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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Friday, January 15
Nashville, Tenn.
All Day
Ole Miss
at
Commodore Indoor
Track & Field Opens 2021 Indoor Season at Vanderbilt
1/14/2021 | Track and Field
<i class="icon-paper"></i> Meet Notes (PDF)<i class="icon-calendar"></i> Meet Schedule (PDF)<i class="icon-stats"></i> Live Results<i class="icon-tv"></i> Watch Day 1 (YouTube)<i class="icon-tv"></i> Watch Day 2 (YouTube)
First Competition in 322 Days
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Ole Miss track & field returns to action for the first time in 322 days when it travels to Vanderbilt for the Commodore Indoor on Jan. 15-16. Fans will be able to watch a live stream on YouTube, as well as follow live results online.
TEAM NOTES
• The Rebels will hit the track once again after a promising 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic just one day before the NCAA Indoor Championships were set to begin in Albuquerque, New Mexico last March. Ole Miss will boast an SEC-exclusive schedule this indoor season, making stops at Vanderbilt (Commodore Indoor, Jan. 15-16; Music City Classic, Feb. 13), South Carolina (South Carolina Invite, Feb. 5-6) and to Arkansas a total of four times when including both regular season meets (Woo Pig Classic, Jan. 22; Razorback Invite, Jan. 29-30) and both the SEC Indoor Championships (Feb. 25-27) and NCAA Indoor Championships (March 11-13).
• The Rebels have not competed since the 2020 SEC Indoor Championships on Feb. 28-29, where Ole Miss came away with two SEC titles in the women's weight throw (Shey Taiwo) and the men's distance medley relay (Nick Moulai, James Burnett, Baylor Franklin and Waleed Suliman).
• Ole Miss had eight student-athletes qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, who all earned All-America honors following the cancelation of the national meet. Those Rebel All-Americans all return in 2021 and include senior thrower Deborah Bulai, junior sprinter Jayda Eckford, senior jumper Allen Gordon, sophomore thrower Jasmine Mitchell, senior distance runner John Rivera Jr., junior sprinter Brandee Presley, senior distance runner Waleed Suliman and senior thrower Shey Taiwo.
• A total of 22 new Rebels join the roster in 2021: pole vaulter Alex Brooks, thrower Costen Campion, distance runner Whit Dennis, sprinter Ashanti Denton, distance runner Marcus Dropik, multi athlete Luke Etherton, distance runner Makayla Fick, jumper Skye Gross, pole vaulter Remy Guertel, distance runner Ryann Helmers, jumper Ukurugenzi Kojo, pole vaulter Samara McConnell, jumper Kyla McLaurin, jumper/sprinter Ryan Star, sprinter Isaiah Teer, distance runner Kristel van den Berg, pole vaulter Miles Walden, jumper Tyra Weathersby, sprinter Olivia Womack and sprinter Tristyn Wooley.
• Ole Miss enters year six under head coach Connie Price-Smith, who has led the Rebels to new heights in her time in Oxford with five NCAA top-25 team finishes, four NCAA individual titles, 34 SEC individual titles and 82 total First or Second-Team All-American awards. In 20 years as a head coach at both Ole Miss and Southern Illinois dating back to 2002, Price-Smith has collected 12 NCAA event titles and mentored 151 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).
•Ole Miss owns 105 First or Second-Team All-Americans indoors (70 men, 35 women), as well as eight NCAA titles (11 total NCAA Champions; nine men, two women). Of those 105, a total of 42 All-Americans (27 men, 15 women) have come under Price-Smith, as well as two NCAA titles (Raven Saunders, shot put, 2017; men's DMR, 2017).
WOMEN'S NOTES
• The Rebel women ended the 2020 indoor season ranked No. 22 in the Week Seven USTFCCCA National Rating Index, their seventh straight appearance in the national poll. That marked the 30th time in women's program history that the Rebels have been ranked in the indoor season, the 22nd such ranking that has come under head coach Connie Price-Smith's tutelage since taking over the combined program in 2015.
