Alabama
SEC Indoor Championships
Alabama Men’s and Women’s Track & Field Combine for 12 Medals at SEC Indoor Championships
2/27/2021 8:38:00 PM | Track & Field, Cross Country
The Crimson Tide men earned seven podium finishes and took third place with 72 points, while the women won five medals and took sixth as a team with 56 points
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Alabama men's and women's track and field teams combined to win 12 medals, set a championships record and broke three school marks this week at the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships, which were held in Fayetteville, Ark.
The Alabama men, who were ninth at this meet a year ago, powered through to a third-place finish with 72 points on the strength of six podium finishes, including a gold medal performance by Isaac Odugbesan in the shot put. The women took sixth place with 56 points, paced by a win in the distance medley relay with a championships and UA record.
The men more than doubled their point total from last season and jumped six places in the team standings, posting their best finish since winning the title in 2018.
Head Coach Dan Water Said
"You look up and down our lineup and we just had a great meet. We competed tough, we scrapped for every point and just really laid it on the line the whole week. Things didn't go perfectly, and we left some points out there, but we never gave up, and the effort was phenomenal all the way through and it showed. We're super proud of this group and we're really looking forward to keeping things rolling and getting better as we move forward."
Alabama Men on the Podium
- Isaac Odugbesan opened the final day of competition by winning the shot put with a toss of 67-3.25 (20.50m)
- Odugbesan's winning throw broke the Crimson Tide's 40+ year old school record of 66-2 set in 1980 by Olympian Hreinn Halldórsson
- Eliud Kipsang ran an 8:04.22 to take second in the 3,000-meters
- Christian Edwards used a PR of 54-7¼ (16.64m) to take the silver medal in the triple jump
- Grady Shiflet ran a hard-nosed 1:50.30 to take the bronze in the 800-meters
- Ryan Lipe soared to a bronze-medal finish with a leap of 17-2 ¾ (5.25m) in the pole vault
- On the championships' first day, Bobby Colantonio Jr. took second in the weight throw with a toss of 73-6 (22.40m)
- In the first race of the week, Jace Jones, Gabe Serrano, Shiflet and Kipsang combined to take second in the distance medley relay with a time of 9:31.77
Alabama Women on the Podium
- The Crimson Tide women struck gold in the distance medley relay (DMR), the first race of the meet, after Jami Reed, Christal Mosley, Lauren Turner and Amaris Tyynismaa turned in an SEC Championships and UA school record time of 10:59.21
- With its record setting time, Alabama became the first women's squad under 11 minutes at the SEC Championships
- After anchoring the Tide to gold in the DRM, Tyynismaa went 4:35.38 to take second in the mile
- Tamara Clark took the silver medal in the 200-meters with a time of 22.70
- Cherisse Murray used a career-best toss of 56-2½ (17.13m) to take silver in the shot put
- Mercy Chelangat finished third in the 5,000-meters on the championships' second day with a time of 15:48.38
Also Scoring for the Crimson Tide
- The men's 4x400-meter relay of Gabe Serrano, Leander Forbes, Joshua Sinclair and Champion Allison took fourth place after running a 3:04.90 to close out the men's meet
- Tamara Clark scored in the 60-meters, taking fourth place, just .002 out of third, with a 7.203, before coming back later in the evening to take silver in the 200-meters
- Mercy Chelangat (9:06.63) and Jami Reed (9:19.86) both scored in the 3,000-meters, taking fourth and seventh, respectively
- Nickolette Dunbar scored in the shot put, taking fifth place with a toss of 53-2¾ (16.22m)
- Chago Basso scored in the shot put, taking fifth with a throw of 59-1¼ (18.01m)
- Jake Spotswood took sixth in the heptathlon over the championships' first two days with a school-record total of 5,603 points
- Champion Allison (45.97) and Leander Forbes (45.99) scored in the 400-meters, taking sixth and seventh, respectively
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Players Mentioned
