The University of Mississippi Athletics
Friday, January 13
Nashville, Tenn.
All Day
Ole Miss
at
Commodore Challenge
Track & Field Opens 2023 Indoor Season at Vanderbilt’s Commodore Challenge
1/13/2023 | Track and Field
Competition Runs Jan. 13-14 and Will Stream on SECN+
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2023 COMMODORE CHALLENGE January 13-14 • Nashville, Tenn.  |
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Ole Miss track & field is back in action, as the Rebels open the 2023 indoor season at Vanderbilt's Commodore Challenge this weekend (Jan. 13-14).
MEET NOTES
• This marks the first of three stops to Vanderbilt this indoor season for Ole Miss, with subsequent trips to Nashville on Jan. 20-21 for the Vanderbilt Invitational and Feb. 10-11 for the Music City Challenge.
• Ole Miss also has two trips to Arkansas on Jan. 27-28 for the Razorback Invitational and Feb. 10-11 for the Tyson Invitational before returning to Fayetteville for the 2023 SEC Indoor Championships on Feb. 24-25.
• Ole Miss is coming off a historic 2022 campaign that saw the Rebel women finish a program record No. 5 in the final USTFCCCA Program of the Year standings. It was another banner year for the Ole Miss men as well, appearing in the final rankings for the fourth time in the last six seasons at No. 12.
• All eight appearances by Ole Miss in final Program of the Year rankings -- four apiece by the Rebel men and women -- have all come under head coach Connie Price-Smith, who is in her eighth season at the helm.
• On the track under Price-Smith, the Rebels have collected 10 NCAA top-25 team finishes, 10 NCAA individual champions, eight NCAA runners-up, 130 First or Second-Team All-Americans, 231 NCAA points, 63 SEC individual champions and a bevy of the best team finishes in program history at both the SEC and NCAA levels.
• Three of the six all-time NCAA top-10 track finishes in Ole Miss history have come within the last two years: 2022 women's indoor (T-6th), 2022 men's indoor (T-10th), 2021 men's indoor (10th), 2013 men's outdoor (8th), 2001 men's indoor (10th) and 1991 men's indoor (9th).
• Last year, Ole Miss was one of just four teams nationally to place both men and women within the top-10 at the indoor national meet (alongside Arkansas, Texas and Texas A&M).
• In 22 seasons as a head coach at both Ole Miss and Southern Illinois dating back to 2002, Price-Smith has collected 15 NCAA event titles and mentored 203 All-Americans on the track.
• In its history indoors, Ole Miss has finished in the NCAA top-25 of the team standings 19 total times (13 times on the men's side, six times on the women's side).
• Ole Miss owns 136 First or Second-Team All-Americans indoors (87 men, 49 women), as well as 10 NCAA titles (13 total NCAA Champions; 10 men, three women). Of those 136, a total of 74 All-Americans (45 men, 29 women) have come under Price-Smith, as well as four NCAA titles (Raven Saunders, shot put, 2017; men's DMR, 2017; Shey Taiwo, weight throw, 2022; Mario Garcia Romo, mile, 2022).
• Ole Miss has won 52 SEC Indoor titles (38 men, 14 women) with 79 SEC Champions (62 men, 17 women).
• The Ole Miss women finished tied for sixth at the NCAA Indoor Championships in 2022, the best national team finish in the combined history of the program -- indoors or outdoors.
• Helping lead that charge was an NCAA title from Shey Taiwo in the women's weight throw, two NCAA runner-up finishes by Jasmine Mitchell in the weight throw and current professional runner Sintayehu Vissa in the mile, and a sixth-place finish by the Rebel women's distance medley relay of Anna Elkin, Jayda Eckford, Loral Winn and Vissa.
• Taiwo, who fell just two inches shy of the world record in her title-winning performance last season at 25.55m/83-10, has exhausted her indoor eligibility, but will compete for Ole Miss this outdoor season to cap off her Rebel career.
• Mitchell enters the 2023 indoor season No. 3 in collegiate history and No. 5 in world history at her NCAA runner-up throw of 24.94m/81-10.
• Fellow All-American's Eckford and Winn return for 2023, as do several others from the program record 12 entries to the NCAA Indoor Championships last year: Tiarnan Crorken (men's 800-meter, fifth place), Lyndsey Reed (women's pole vault, ninth place), Shane Bracken (men's DMR, 11th place), Marcus Dropik (men's DMR, 11th place) and double-qualifier Jalani Davis.
• Even without NCAA champ Taiwo, Ole Miss will field a fearsome tandem in the weight throw in Mitchell and Davis. Last year, the trio of Taiwo (25.55m/83-10), Mitchell (24.94m/81-10) and Davis (22.96m/75-4; No. 21 NCAA history) became the first active trio in NCAA history beyond 75 feet. In NCAA history, no school has more 75-foot throwers than Ole Miss, with those three joining Janeah Stewart (24.12m/79-01.75) to give the Rebels four total.