• Ole Miss has took the women's weight throw by storm in 2020, as it became the first school in NCAA history with three women at or above the 22-meter plateau (Shey Taiwo, Jasmine Mitchell, Deborah Bulai) in a single season, all three of whom have qualified for the national meet and earned All-American honors. Prior to 2020, only three schools ever had two 22-meter throwers (Florida, 2004; Louisville, 2010; Southern Illinois, 2011), including a Southern Illinois squad coached by head coach Connie Price-Smith and throws coach John Smith via marks from Olympian Gwen Berry and NCAA Champion Jeneva McCall (both ended up serving as Ole Miss volunteer assistant coaches). Notre Dame also had two throwers beyond 22 meters, making 2020 the first in NCAA history to have multiple schools have multiple athletes throw beyond that mark.
• Taiwo led the crew in fourth nationally at her SEC title winning throw of 22.72m (74-06.50), Mitchell eighth at 22.23m (72-11.75) and Bulai 13th at 22.02m (72-03.00). The trio rank second, third and fourth in school history behind two-time U.S. champion and current world leader Janeah Stewart, whose school record 24.12m (79-01.75) still ranks sixth in NCAA history.
• Junior Brandee Presley entered the national meet ranked sixth among entrants in the 60-meter dash at her school record time of 7.18 seconds. Presley ran that time to open the season at UAB on Jan. 10, breaking it twice that day after running 7.27 in the semifinal before clocking her 7.18 to win in the final. All-American Teneeshia Jones' record of 7.28 had stood since 2001.
• 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.
• Junior and 200-meter dash qualifier Jayda Eckford also toppled a Teneeshia Jones' held record in the 200, breaking it twice at the SEC Indoor Championships. Eckford ran 23.29 in the prelim before breaking the record again in the final at 23.18 to finish fifth overall. Eckford ranked 12th among qualifiers in the event at the national meet.
• Eckford had a bombastic outdoor season as a freshman that saw her break Jones' all-conditions 200-meter record at 22.72 (+2.2), become the first Rebel to break 23 seconds at a wind-legal time of 22.98 (+0.6), and win silver in the 200 at both the U.S. U20 and Pan-American U20 Championships.
MEN'S NOTES
• The Rebels remained the dominant force in the SEC in the distance medley relay in 2020, winning their sixth DMR title in the last seven years following a gutsy performance from the quartet of Nick Moulai (1200m), James Burnett (400m), Baylor Franklin (800m) and Waleed Suliman (mile). Suliman, the Ole Miss record holder in the mile at 3:56.78, enters his senior season in the upper echelon of milers nationally after qualifying for the NCAA Championships each of the last two seasons.
• Senior Waleed Suliman entered the national meet ranked fifth in the mile at his season-best time of 3:57.03 from the 2020 Vanderbilt Invite. Suliman owns a career-best and Ole Miss school record 3:56.78 from the 2019 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). Suliman is a three-time All-American indoors, once in the distance medley relay in 2018 (Second-Team) and twice in the mile in 2019 (Second-Team) and 2020 (general).
• Fellow senior John Rivera Jr. also qualified with the No. 10 time in the men's 800-meter at his overall career-best 1:48.13 from the Vanderbilt Invite. Rivera finished fourth at the SEC Championships, missing the podium by four hundredths of a second. His career best stands at No. 5 all-time at Ole Miss and 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 to open the season, toppling Thomas Johnson's 1991 time of 1:18.75.
• Senior Allen Gordon will enter his final indoor season as one of the better jumpers in Ole Miss history, as last season he joined Olympian Savante' Stringfellow as the only Rebels to clear 7-2 in the high jump and 25-5 in the long jump indoors. Last year, Gordon's indoor career-best long jump distance of 7.83m (25-08.25) ended up 12th on the NCAA performance list heading into the national meet. Gordon proved his versatility all season long, recording additional personal bests in the high jump (2.20m/7-02.50) and triple jump (15.00m/49-02.50).
