-meter hurdles (32nd, 8.38). Her hurdles time ranks No. 3 in school history, and her season-best in the long jump stands No. 5 in the SEC this season. Brooks enters her senior year ranked fifth in school history in the pentathlon at 3,803 points.
• Returning SEC All-Freshman shot putter Tedreauna Britt has started off on the right foot this indoor season, setting a new PR in the shot put in each of her first two meets -- topping out at 15.84m (51-11.75) at Vanderbilt last week. That mark ranks fourth all-time at Ole Miss, as well as No. 20 in the NCAA and No. 3 in the SEC. She is coming off a summer that featured a U.S. title in the discus as well as a national runner-up in the shot put prior to a silver medal in the shot put at the Pan-American U20 games.
• Ole Miss also has two women ranked in the 3K: junior Anna Elkin (39th, 9:42.30) and sophomore Ylvi Traxler (41st, 9:42.73). They rank second and third, respectively, in the SEC this season.
• Sophomore Jayda Eckford also ranks in the NCAA top-50 in the 400-meter dash at an indoor PR of 55.65 (No. 44). She is coming off a freshman year that saw her break the outdoor 200-meter record and win silver at both the U.S. U20 and Pan-American U20 Championships.
• Freshman Lyndsey Reed won the pole vault in each of her first two collegiate competitions, currently ranking No. 7 on the all-time Ole Miss list at 3.85m (12-07.50).
For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field and Cross Country, follow the Rebels on Twitter (@OleMissTrack), Facebook and Instagram.
TEAM NOTES
• The meet will air live both days on SEC Network +, beginning at 4:08 p.m. CT on Friday (Jan. 24) and 11:38 a.m. CT on Saturday (Jan. 25). The Rebel distance runners and most of the sprinters will take off this week.
• Ole Miss will be one of 17 schools in competition. Among those schools, ranked in men's competition are No. 16 Iowa and No. 25 Penn State, while ranked in women's competition include No. 7 Minnesota, No. 10 Kentucky, No. 13 Iowa and No. 14 Penn State.
• Currently, the Rebels own 29 marks or times that rank within the NCAA top-50 (18 men, 11 women), including six that rank within the top-three of the SEC.
• Head coach Connie Price-Smith is in her fifth season at the helm of the Ole Miss men's and women's programs and her 19th season overall. In her tenure with the Rebels, Price-Smith has mentored 74 First or Second-Team All-Americans, 32 SEC Champions, while also earning four NCAA event titles and coaching athletes to three different collegiate records. In her head coaching career at both Ole Miss and Southern Illinois dating back to 2002, Price-Smith has collected 12 NCAA event titles and mentored 143 All-Americans on the track.
• In its history indoors, Ole Miss has finished in the NCAA top-25 of the team standings 15 total times (11 times on the men's side, four times on the women's side). Under Price-Smith, the Rebels have recorded their highest women's team finish ever indoors (12th, 2017) and the fourth-best indoors for the men (16th, 2017).
MEN'S NOTES
• Junior Waleed Suliman opened his 2020 season in spectacular fashion, running the NCAA's top mile time, winning at Vanderbilt at 3:57.03. Last season, Suliman set the Ole Miss record at 3:56.78 at Boston University's David Hemery Valentine Invite on Feb. 9, 2019. Only two other Rebels have ever broken the four-minute barrier in the mile, and they have all come within the last two years: All-Americans Sean Tobin (3:58.28, Feb. 3, 2018; 3:59.91, Feb. 15, 2014) and Derek Gutierrez (3:58.55, Feb. 9, 2019). For his efforts, Suliman was named the SEC Co-Men's Runner of the Week.
• Ole Miss also had a great open in the 800-meter, with John Rivera Jr. running the NCAA's No. 2 time and SEC's top time at a career-best 1:48.13. He now ranks fifth all-time at Ole Miss, and that time stands as the fastest overall by a Rebel since All-American Craig Engels clocked 1:47.54 at the 2017 SEC Championships. One week earlier, Rivera broke the Ole Miss record in the non-standard 600-meter at 1:17.90, toppling Thomas Johnson's 1991 time of 1:18.75. Everett Smulders also ran an NCAA top-20 time in the 800-meter, currently ranking No. 18 nationally and No. 4 in the SEC at 1:51.62.
• Senior Michael Coccia also represented the Rebel distance runners well, clocking the SEC's top time in the 3K, winning at 8:06.58. Coccia now ranks seventh all-time in Ole Miss history.
• Senior sprinter James Burnett had a superb day at Vanderbilt last week, running an Ole Miss career best in the 400-meter dash at 47.21 -- the 11th-best time in program history. He currently ranks second in the SEC and 10th in the NCAA at that time.
• Burnett was also the leadoff leg of a Rebel men's 4x400-meter relay that ran 3:13.11 alongside Elijah Dryer, Andrew Raspo and Alvin Westbrook, currently the eighth-best time in the SEC and No. 32 in the NCAA.
• Dryer also had a strong outing at Vanderbilt in the 200-meter dash, coming within one hundredth of a second of his PR at 21.41, finishing as a runner-up. He currently ranks No. 34 in the NCAA and No. 13 in the SEC.
• Junior Allen Gordon improved yet again in the long jump at Vanderbilt, finishing third at 7.61m (24-11.75) -- currently No. 4 in the SEC and No. 13 in the NCAA. Gordon also ranks in the national top-25 in the high jump at his season-best of 2.15m (7-00.50), ranking No. 21. He is coming off a career year in the long jump as well where he leapt 7.76m (25-05.50) to win bronze at the 2019 SEC Indoor Championships. In his career, Gordon is one of two Rebels to have ever cleared 7-2 in the high jump and 25-5 in the long jump indoors, joining Olympian and NCAA Champion Savante' Stringfellow.
