From the Wire: Ole Miss track braves storm-delayed second day of 2022 SEC Championships

This story was provided by Ole Miss Athletics Media Relations

Ole Miss track & field battled the elements yet again, with Mother Nature pushing competition late into the night at a stormy but successful second day of the 2022 SEC Outdoor Championships at home on Friday.

A series of delays fueled by scattered lightning and then a powerful thunderstorm forced competition that was slated to begin at 1:45 p.m. CT all the way back to 7 p.m. CT. That said, the Rebels still produced 10 more points on Friday to move into fifth place through two days of action with 27 points.

The big story on Day Two, though, was the large pack of Rebels who qualified into finals for Saturday. Seven Rebels punched their tickets to a Saturday final, giving Ole Miss eight finals appearances in front of its home crowd when including Baylor Franklin’s 800-meter qualifier from Day One.

Six of those seven came in the 1500-meter races, led by a spectacular performance by All-American Sintayehu Vissa. The reigning NCAA Indoor mile runner-up was a force to be reckoned with, clocking the fastest prelim time on the day at 4:16.49 to break her old school record of 4:16.70. That time ranks fifth among all Italian runners this outdoor season, giving one of the nation’s most versatile runners another brag point after clocking the fastest 800-meter by an Italian on American soil since the 1984 Summer Olympic Games with her 2:01.06 from earlier this season.

Junior Loral Winn also claimed an automatic qualifier in the 1500, dropping a PR of her own at 4:18.23 that ranks her second in school history behind Vissa.

Success for Ole Miss in the 1500-meter carried over to the men’s side of the event, with a foursome of Rebels earning automatic qualifications into Saturday’s final. Cade Bethmann (2nd, 3:44.89), Mario Garcia Romo (3rd, 3:51.62), James Young (5th, 3:45.32) and Shane Bracken (8th, 3:45.61) will now make up a third of the championship heat set to run on Saturday. The Rebels have seen four men’s 1500-meter SEC Champions in the program’s history, with Craig Engels claiming back-to-back titles in 2016 and 2017 followed by Robert Domanic’s SEC title in 2018 and Waleed Suliman’s win in 2019.

Senior Kelly Rowe earned her first career trip to an SEC final in dramatic fashion, holding on to her time qualifier slot by two hundredths of a second to punch her ticket with the eighth-best prelim time at 11.70 (-0.5).

As for the Rebel scorers on Friday, Sara Van Aken tallied four points for the Rebel women in the heptathlon after two long days of competition, notching personal-bests in both the women’s 100-meter hurdles (14.68 (+1.2)) and women’s shot put (11.91m/39-01.00) to ultimately capture fifth overall at 5,104 points – just four points shy of her PR of 5,108 set earlier this season. Van Aken’s fifth-place showing is the second top-five finish for the Rebel women in the heptathlon in the last three years, joining a fifth-place effort from Kieshonna Brooks in 2019 (5,248).

Tedreauna Britt put together the best performance of her career in the shot put, logging a personal-best throw of 16.44m/53-11.25 to finish sixth and give the women’s team its first taste of points on the day. Finishing just outside of the points for the Rebels was Jasmine Mitchell, who tossed a season-best 15.62m/51-03.00 to finish in ninth.

Senior Kristel van den Berg led the way for the Rebels in the women’s 3000-meter steeplechase final, sixth at 10:08.18 – just three seconds off her PR of 10:05.75 set two weeks ago at the Penn Relays.

Scoring the first points of the weekend for the Ole Miss men was junior Daniel Viveros, whose 19.06m/62-06.50 throw ultimately placed him sixth on the day. This is the second straight year Viveros has scored in the shot put outdoors, and was just one centimeter off his personal best and Ole Miss record 19.07m/62-06.75 set at the LSU Invitational two weeks ago.

Saturday’s final day of competition for the SEC Outdoor Championships is set to resume for the Rebels at 12:30 p.m. CT with the men’s pole vault and women’s discus.

