Ole Miss Heads to SEC Indoor Championships

Elite athletes from the nation’s top track & field conference will converge this Friday and Saturday in Lexington, Kentucky, for the 2015 Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships.

The Ole Miss Rebels will be in the thick of the competition with some of the fastest runners and strongest jumpers in the conference.

The Rebel men enter the championships ranked No. 4 in the South Region and just outside the top 25 nationally according to the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

Sophomore Jalen Miller is the SEC’s top-ranked 60-meter runner and a favorite to capture the SEC crown this weekend. His school record-tying time of 6.55 at the Armory Track Invitational ranks him third in the nation this year. In seven races this season at the shortest sprinting distance, he has been victorious in each one.

As a freshman last year, Miller placed third at the SEC indoor meet and eighth at the national meet en route to All-America honors.

Senior Phillip Young will look to make a statement in both the horizontal jumps. The five-time All-American (four times at Florida State, once at Ole Miss) ranks third in the triple jump (52-9.5) and sixth in the long jump (24-9) among SEC athletes this year. He is seventh nationally and third in school history in the triple jump.

The high jump looks to be another strong event for the Rebels, who boast two of the top five jumpers in the SEC this year in sophomore Branden Greene (3rd, 7-1) and sophomore Adam Aguirre (5th, 7-0.25).

Ole Miss will try to repeat its SEC title in the distance medley relay with another strong group that currently ranks fifth in the league with a time of 9:40.51.

Leading the way for the Rebel women is freshman Brooke Feldmeier, who ranks third in the SEC and 14th nationally in the 800 meters with a time of 2:05.27 that ranks her No. 2 in school hsitory.

Senior Fabia McDonald has returned from a foot injury she sustained last year and hopes to show off the form that earned her fifth-place finishes at the league’s indoor meet in 2011 and 2012.

The Ole Miss men placed seventh at last year’s SEC Indoor Championships. The last time they finished in the top five at the league indoor meet was a fifth-place showing in 1990.

The meet begins at 9 a.m. CT both days and live results can be found at: http://www.ukathletics.com/sports/c-track/spec-rel/stats_2015_sec.

Tickets will be on sale at the main entrance of Nutter Field House. Single-session tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for youth (ages 3-18) and seniors (65 and older) and free for children ages 2 and under.

The SEC Indoor Championships will be streamed live on SEC Network + during the following times: Friday (2:50-8 p.m. CT) and Saturday (12:50-5:30 p.m. CT). The meet will also air as part of a 90-minute show on ESPNU on Monday, March 9 beginning at 6:30 p.m. CT. The broadcast talent includes Dwight Stones (play-by-play), Larry Rawson (analyst) and Jill Montgomery (sideline reporter).

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.