HottyToddy.com’s Daily Ole Miss Sports Roundup

HottyToddy.com is giving readers a roundup of all the commentary and information about the Ole Miss Rebels from various publications around the Web.

Readers will be able to check out the latest information in a single post every day throughout the year. Here at HottyToddy.com, we are doing all the leg work to find the information that people may want to hear about Ole Miss sports.

Today’s roundup features Ole Miss Sports, Rebel Walk and ESPN.

Ole Miss Ready to play favorites in the SEC

Photo courtesy of John Bowen

Ole Miss Rebels defensive lineman D.J. Jones speaks from the heart when he talks about the cultural shift taking place in the Rebels’ locker room. There’s no change in expression as he talks. No highs or lows in his voice.

He’s all business, and he’s completely serious.

“Work for a championship,” Jones said. “That’s pretty much it: work for a championship, a national championship, a playoff run.”

Yes, sounds like just another day in the SEC, but consider the source. This is Ole Miss. This is a program that dealt with mediocrity for the better part of half a century before coach Hugh Freeze arrived in December of 2012. The Rebels have just two 10-win seasons (2003, 2015) since 1971 and zero SEC championship appearances.

This is a team that now expects to beat Alabama — which it has done in consecutive seasons — and expects to be viewed by some as a league favorite. This is a team that will come off as cocky, but that’s only because it’s ready for the pressure of being a consistent winner. With 19 wins in two seasons, the Rebels think they’re reloading in 2016, not rebuilding.

Courtesy of Edward Aschoff and ESPN

Ole Miss hopes the hits keep coming in the Governor’s Cup

Ole Miss Baseball captured this moment of history! Stay in tune with Ole Miss Baseball on Instagram for the latest Rebel Baseball news! @olemissbsb

With the season winding down and the Governor’s Cup on Tuesday, No. 9 Ole Miss hopes to continue the offensive rhythm it found against Auburn this past weekend.

Though it took until the eighth inning for the Rebels to get the hit parade started Sunday, the team did not get frustrated with bad swings because they knew sooner or later someone would rise to the occasion at just the right time.

And the bottom of the ninth inning in game three against Auburn on Sunday was the perfect time.

Just ask freshman Ryan Olenek or junior Henri Lartigue how great it is to be a part of the team’s largest ninth-inning comeback since the Rebels trailed Mississippi State by five before ultimately winning in the 10th inning on May 9, 2015.

Sunday afternoon marked the second time this season Ole Miss (31-10, 10-8 Southeastern Conference) has rallied back from a deficit of five runs or greater. (The Rebels trailed Memphis 6-0 on March 2 before defeating the Tigers 9-7.)

Courtesy of Courtney Smith and the RebelWalk.com

Ole Miss Men’s and Women’s Track Teams Enter National Top 25

Photo by Joshua McCoy/Ole Miss Athletics
@olemisspix

For the first time this year, both the Ole Miss men’s and women’s track & field teams are ranked among the nation’s top 25 at the same time.

In this week’s iteration of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) national rankings announced Monday, the Rebel men jumped up to No. 20 and the women entered at No. 24. It’s the first time that both teams have been ranked together under first-year head coach Connie Price-Smith and the first time overall since the final indoor rankings of 2011.

“It’s nice to be ranked in the top 25 in both programs,” Price-Smith said. “It means both programs are excelling nicely going into conference. Hopefully it also shows the athletes that they’re doing great things and will motivate them to keep working hard toward their goals.”

Both squads are ranked for the first time this outdoor season. The men were 17th in the indoor week four poll, while the women were 23rd during week three of the indoors season.

The USTFCCCA rankings are a mathematical projection of teams’ scoring chances at the NCAA Championships based on the current season results. As usual, the Southeastern Conference leads the way with nine men’s teams and 10 women’s teams in the top 25. No other conference has more than five on either side.

The Ole Miss men surged up to No. 20 thanks to some brilliant performances in distance races at the Virginia Challenge last weekend. Sophomore Craig Engels continues to rank No. 2 nationally in the 1500 meters (3:38.82), while junior Robert Domanic joined him in the national top 10 with a personal-best 3:40.95 that ranks him No. 2 in school history. The Rebels have four men in the top 18 in the 1500 meters, with junior Trevor Gilley at No. 12 (3:41.77) and junior Sean Tobin at No. 18 (3:42.14).

Sophomore Dempsey McGuigan is eighth nationally in the hammer throw with a school-record mark of 69.59m/228-4 from the April 8 Tiger Track Classic.

Other Rebel men ranked top 26 nationally in their events include Engels in the 800 meters (17th, 1:47.17), Nathan Loe in the hammer throw (24th, 65.41m/214-7), Wesley Gallagher in the 10,000 meters (25th, 29:13.67) and MJ Erb in the steeplechase (26th, 8:51.49).

The women are No. 24 in the nation thanks in large part to the throwing prowess of sophomore Raven Saunders, who is the national leader in the shot put with an SEC-record and No. 7 all-time collegiate mark of 18.75m/61-6.25. She is also eighth nationally in the discus with a school-record heave of 56.85m/186-6.

Other Rebel women who have earned top-25 status in the nation are Emily Bean in the 10,000 meters (13th, 33:39.36), the 4×100-meter relay squad of Nicole Henderson, Shannon Ray, Breanna Tate and Khadijah Suleman (14th, 44.03), Mary Alex England in the 10,000 meters (16th, 33:47.91) and Lindsey Murray in the pole vault (18th, 4.22m/13-10).

If the season ended today, Ole Miss would send 14 men’s athletes in six events (15 entries) to the NCAA East Preliminary, held May 26-28 in Jacksonville, Florida. The Rebels would send 12 women’s athletes in 10 events (16 entries). The top 12 finishers in each event at the regional preliminary round move on to Eugene, Oregon, for the June 8-11 NCAA Championships.

For more information on Ole Miss Track & Field, follow the Rebels on Twitter at @OleMissTrack, as well as Facebook and Instagram.

HottyToddy.com sports 

Follow HottyToddy.com on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat @hottytoddynews. Like its Facebook page: If You Love Oxford and Ole Miss…