This weekend, the women’s track and field team will sprint to Oxford, Miss., to compete in the Mississippi Open at the University of Mississippi. The Tide is coming off strong finishes, most recently at Auburn, and the team looks to continue this success.
“We had a lot of personal bests and a lot of seasonal bests, which we have had every single weekend, every meet so far this year,” head coach Sandy Fowler said. “It’s been different people, which is what you want to see. That means everybody is getting stronger, everybody is getting faster or jumping further and higher or throwing farther.”
The team is coming off a weekend at the Auburn War Eagle Invitational where Alabama racked up 17 top-10 finishes.
Leigh Gilmore was the first Alabama player to cross the finish line in the 1,500-meter run and placed third. Kim Laing finished fourth in the 100-meter hurdles, while Talaya Owens placed fourth in the 400-meter hurdles. The 4×400 relay team placed eighth, and Meghan Austin placed second in the javelin throw.
Senior hammer thrower Jasmine Williams said the team must be focused on Saturday.
“We need to stay focused,” she said. “Making sure we’re on our p’s and q’s and just go after the prize. We just have to continue to do what we’ve been doing naturally and just go get it… We have a lot of expectations for everyone on the team. I think as long as everyone does what they’re supposed to do and just competes to their best ability, then we’ll be good.”
Last year, the Mississippi Open was stopped after a few events were completed due to weather. The Tide went into the meet ranked No. 48 and had a successful outing before the meet was cut short. Alabama had top-five finishers in most of the completed events.
“We were doing really well last year,” Fowler said. “This year we want to do better. Everybody on the team has matured another year. Just with that maturity alone you want to see them step it up and really be more competitive.”
The Tide will face stiff competition in Mississippi. The opposition will be beneficial heading into the biggest meets of the year — the Drake Relays and Southeastern Conference Championships.
“Our talks this year have been about reaching your seasonal best and your personal best every competition so that you see stepping stones moving forward and the team collectively sees stepping stones moving forward so we’re ready for the SEC championships,” Fowler said. “So, that being said, that’s their goal — they’re looking for their season and/or their personal best so that they’re very confident in going to the SECs in May.”
Williams said, “This meet is kind of prepping us for Drake and for SECs…This is kind of a little taste of what to expect at SECs. We can line ourselves up and see where we’re at in the SEC.”
