Birmingham, Ala. - The Mississippi College Track and Field team made a statement at the 2024 Emory Crossplex Showdown in Birmingham, Ala., picking up two event wins and adding eight performances to the Mississippi College Indoor Track and Field lists. Notably, the Choctaws only competed in two events: the Men's and Women's 5,000m runs.
The Lady Choctaws set the tone in the Women's 5,000m run, sweeping the top five spots. This stellar team performance was spearheaded by Lexington, Miss. native Bre Bell, who broke the tape in 17:51.94 after closing her final lap in 34.9 seconds, the fastest of the entire field. Bell led five Lady Chocs under 18 minutes - Emily Berry(17:52.41), Lauren Wallace(17:52.55), Taylor Benoit(17:57.60), and Jazmin Russell(17:59.93).
Additionally, four performances were added to the Mississippi College Women's Indoor Track and Field Top-10 lists in the Women's 5,000m: Bell improved to No. 4 All-time, Berry No. 5 All-time, Benoit No. 6 All-time, and Kathy Hammond now slots in at No. 10 All-time with an indoor lifetime best of 18:32.29.
The men's team continued the momentum set in the Women's 5,000m run, sweeping the top four spots and asserting seven athletes inside the top nine overall. Cole Benoit led the charge, who, like Bell, had the fastest last 200 meters in the entire field of 30.0 seconds en route to stopping the clock in a meet record time of 14:52.57. Benoit led Cooper Parmer(14:58.66), Braedon Methvin(15:00.99), and Carson Smith(15:04.99) to finish second through fourth, respectively.
Furthermore, Benoit catapulted himself to No. 6 All-time on the Mississippi College Indoor Track and Field Top 10 list, as did Parmer(No. 7), Smith(No. 9), and Preston Speed achieved a new lifetime best of 15:06.33 to slot in at No. 10 overall in program history.
The next outing for the Mississippi College Track and Field squad will be back at Birmingham Crossplex next weekend at the Samford University Open and the Vanderbilt Invitational on Jan. 19-20.
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