Conference Championship Weekend!!

Whew!!!!!!!!! What a weekend. Although three of the four BCS meets had to deal with a fight from mother nature there were still plenty of great times and performances. The Big 12, SEC, Big Ten and Pac-10 began the post season this past weekend. For some teams it was a great sign of things to come and for some teams the season cannot end any quicker. Let's first take a look at the SEC.


SEC WOMEN

A meet that involved multiple rain delays that lasted for hours still had some great performances. Although I feel the meet should have been moved after hearing about the floods weeks in advance before the meet, Tennessee still did a great job as host. Florida and LSU would be the team story for both men and women with different results.

In the sprints it was supposed to be a LSU domination, although LSU scored plenty of points in the sprints they only had won sprint victory coming in the 400 hurdles from Cassandra Tate who clocked in 57.12 to claim the title. Shaniqua Ferguson of Auburn was able to double in the sprints winning the 100 in 11.19 and 200 in 23.09. Teammate and defending outdoor NCAA Champion Joanna Atkins was able to win the women's 400 in 52.58. Another Auburn teammate Krystal Bodie led the 100 hurdles after the preliminaries but was unsuccessful in finishing in the finals while Kimberly Laing of Alabama was able to claim the title with a time of 13.32.

The Relays were very interesting as well, LSU favored in both did not claim either title, the team was not able to get the baton around again in the 4x100 relay and were not able to beat the nation's number 1 4x400 relay team in Arkansas who consisted of, Regina George, Shelise Williams, Karen Thomas and Whitney Jones to clock in 3:31.05. Auburn claimed the women's title with a time of 43.38, Ferguson was joined by teammates, Atkins, Shaquela Williams and Nivea Smith.

The distance events were quite a story as well, host Tennessee was a lock to win many events at the championship meet and score the bulk of their team points in the distance events and they did not disappoint. Phoebe the defending champion at 800 meters was able to defend her title with a solid 2:01.81 effort over the three LSU Tigers that included senior and runner-up LaTavia Thomas. Brittany Sheffey was the teams best hope in the 1,500 finishing second to Charlotte Browning who won the mile indoors at both NCAA's and the SEC meet. Browning clocked in a 4:13.96 while Sheffey clocked in at 4:19.34. Florida had two big performances in the women's 3,000 meter steeplechase to help aide their team title hopes, senior Julie Northrup and Genevieve LaCaze finished 2-3 respectively with times of 10:23.53 and 10:30.12. South Carolina's Beatrice Bouwitt was victorious with a performance of 10:20.14. The 5,000 meter senior Jackie Arneson of Tennessee was able to go out with a bang while fellow teammate Brittany Sheffey was a close second, their times were 16:20.89 and 16:21.93. Finally Bridget Lyons won the women's 10,000 with a 34:44.88 giving the Georgia Bulldogs 10 points.

The Jumps was were the Florida Gators were expecting to dominate, Shara Proctor certainly aided in assisting with that dominance. Proctor won both the women's long jump and triple jump with marks of 21-11.50 and 43-3.25. Arkansas was able to assert their Pole Vault dominance going 1-2 and tied for 3 scoring a total of 21 points alone. Tina Sutej lead the way with a leap of 13-9.75 senior teammate Janice Keppler was able to reach the mark with more tries. The High Jump was supposed to be the Brittany Carter show, Carter of LSU has already jumped over 6 feet multiple times this season, however freshman Maya Pressley of Auburn was able to come away with the title reaching a height 5-10.75, Carter of LSU was able to reach that mark however it took more tries.

The Throws was another area for the Gators to do well, this group also lived up to the hype. All word in the shot put Mariam Kevkhishvilli continued her dominance with a throw of 59-0 Kevkhishvilli was just shy of her meet record she set last season, teammate Kelly Medeiros was 2nd with a throw of 54-2.50. Senior Evelyn Dekkers was able to claim a conference title as well with a mark of 168-08, ten big points for the Gators. True freshman Ashley Miller of Florida was able hold her own in the women's discus throw reaching 164-05, just shy of Samia Stokes of LSU winning mark of 168-05. The Hammer throw was the only throwing event without any Gator points, Nikola Lomnicka of Georgia hurled the hammer 207-07 to claim the title.