Women’s Team Scores (Through Eight Events)

1. #22 Auburn – 36

2. #3 Florida – 32

3. Texas A&M – 28

4. Georgia – 27.5

5. #20 Ole Miss – 27

6. Alabama – 26

7. #5 Arkansas – 22

8. #7 Kentucky – 21

9. Tennessee – 21

10. #4 LSU – 20.5

11. Mississippi State – 14

12. Missouri – 13

12. Vanderbilt – 13

14. #17 South Carolina – 11

Men’s Team Scores (Through Seven Events)

1. #12 Tennessee – 55

2. #2 Alabama – 54

3. #18 Arkansas – 45

4. #5 Georgia – 27

5. #4 LSU – 20

6. Mississippi State – 18

7. #3 Florida – 17

8. #6 Texas A&M – 14

9. Auburn – 11

10. #15 Kentucky – 5

11. Ole Miss – 3

11. South Carolina – 3

13. Missouri – 1

Day Two Scorers

Sara Van Aken – Women’s Heptathlon, 5th Place

Tedreauna Britt – Women’s Shot Put, 6th Place

Kristel van den Berg – Women’s 3000-Meter Steeplechase, 6th Place

Daniel Viveros – Men’s Shot Put, 6th Place

Day Two Finals Qualifiers

Cade Bethmann – Men’s 1500-Meter

Shane Bracken – Men’s 1500-Meter

Mario Garcia Romo – Men’s 1500-Meter

Kelly Rowe – Women’s 100-Meter Dash

Sintayehu Vissa – Women’s 1500-Meter

Loral Winn – Women’s 1500-Meter

James Young – Men’s 1500-Meter

Day One Medalists

Skylar Boogerd – Women’s 10K, Silver Medal

Other Day One Scorers

Deborah Bulai – Women’s Hammer, 4th Place

Anna Elkin – Women’s 10K, 7th Place

Cate Tracht – Women’s 10K, 8th Place

Jasmine Mitchell – Women’s Hammer, 8th Place

Day One Finals Qualifiers

Baylor Franklin, Men’s 800-Meter

REBELS IN DAY TWO COMPETITION

Women’s 100-Meter Dash Prelims

8. Kelly Rowe – 11.70q (-0.5)

Women’s 400-Meter Dash Prelims

34. Toni Glatz – 56.97

Men’s 400-Meter Dash Prelims

25. Isaiah Weasby – 48.18

Women’s 1500-Meter Prelims

1. Sintayehu Vissa – 4:16.49 AQ – School Record, No. 18 NCAA East

6. Loral Winn – 4:18.23 AQ – PR, No. 2 Ole Miss History, No. 37 NCAA East

16. Lydia van Dijk – 4:24.91

Men’s 1500-Meter Prelims

2. Cade Bethmann – 3:44.89 AQ

3. Mario Garcia Romo – 3:51.62 AQ

5. James Young – 3:45.32 AQ

8. Shane Bracken – 3:45.61 AQ

29. Cole Piotrowski – 3:54.97

Women’s 3000-Meter Steeplechase Final

6. Kristel van den Berg – 10:08.18

15. Morgan Claire Rose – 10:36.49

Men’s 3000-Meter Steeplechase Final

9. Chase Rose – 9:04.71 – PR, No. 8 Ole Miss History

Men’s 110-Meter Hurdles Prelims

10. Spencer Brown – 14.06 (+0.6) – PR, No. 8 Ole Miss History

11. Keirston Paige – 14.21 (+0.2)

DQ – Kenney Broadnax

Women’s Long Jump Final

16. Skye Gross – 5.57m/18-03.25 (+0.2)

Women’s Shot Put Final

6. Tedreauna Britt – 16.44m/53-11.25 – PR, No. 5 Ole Miss History, No. 17 NCAA East

9. Jasmine Mitchell – 15.62m/51-03.00 – SB