• Ole Miss also welcomes in a powerful class of newcomers, with a total of 35 new Rebels joining the roster for the 2023 season. Of those 35, a total of 14 came from the transfer portal, with 11 women's freshmen and 10 men's freshmen rounding out the newcomers.
• Transferring to Ole Miss this season are: hurdler Jerricka Ambus (Hinds CC), distance runner Beth Arentz (Akron), distance runner Anthony Camerieri (Miami (OH)), pole vaulter Raylynn Gibbs (Southern Arkansas), javelin thrower Abigail Green (Western Kentucky), jumper Christian Hill (Memphis), jumper Kayla Jemison (Hinds CC), sprinter Deshaun Jones (Baylor), distance runner Jocelyn Long (Notre Dame), sprinter McKenzie Long (NC State), pole vaulter Noah Mumme (South Alabama), jumper Gavin Nembhard (Columbus State), hurdler Jaiden Paris (Michigan State), and sprinter Keith Robinson (ULM).
• Rebel women freshmen this year are: distance runner Sophie Baumann (Burgdorf, Switzerland), thrower Brooke Franke (Roggen, Colorado), thrower Emma Freeman (Lake Charles, Louisiana), multi athlete Laurel Fulcher (Madison, Mississippi), pole vaulter Kathryn Hosp (Collierville, Tennessee), distance runner Jenna Kirby (Flower Mound, Texas), distance runner Frances Luna (O'Fallon, Missouri), sprinter Gabrielle Matthews (Portmore, Jamaica), distance runner Samantha Ouellette (Murfreesboro, Tennessee), distance runner Sarah Schiffmann (Gloucester, Australia) and sprinter Graycyn Yelverton (Biloxi, Mississippi).
• Men's freshmen this year include: multi athlete Mason Collins (Knoxville, Tennessee), distance runner Cade Flatt (Benton, Kentucky), pole vaulter Logan Kelley (Mesa, Arizona), distance runner Landen McNair (Bartlett, Tennessee), javelin thrower Jake Railey (Surprise, Arizona), thrower Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan (Woonsocket, Rhode Island), jumper Arvesta Troupe (Fulton, Mississippi), distance runner Carson Turner (Signal Mountain, Tennessee), jumper Carson Walls (Dallas, Texas) and thrower Keegan Wilfawn (Oxford, Mississippi).
• Highlighting that signing class for Ole Miss were two of the top high school athletes in the United States last season in middle distance star Cade Flatt and champion thrower Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan.
• Flatt had a spectacular high school career at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky, where he became one of the best middle distance runners in United States history. He won Gatorade National Athlete of the Year honors for Boys Track for 2021-22, capped by two national titles in the 800-meter both indoors and outdoors. At the New Balance Outdoor Nationals, Flatt came within three hundredths of a second of the all-time U.S. record in the boys 800-meter, running 1:46.48 in his title-winning race to rank second in U.S. history behind Michael Granville's 1996 record of 1:46.45.
• Flatt has already been signaled as one of the best 800-meter runners worldwide this season before even lacing up for the Rebels, as evidenced by his invite to the prestigious Millrose Games in New York City on Feb. 11. Flatt will race among some of the best middle distance runners on the planet, such as defending Millrose champion and Olympian Bryce Hoppel of the United States, and fellow American Clayton Murphy, who is a two-time Olympian and won bronze in the 800-meter at the 2016 Olympic Games. Others in the field include: Olympian and Mexican national record holder Jesus Tonatiu Lopez; 18-year-old sensation and reigning World Indoor silver medalist Noah Kibet of Kenya; four-time World Outdoor qualifier Kyle Langford of Great Britain; 16-time national champion and national record holder Mark English of Ireland; and reigning U.S. indoor 800-meter runner up Isaiah Harris.
• Flatt continues a recent tradition of Rebels competing at the prestigious Millrose Games. Just last year Rebel great and NCAA Champion Mario Garcia Romo ran in the historic Wanamaker Mile, where he finished sixth as the lone collegian in the field. Garcia Romo again is running in the Wanamaker in 2023, fresh off a brilliant first year to his professional career that saw him finish fourth at the World Championships in the 1500-meter.
• At Ole Miss, Flatt will train alongside some of the best collegiate 800-meter runners this season, such as reigning U.S. finalist Baylor Franklin -- who ran 1:45.65 to finish fifth in the national final -- and Tiarnan Crorken, who took fifth at the NCAA Indoor Championships in 2022.
