After placing among the top eight individuals in the nation in their events at last week’s NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, three Ole Miss Rebels have garnered first team All-America status from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
Jalen Miller, Brooke Feldmeier and Phillip Young all made the finals in their events in Fayetteville, setting them up for this prestigious honor.
Ole Miss now has 123 All-America selections among 63 different athletes in program history.
Miller, a sophomore from Tunica, Mississippi, placed third in the 60 meters with a time of 6.57. He was the top qualifier in the semifinals in a school-record 6.54. He finished the season with an NCAA-best 10 runs of 6.60 or better. His third-place result was the best by an Ole Miss 60-meter runner since Mike Granger’s runner-up finish in 2011.
Miller was a first team indoor All-American last season as a freshman when he placed eighth in the 60 meters. He was an honorable mention outdoor All-American as a member of the Rebels’ 4×100-meter relay squad.
Feldmeier finished eighth in the 800 meter final in 2:05.80. The Olympia, Washington, native capped a phenomenal rookie season by being one of only 13 freshman women to place top eight at the NCAA indoor meet. Her time of 2:04.30 in the semifinals broke her own school record that she set in a runner-up finish at the SEC meet.
Feldmeier is the Rebels’ first freshman woman to earn indoor All-America honors since Asia Cooper in 2013 and the first Rebel to be an All-American in the 800 meters since Sofie Persson in 2011.
Young had a career day in the triple jump, posting an indoor personal-best 53-4.5 to finish eighth in Fayetteville. With that jump, he moved into the No. 2 spot in the Ole Miss indoor record books. The senior from Key West, Florida, also had jumps of 52-10.75 and 52-10.25 that surpassed his previous indoor best. Of note, Young was twice before a top-eight finisher and indoor All-American (as a Florida State Seminole) in 2012 and 2013 with jumps of 52-6 and 52-1.75, respectively.
Young is the Rebels’ first indoor triple jump All-American since Brandon Atkinson in 2004.
Senior Fabia McDonald received honorable mention All-America status for qualifying for NCAA indoors in the pentathlon. After completing four of five events, she was unable to finish due to a hamstring injury.
First-team honors were given to those who placed in the championships’ top eight in an event or were a member of an eight-person final. Second-team honors were earned by those who finished between ninth and 16th place. Honorable mention distinction was given to those who qualified for the national meet but did not finish or were disqualified from their event at the championships. USTFCCCA membership by a program is required to earn All-America awards.
The Rebels will now turn their attention to the outdoor season, which begins Thursday at the Alabama Relays in Tuscaloosa.
For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field, follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissTrack and on Facebook at Ole Miss Track. And follow Coach O’Neal at @CoachBrianOneal.
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