10. Jalani Davis – 15.55m/51-00.25

Men’s Shot Put Final

6. Daniel Viveros – 19.06m/62-06.50

—–

REBELS IN DAY ONE COMPETITION

Women’s 200-Meter Dash Prelims

12. Olivia Womack – 23.46 (-0.3) – PR, No. 8 Ole Miss History

25. Jayda Eckford – 24.01 (-0.3)

29. Ariyonna Augustine – 24.18 (-0.3)

Men’s 200-Meter Dash Prelims

17. Elijah Dryer – 20.94 (-0.2)

Women’s 800-Meter Prelims

17. Madison Hulsey – 2:09.32

Men’s 800-Meter Prelims

4. Baylor Franklin – 1:48.01 AQ

10. Marcus Dropik – 1:48.43 – PR, No. 15 Ole Miss History, No. 41 East

22. Cole Piotrowski – 1:50.41 – PR

Women’s 10K Final

2. Skylar Boogerd – 34:11.87 – PR, No. 5 Ole Miss History, No. 30 East

7. Anna Elkin – 35:00.61 – PR, No. 11 Ole Miss History

8. Cate Tracht – 35:10.99 – PR, No. 12 Ole Miss History

Men’s 10K Final

Nick Moulai – DNF

Women’s Hammer Final

4. Deborah Bulai – 61.41m/201-05 – PR, No. 6 Ole Miss History, No. 50 NCAA East

8. Jasmine Mitchell – 60.39m/198-01

FOUL Jalani Davis

Men’s Hammer Final

11. Joseph Lanham – 58.78m/192-10 – PR, No. 9 all-time

—–

Men’s Decathlon

Pierce Genereux – DNF

100-Meter Dash: 11th, 11.59 (+2.7) – 734 Points

Long Jump: 11th, 5.86m/19-02.75 (-1.5) – 556 Points

Shot Put: 7th, 12.18m/39-11.50 – 617 Points

High Jump: 11th, 1.73m/5-10.50 – 569 Points – SB

400-Meter Dash: 10th, 52.28 – 713 Points – PR

110-Meter Hurdles: 10th, 17.14 (-0.9) – 610 Points

Discus: 8th, 33.03m/108-04 – 524 Points

Pole Vault: NH

Javelin: DNS

1500-Meter: DNS

Peyton Lowery – DNF

100-Meter Dash: 9th, 11.34 (+1.1) – 786 Points

Long Jump: 10th, 6.26m/20-06.50 – 644 Points

Shot Put: 11th, 9.33m/30-07.50 – 445 Points

High Jump: 9th, 1.79m/5-08.00 – 619 Points

400-Meter Dash: DNF

110-Meter Hurdles: DNS

Discus: DNS

Pole Vault: DNS

Javelin: DNS

1500-Meter: DNS

Women’s Heptathlon

Sara Van Aken – 5104 Points, 5th Place

100-Meter Hurdles: 7th, 14.68 (+1.2) – 884 Points – PR

High Jump: 2nd, 1.72m/5-07.75 – 879 Points

Shot Put: 1st, 11.91m/39-01.00 – 655 Points – PR

200-Meter Dash: 9th, 26.12 (+1.1) – 787 Points

Long Jump: 6th, 5.44m/17-10.25 (+1.7) – 683 Points

Javelin: 4th, 34.56m/113-04 – 563 Points

800-Meter: 8th, 2:33.22 – 653 Points

Meg Goebel – 4542 Points, 10th Place – PR, No. 15 Ole Miss History

100-Meter Hurdles: 8th, 14.79 (-0.7) – 870 Points

High Jump: 5th, 1.69m/5-06.50 – 842 Points – PR

Shot Put: 9th, 9.43m/30-11.25 – 492 Points – PR

200-Meter Dash: 6th, 25.73 (+1.9) – 821 Points

Long Jump: 9th, 5.05m/16-07.00 (+0.2) – 573 Points

Javelin: 9th, 27.50m/90-02 – 429 Points – PR

800-Meter: 10th, 2:45.21 – 515 Points