Rebel Men Competing:
60-Meter Dash: Elijah Dryer, Luke Etherton, Peyton Lowery, Ryan Star, Tristyn Wooley
800-Meter: Cade Bethmann, Baylor Franklin, Jacob Lough, Everett Smulders
3K: Ben Savino, Robinson Snider
60-Meter Hurdles: Kenney Broadnax
4x400-Meter Relay (A): Cade Bethmann, Everett Smulders, Baylor Franklin, Jacob Lough
4x400-Meter Relay (B): Luke Etherton, Peyton Lowery, Elijah Dryer, Pierce Genereux
High Jump: Ukurugenzi Kojo, Cory Meek
Pole Vault: Pierce Genereux, Miles Walden, Peyton Weissmann
Long Jump: Allen Gordon, Peyton Lowery, Ryan Star, Torrence Tuberville
Triple Jump: Allen Gordon, Demond Fleming, Cory Meek
Shot Put: Luke Etherton, Danny Guiliani, Daniel Viveros
Weight Throw: Joseph Benedetto, Joseph Lanham
Rebel Women Competing:
60-Meter Dash: Brandee Presley, Olivia Womack
Mile: Anna Elkin, Cate Tracht, Loral Winn
3K: Anna Elkin, Ryann Helmers, Nicole Rice, Victoria Simmons, Loral Winn
60-Meter Hurdles: Meg Goebel, Sara Van Aken
4x400-Meter Relay (A): Orianna Shaw, Jayda Eckford, Ashanti Denton, Toni Glatz
High Jump: Meg Goebel, Sara Van Aken
Pole Vault: Alex Brooks, Samara McConnell, Lyndsey Reed
Long Jump: Skye Gross, Kyla McLaurin, Tyra Weathersby
Triple Jump: Kyla McLaurin
Shot Put: Tedreauna Britt, Jalani Davis, Jasmine Mitchell
Weight Throw: Deborah Bulai, Jalani Davis, Jasmine Mitchell, Shey Taiwo
For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field and Cross Country, follow the Rebels on Twitter (@OleMissTrack), Facebook and Instagram.
TEAM NOTES
• The Rebels will hit the track once again after a promising 2020 season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic just one day before the NCAA Indoor Championships were set to begin in Albuquerque, New Mexico last March. Ole Miss will boast an SEC-exclusive schedule this indoor season, making stops at Vanderbilt (Commodore Indoor, Jan. 15-16; Music City Classic, Feb. 13), South Carolina (South Carolina Invite, Feb. 5-6) and to Arkansas a total of four times when including both regular season meets (Woo Pig Classic, Jan. 22; Razorback Invite, Jan. 29-30) and both the SEC Indoor Championships (Feb. 25-27) and NCAA Indoor Championships (March 11-13).
• The Rebels have not competed since the 2020 SEC Indoor Championships on Feb. 28-29, where Ole Miss came away with two SEC titles in the women's weight throw (Shey Taiwo) and the men's distance medley relay (Nick Moulai, James Burnett, Baylor Franklin and Waleed Suliman).
• Ole Miss had eight student-athletes qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, who all earned All-America honors following the cancelation of the national meet. Those Rebel All-Americans all return in 2021 and include senior thrower Deborah Bulai, junior sprinter Jayda Eckford, senior jumper Allen Gordon, sophomore thrower Jasmine Mitchell, senior distance runner John Rivera Jr., junior sprinter Brandee Presley, senior distance runner Waleed Suliman and senior thrower Shey Taiwo.