• Robinson-O'Hagan swept the hammer and shot put at the U.S. U20 Championships last summer, punching his ticket to both in the World U20 Championships, where we won the world title in the shot put and was a finalist in the hammer. He finished his superb high school career ranked No. 4 in U.S. boys high school history in the junior shot put (68-00.25), No. 3 in the junior hammer (246-4) and No. 7 in the high school hammer (250-9).
• The first USTFCCCA National Rating Index for the indoor season is due out in two weeks on Jan. 23. The Rebel women were ranked in all seven regular season polls in 2022, ranking as high as a women's program record No. 7 and never dipping lower than No. 11 en route to a historic sixth-place finish at the national meet. The Ole Miss men, meanwhile, were ranked five of those seven weeks on their way to a second-straight 10th-place NCAA finish.
• Through the end of the 2022 indoor regular season, Ole Miss has had both teams simultaneously ranked 11 times in its history, with all 11 instances coming within the past two seasons since first occurring in Week Two of the 2021 indoor campaign.
• Ole Miss ranked No. 7 three times indoors last season in the women's rankings, the best ranking by the Rebel women since hitting No. 7 in Week One of the 2008 season -- the first year national rankings were available. It also ranked as the second-best in the combined history of the Ole Miss track & field program indoors behind a No. 6 appearance for the Rebel men in Week Two of the 2021 season. In its history, Ole Miss has ranked within the women's national top-10 a total of 12 times -- half of which came during the 2022 season.
• In total, the Rebel women have appeared in the indoor national rankings 43 times since they began in 2008, including a stretch of 20 of the previous 21 polls following three complete seasons of being ranked in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Under eighth-year head coach Connie Price-Smith, Ole Miss has notched 35 of those 43 total women's rankings. The Rebel men have appeared in the national top-25 a total of 41 times in their program history indoors.
REBEL MEN COMPETING:
60-Meter Dash: Pierce Genereux, Peyton Lowery, Keith Robinson, Ryan Star, Ahmad Young Jr.
300-Meter Dash: Keith Robinson, Ryan Star
600-Meter: Jacob Lough
800-Meter: Gabe Scales
Mile: Miles Phillips
60-Meter Hurdles: Kenney Broadnax, Ahmad Young Jr.
High Jump: Arvesta Troupe
Pole Vault: Frankie Amore, Logan Kelley, Ford Maberry, Noah Mumme, Miles Walden
Long Jump: Iangelo Atkinstall-Daley, Pierce Genereux, Peyton Lowery, Gavin Nembhard, Carson Walls
Triple Jump: Iangelo Atkinstall-Daley, Gavin Nembhard
Shot Put: Mason Hickel, Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan, Daniel Viveros
Weight Throw: Costen Campion, Mason Hickel, Joseph Lanham, Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan
REBEL WOMEN COMPETING:
60-Meter Dash: Ariyonna Augustine, Jaiden Paris
200-Meter Dash: Graycyn Yelverton
300-Meter Dash: McKenzie Long, Gabrielle Matthews
400-Meter Dash: Graycyn Yelverton
800-Meter: Jenna Kirby
Mile: Sarah Schiffman
60-Meter Hurdles: Jerricka Ambus, Laurel Fulcher, Meg Goebel, Gabrielle Matthews, Jaiden Paris, Annie Strong, Sara Van Aken
4x400-Meter Relay (A): McKenzie Long, Gabrielle Matthews, Jaiden Paris, Graycyn Yelverton
4x400-Meter Relay (B): Laurel Fulcher, Sara Van Aken, Meg Goebel, Annie Strong
High Jump: Meg Goebel, Kayla Jemison, LaRiah Shannon, Annie Strong
Pole Vault: Raylynn Gibbs, Remy Guertel, Kathryn Hosp, Samara McConnell, Elizabeth Nix, Lyndsey Reed
Long Jump: Laurel Fulcher, Meg Goebel, Skye Gross, Sara Van Aken
Triple Jump: Christian Hill, Kyla McLaurin, Sara Van Aken
Shot Put: Tedreauna Britt, Jalani Davis, Jasmine Mitchell
Weight Throw: Tedreauna Britt, Jalani Davis, Brooke Franke, Jasmine Mitchell
For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field and Cross Country, follow the Rebels on Twitter (@OleMissTrack), Facebook and Instagram.
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/ Track and FieldINTERVIEW: Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan Talks NCAA Shot Three-Peat
Saturday, March 14
HIGHLIGHTS: Alicia Burnett Finishes Fourth in NCAA 60-Meter Final
Saturday, March 14
HIGHLIGHTS: Akaoma Odeluga Finishes NCAA Runner-Up in Shot Put
Saturday, March 14
HIGHLIGHTS: Tarik Robinson-O'Hagan Wins Third Straight NCAA Indoor Shot Put Title
Saturday, March 14