• Senior Manny Foster led the Rebel men at UAB with a spectacular performance in the triple jump, winning on a huge three-foot PR of 15.71m (51-06.50) -- the ninth-best leap in school history. Foster also currently ranks No. 14 in the NCAA and No. 6 in the SEC at that distance, the longest at Ole Miss since Phillip Young's 16.27m (53-04.50) from the 2015 NCAA Indoor Championships. Foster also recorded an NCAA top-50 mark in the long jump last week at 7.37m (24-02.25), currently No. 37 nationally.
• Sophomore Demond Fleming also ranks in the NCAA top-25 in the triple jump at his new PR of 15.17m (49-09.25), currently No. 37.
• The Ole Miss pole vault duo of Peyton Weissmann and Cole Colozzo are both off to solid starts as they currently both rank within the NCAA top-35. Weissmann tied his indoor PR at Vanderbilt last week, finishing as a runner-up at 5.25m (17-02.75) -- currently No. 2 in the SEC and No. 15 in the NCAA. Colozzo, meanwhile, finished third at a new indoor PR of 5.10m (16-08.25), the sixth-best clearance in school history.
• Sophomore Joseph Benedetto dropped a massive new career best in the weight throw at UAB, launching a seven-foot PR to open the season at 20.62m (67-08.00). He now ranks third all-time at Ole Miss, and he currently stands No. 17 in the NCAA and No. 4 in the SEC.
• Junior Danny Guiliani and freshman Daniel Viveros also took aim at the Ole Miss record book at Vanderbilt, with Guiliani launching the second-best throw in school history at 17.90m (58-08.75), with Viveros right behind him with the No. 3 mark all-time at 17.65m (57-11.00).
WOMEN'S NOTES
• Ole Miss stands as the only program in the nation with multiple women ranked within the NCAA top-10 in the weight throw with three Rebels currently holding top-10 marks: junior Deborah Bulai (No. 3, 21.53m/70-07.75), junior Shey Taiwo (No. 8, 21.24m/69-08.25) and freshman Jasmine Mitchell (No. 9, 21.22m/69-07.50).
• Bulai, a three-time All-American thrower at Cloud County Community College, opened her Rebel career in stellar fashion at UAB, winning the weight throw at the No. 3 throw in school history at 21.53m (70-07.75). She currently ranks No. 3 in the NCAA and leads the SEC at that mark, which was an eight-foot PR over her junior college best of 18.92m (62-01.00).
• Junior Shey Taiwo notched a big win at Vanderbilt last week, defeating reigning SEC runner-up Madi Malone of Auburn by three centimeters at a season-best 21.24m (69-08.25). At the moment, Taiwo's toss from last week ranks No. 8 in the NCAA and No. 4 in the SEC. As a sophomore, Taiwo earned Second-Team All-American status in the weight throw after a 10th-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
• Sophomore Brandee Presley continued to light the track on fire, following up a superb freshman year with a demonstrative season open at UAB. Presley broke the Ole Miss record in the 60-meter dash twice, running 7.27 in the semifinal before winning at 7.18, currently the No. 3 time in the NCAA and No. 1 time in the SEC. All-American Teneeshia Jones' record of 7.28 had stood since 2001.
• Presley also owns the NCAA's No. 26 time in the 200-meter dash, a 24.10 run last week at Vanderbilt.
• Presley is one of three underclassmen in the NCAA to have already broken 7.20 this season. National leader Cambrea Sturgis of North Carolina A&T ran 7.15, the fastest time ever run by a collegian this early in January. Presley ended her freshman campaign in 2019 with a spectacular streak of improvements in the 100-meter outdoors, ending with the school record at 11.19 (+2.0) to become the first Rebel to ever break 11.20. In her first year, Presley earned two Second-Team All-American honors and a U.S. U20 gold medal before earning a silver in the 100-meter and gold in the women's 4x100-meter relay for Team USA at the Pan American U20 Championships.
• Senior Kieshonna Brooks is off to a stellar start to her final indoor campaign, currently ranking in the NCAA top-35 in both the long jump (18th, 6.12m/20-01.00) and 60-meter hurdles (32nd, 8.38). Her hurdles time ranks No. 3 in school history, and her season-best in the long jump stands No. 5 in the SEC this season. Brooks enters her senior year ranked fifth in school history in the pentathlon at 3,803 points.
• Returning SEC All-Freshman shot putter Tedreauna Britt has started off on the right foot this indoor season, setting a new PR in the shot put in each of her first two meets -- topping out at 15.84m (51-11.75) at Vanderbilt last week. That mark ranks fourth all-time at Ole Miss, as well as No. 20 in the NCAA and No. 3 in the SEC. She is coming off a summer that featured a U.S. title in the discus as well as a national runner-up in the shot put prior to a silver medal in the shot put at the Pan-American U20 games.
• Ole Miss also has two women ranked in the 3K: junior Anna Elkin (39th, 9:42.30) and sophomore Ylvi Traxler (41st, 9:42.73). They rank second and third, respectively, in the SEC this season.
• Sophomore Jayda Eckford also ranks in the NCAA top-50 in the 400-meter dash at an indoor PR of 55.65 (No. 44). She is coming off a freshman year that saw her break the outdoor 200-meter record and win silver at both the U.S. U20 and Pan-American U20 Championships.
• Freshman Lyndsey Reed won the pole vault in each of her first two collegiate competitions, currently ranking No. 7 on the all-time Ole Miss list at 3.85m (12-07.50).
For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field and Cross Country, follow the Rebels on Twitter (@OleMissTrack), Facebook and Instagram.
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Pole Vault
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Jumps
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Pole Vault
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