• A total of 22 new Rebels join the roster in 2021: pole vaulter Alex Brooks, thrower Costen Campion, distance runner Whit Dennis, sprinter Ashanti Denton, distance runner Marcus Dropik, multi athlete Luke Etherton, distance runner Makayla Fick, jumper Skye Gross, pole vaulter Remy Guertel, distance runner Ryann Helmers, jumper Ukurugenzi Kojo, pole vaulter Samara McConnell, jumper Kyla McLaurin, jumper/sprinter Ryan Star, sprinter Isaiah Teer, distance runner Kristel van den Berg, pole vaulter Miles Walden, jumper Tyra Weathersby, sprinter Olivia Womack and sprinter Tristyn Wooley.
• Ole Miss enters year six under head coach Connie Price-Smith, who has led the Rebels to new heights in her time in Oxford with five NCAA top-25 team finishes, four NCAA individual titles, 34 SEC individual titles and 82 total First or Second-Team All-American awards. In 20 years as a head coach at both Ole Miss and Southern Illinois dating back to 2002, Price-Smith has collected 12 NCAA event titles and mentored 151 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).
•Ole Miss owns 105 First or Second-Team All-Americans indoors (70 men, 35 women), as well as eight NCAA titles (11 total NCAA Champions; nine men, two women). Of those 105, a total of 42 All-Americans (27 men, 15 women) have come under Price-Smith, as well as two NCAA titles (Raven Saunders, shot put, 2017; men's DMR, 2017).
WOMEN'S NOTES
• The Rebel women ended the 2020 indoor season ranked No. 22 in the Week Seven USTFCCCA National Rating Index, their seventh straight appearance in the national poll. That marked the 30th time in women's program history that the Rebels have been ranked in the indoor season, the 22nd such ranking that has come under head coach Connie Price-Smith's tutelage since taking over the combined program in 2015.
• Ole Miss has took the women's weight throw by storm in 2020, as it became the first school in NCAA history with three women at or above the 22-meter plateau (Shey Taiwo, Jasmine Mitchell, Deborah Bulai) in a single season, all three of whom have qualified for the national meet and earned All-American honors. Prior to 2020, only three schools ever had two 22-meter throwers (Florida, 2004; Louisville, 2010; Southern Illinois, 2011), including a Southern Illinois squad coached by head coach Connie Price-Smith and throws coach John Smith via marks from Olympian Gwen Berry and NCAA Champion Jeneva McCall (both ended up serving as Ole Miss volunteer assistant coaches). Notre Dame also had two throwers beyond 22 meters, making 2020 the first in NCAA history to have multiple schools have multiple athletes throw beyond that mark.
• Taiwo led the crew in fourth nationally at her SEC title winning throw of 22.72m (74-06.50), Mitchell eighth at 22.23m (72-11.75) and Bulai 13th at 22.02m (72-03.00). The trio rank second, third and fourth in school history behind two-time U.S. champion and current world leader Janeah Stewart, whose school record 24.12m (79-01.75) still ranks sixth in NCAA history.
• Junior Brandee Presley entered the national meet ranked sixth among entrants in the 60-meter dash at her school record time of 7.18 seconds. Presley ran that time to open the season at UAB on Jan. 10, breaking it twice that day after running 7.27 in the semifinal before clocking her 7.18 to win in the final. All-American Teneeshia Jones' record of 7.28 had stood since 2001.
• 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.
• Junior and 200-meter dash qualifier Jayda Eckford also toppled a Teneeshia Jones' held record in the 200, breaking it twice at the SEC Indoor Championships. Eckford ran 23.29 in the prelim before breaking the record again in the final at 23.18 to finish fifth overall. Eckford ranked 12th among qualifiers in the event at the national meet.
• Eckford had a bombastic outdoor season as a freshman that saw her break Jones' all-conditions 200-meter record at 22.72 (+2.2), become the first Rebel to break 23 seconds at a wind-legal time of 22.98 (+0.6), and win silver in the 200 at both the U.S. U20 and Pan-American U20 Championships.