LSU claimed the team title with their ability to score multiple times in almost every event they competed, the 4x100 relay was a huge disappoint hopefully they will get it together by Regionals this should be an interesting group was the get the baton around. For LSU this a great sign of things to come with such a young team.

SEC MEN

The Florida Gators have slipped to number 3 in the national rankings. Their sprinters, the strength of their team have been very inconsistent. Outside of Jeff Demps, we are still waiting on Jeremy Hall and Terrell Wilks to reach their sub 10.2 performances of last season. The Gators started off with some very poor performances in the men's 200 meter preliminaries. Calvin Smith was the only sprinter out of four to make it to the finals. However with a solid team effort the Gators were able to rebound and win the team title over LSU.

In the sprints Florida football star Jeffrey Demps claimed the titled clocking in at 10.06 over Marcus Rowland over Auburn. Kentucky senior Rondel Sorillo who claimed the men's title in 20.66, senior Calvin Smith of Florida was fifth scoring 4 points for the Gators. In the 400 Smith was able to live up to world leading mark of 44.81 finishing fifth clocking in at 45.42. Freshman star Kirani James of Alabama claimed the title clocking in at 45.01. Sophomore sensation Barret Nugent kept LSU's title hopes alive with his win in the men's 110 meter hurdles clocking in at 13.56 over Booker Nunley of South Carolina. Johnny Dutch of South Carolina defended his title with a time of 49.56 in the men's 400 meter hurdles.

The Relay races brought some surprising results, most surprising was Mississippi State over Florida in the men's 4x100 relay, it seems to me that maybe Jeremy Rankin should first leg over Chris Rainey, the men of Mississippi State clocked in at 39.09 while Florida clocked in 39.10. For Mississippi State, Justin Christian, Kendall May, Dwight Mullings and Tavaris Tate got the baton around the track in a blazing time. The Gators consisted of Rainey, Wilks, Hall and Demps. The 4x400 relay almost had a meet record. The Gators led Smith, Tony McQuay, Christian Taylor and R.J. Anderson clocked in at 3:02.69.

The Jumps were a huge highlight for the Gators. In the men's triple jump the Gators were able to score 18 points with Christian Taylor leaping to 54-8.75 to win while freshman Omar Craddock was 2nd with a leap of 53-7. Taylor scored 8 points in the men's long jump with a 2nd place finish mark of 26-10.50. Taylor's mark a championship jump in any other year however Arkansas Alain Bailey leaped to a world leading mark of 27-4.75. In the high jump the gators were only able to score 4 points with Frankie Hammond and Brian Turner in a tie for 5th place with a jump of 6-8.75. True freshman Ricky Robertson of Ole Miss was able to claim the title with a mark of 7-2.50. Senior Elliott Haynie of South Carolina claimed the men's pole vault title reaching a height of 17-3.75.

Similar to the women, the throws was an area for Florida to score well along with the Tigers of LSU. Kemal Mesic finished second twice for the Gators scoring 16 huge points. Mesic's throw of 60-1.25 was not enough to beat senior Israel Machovic of Georgia winning mark of 60-10.50 in the men's shot put. Colin Boeves of Kentucky reached 181-09 which was enough to beat Mesic's mark of 177-02. In the men's hammer throw the Gators were relying heavily on true freshman Jeremy Postin who set a school record early in the season, Postin placed 7th with a throw of 190-11. Walter Henning of LSU was just too much for the rest of the field with his winning throw of 237-03, not far from the meet record. Mario Ariet finished 5th in the men's javelin for Florida with his mark of 214-07. Brian Moore of Georgia added to the Bulldogs great day in the throwing events with his mark of 239-04 to claim the title.

The Gators were able to win their first team title since 1987 scoring 124 team points. Hopefully some of the sprinters can improve as the team gets ready for Regionals in two weeks. Our next post will be a Big 12 review.