BATON ROUGE, La. – Ole Miss women’s track & field proved its worth in the best conference in the country yet again, as the Rebels finished a women’s program record fourth overall to close out an excellent stay at the 2023 SEC Outdoor Championships on Saturday.
The 10th-ranked Rebel women finished with 73.5 total meet points, which was good for fourth behind No. 3 Arkansas (134), No. 2 Florida (112) and No. 7 Texas A&M (86), as well as ahead of other top-10 teams No. 8 Georgia (sixth, 57), No. 6 LSU (seventh, 53) and No. 9 Kentucky (tied for eighth, 50). Almost half of Ole Miss’ points came from spectacular seniors McKenzie Long (17.25) and Jalani Davis (16), who by themselves combined for 33.25 points.
The fourth-place finish today breaks the previous record of fifth set by the Rebel women back in 2018, and it ties for the best overall in the history of the women’s program. Under eighth-year head coach Connie Price-Smith, Ole Miss has now either tied or set SEC record finishes twice on the women’s side outdoors (fourth, 2023; fifth, 2018), three times indoors (fourth, 2023; fifth, 2022; fifth, 2017), as well as twice for the Rebel men indoors (third, 2017; third, 2016).
The Rebel men, meanwhile, had a strong meet of their own, finishing tied for seventh with No. 4 Alabama at 58 meet points.
“I am really proud of our athletes and coaches for a job well done,” Price-Smith said. “There were a lot of great things that happened for us all week here in Baton Rouge, and it speaks to all the hard work they’ve put in. This was a complete team effort for both our women and men.”
McKenzie Long caught the track world by storm after a shocking indoor season, followed by a stupefying performance at the Texas Relays to open her outdoor season back in March. She entered among the favorites in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes – as well as a crucial component of the Ole Miss 4×100-meter relay squad – and Long proved she belongs among the elite with an incredible workhorse performance on Saturday.
Long came away as the SEC Champion in the women’s 200-meter dash, edging out Tennessee’s Jacious Sears by six hundredths of a second at the line, winning 22.39 to Sears’ 22.45 at a completely still 0.0 meters per second wind-reading. That time was just off her career-best 22.31 (+1.8) from last month but was good enough to…
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