MEN'S NOTES
• The Rebels remained the dominant force in the SEC in the distance medley relay in 2020, winning their sixth DMR title in the last seven years following a gutsy performance from the quartet of Nick Moulai (1200m), James Burnett (400m), Baylor Franklin (800m) and Waleed Suliman (mile). Suliman, the Ole Miss record holder in the mile at 3:56.78, enters his senior season in the upper echelon of milers nationally after qualifying for the NCAA Championships each of the last two seasons.
• Senior Waleed Suliman entered the national meet ranked fifth in the mile at his season-best time of 3:57.03 from the 2020 Vanderbilt Invite. Suliman owns a career-best and Ole Miss school record 3:56.78 from the 2019 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). Suliman is a three-time All-American indoors, once in the distance medley relay in 2018 (Second-Team) and twice in the mile in 2019 (Second-Team) and 2020 (general).
• Fellow senior John Rivera Jr. also qualified with the No. 10 time in the men's 800-meter at his overall career-best 1:48.13 from the Vanderbilt Invite. Rivera finished fourth at the SEC Championships, missing the podium by four hundredths of a second. His career best stands at No. 5 all-time at Ole Miss and 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 to open the season, toppling Thomas Johnson's 1991 time of 1:18.75.
• Senior Allen Gordon will enter his final indoor season as one of the better jumpers in Ole Miss history, as last season he joined Olympian Savante' Stringfellow as the only Rebels to clear 7-2 in the high jump and 25-5 in the long jump indoors. Last year, Gordon's indoor career-best long jump distance of 7.83m (25-08.25) ended up 12th on the NCAA performance list heading into the national meet. Gordon proved his versatility all season long, recording additional personal bests in the high jump (2.20m/7-02.50) and triple jump (15.00m/49-02.50).
Rebel Men Competing:
60-Meter Dash: Elijah Dryer, Luke Etherton, Peyton Lowery, Ryan Star, Tristyn Wooley
800-Meter: Cade Bethmann, Baylor Franklin, Jacob Lough, Everett Smulders
3K: Ben Savino, Robinson Snider
60-Meter Hurdles: Kenney Broadnax
4x400-Meter Relay (A): Cade Bethmann, Everett Smulders, Baylor Franklin, Jacob Lough
4x400-Meter Relay (B): Luke Etherton, Peyton Lowery, Elijah Dryer, Pierce Genereux
High Jump: Ukurugenzi Kojo, Cory Meek
Pole Vault: Pierce Genereux, Miles Walden, Peyton Weissmann
Long Jump: Allen Gordon, Peyton Lowery, Ryan Star, Torrence Tuberville
Triple Jump: Allen Gordon, Demond Fleming, Cory Meek
Shot Put: Luke Etherton, Danny Guiliani, Daniel Viveros
Weight Throw: Joseph Benedetto, Joseph Lanham
Rebel Women Competing:
60-Meter Dash: Brandee Presley, Olivia Womack
Mile: Anna Elkin, Cate Tracht, Loral Winn
3K: Anna Elkin, Ryann Helmers, Nicole Rice, Victoria Simmons, Loral Winn
60-Meter Hurdles: Meg Goebel, Sara Van Aken
4x400-Meter Relay (A): Orianna Shaw, Jayda Eckford, Ashanti Denton, Toni Glatz
High Jump: Meg Goebel, Sara Van Aken
Pole Vault: Alex Brooks, Samara McConnell, Lyndsey Reed
Long Jump: Skye Gross, Kyla McLaurin, Tyra Weathersby
Triple Jump: Kyla McLaurin
Shot Put: Tedreauna Britt, Jalani Davis, Jasmine Mitchell
Weight Throw: Deborah Bulai, Jalani Davis, Jasmine Mitchell, Shey Taiwo
For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field and Cross Country, follow the Rebels on Twitter (@OleMissTrack), Facebook and Instagram.
Players Mentioned
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