2007 Women’s Indoor/Outdoor Track Preview
Key Losses: Florence Edi, Courtney Golston
The Lady Jags, fourth both indoors and outdoors at the Sun Belt Conference Championships, remain largely intact for the 2007 campaign. Unfortunately, their two major losses were huge point scorers. Florence Edi, a 2004 NCAA Championships qualifier, won the pentathlon (indoor) and was second in the heptathlon (outdoors) in 2006, while scoring in the high jump (indoors and outdoors), javelin, and 100m hurdles. Her shoes will be hard to fill as she wore so many throughout her career in Mobile. Former B.C. Rain standout, Courtney Golston scored in the 55m hurdles and was a part of the school record-breaking 4x400m relay that went on to win the SBC title. She looked to score in the 100m and 400m hurdles and perhaps the 100m and 200m, along with the relay outdoors before she was ruled academically ineligible just before the Championships. Her status has not changed and the Lady Jags’ sprint depth will suffer as a consequence. Despite those blows, the women’s side will be a tough out come conference time, leaning heavily on their strength in the field events.
Sprints: Returners
Ajoke Odumosu turned NCAA disappointment into World success over the summer. After becoming the first Lady Jag ever to compete in an individual event final at the NCAA Championships, the then-junior was disqualified from her eighth-place finish in the 400m hurdles. With two new hurdle personal bests behind her, she took fifth in that event at the World Juniors in Beijing, along with a silver medal with Nigeria’s 4x400m relay team that set a new African Junior record. Last season, Lagos native set new p.r.s in the flat 400m (indoors and outdoors) and anchored the 4x400m relay with an amazing 49.18 split in a second-place effort at the SBC Outdoor Championships. The senior is a two-time 400m/400mH champion outdoors and is the reigning 400m indoor title-holder.
Clarisse Moh attempted to pull off a double of her own last season. The Frenchwoman ran qualifying marks in the 400m (54.60) and 800m (2:09) at the Auburn Invitational shortly before the SBC outdoor finale, but could only muster fifth and eighth places, respectively, despite her valiant efforts. This season, the junior may add the indoor half-mile to her repertoire, making her a most deadly threat to take points. Her consistent lead-off leg performances in the 4x400m relay and versatility to run multiple legs on the distance medley relay also make the Parisian a key for the Lady Jags team title goals.
Jessica Miller won both indoor and outdoor 800m titles despite never competing in the event prior to her freshman year. The sophomore will be in line to repeat the feat this season and should make a splash returning to her best event, the 400m hurdles. The Uruguay national owns her country’s record in the low hurdles, but injuring allowed her but one competition in the event last season.
Newcomers: None
Others to watch: Dinesha Spradley (sprints/hurdles)
Distance: Returners
Cassandra Perkins had a career year in 2006, posting personal best in both 800m disciplines and the indoor mile. The former Bellevue West (Neb.) standout scored in seventh position in the half-mile and anchored the second place DMR at the indoor championships, then went on to place sixth in the two-lapper outdoors. This season, the school steeplechase record-holder looks to add the 400m to her range.
Newcomers: None
Others to watch: Darryllisha Burch (800m), Melissa Womble (800m-3000m)
Field: Returners
Erin Kinnear will be headed toward her doctoral degree by the time this year’s NCAA Championships roll around, though it seems she already has one in the pole vault. The senior from Belfast, Northern Ireland, won the indoor and outdoor titles in 2004 and also has four runner-up finishes to her credit, proving her to be the most consistent vaulter, along with her three Regional appearances. The number 4.00 is not just her G.P.A., also the meter barrier she could break this year, becoming the first female athlete to do so in the Sun Belt.
Nicole Knox seems to break the Lady Jag high jump record each time she competes. The Montgomery, Ala., native set a new mark for the vertical leap indoors five times in 2006 and the outdoor record twice when she landed. The reigning SBC indoor champion and outdoor Regional qualifier also contributes a leg on the 4x400m relay and may return to horizontal jumping, having finished second at the Alabama State High School Meet in the long jump in 2004.
Latoria English has been tabbed to fill Florence Edi’s multi-event role. Like Edi, the former Woodham (Pensacola, Fla.) standout is a potential scorer in the individual events as well. She shared both Lady Jag indoor and outdoor high jump records last season and set 11 other personal bests. English is an accomplished high hurdler and long jumper, like her hero Jackie Joyner-Kersee.
Field: Newcomers
Ebonee Moody won the long jump and 110 hurldes at the 2005 Mississippi State Championships. The Perry Central (Beaumont) star may help the Jags add a 1-2 punch in the multi-events and shore up a horizontal jump crew that could have three quality leapers.
Others to watch: Courtney Dortch (throws), Icy Lang (throws), Cicely Kyle (triple jump)
