BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Mississippi University for Women Track and Field opened its 2024 indoor season this past weekend at the Crossplex, competing in the University of Alabama-Birmingham Vulcan Invitational on Saturday and the Emory University Crossplex Showdown on Sunday. Between the two meets, the Owls set a total of 12 school records.
 
The UAB meet featured a diet of upper division teams, will the Emory event allowed the Owls to compete versus more schools their own size.
 
"I had no expectations coming into this weekend meets," MUW Head Coach Dedrick Burnett said. "I just wanted the kids to have fun and show me that they actually did some of the workouts over the Christmas Break. I must say this was probably the best opening weekend for us since the program started and we were missing some of our top runners."
 
On Saturday's UAB meet, freshman Ty'Kerria Young (Mobile, Ala.) started things off with a record-run in the preliminary race for the 60-meter hurdles, finishing in a time of 9.67 seconds. In women's field events, fellow freshman Arie'Onna McCollum set the Owls' school mark in the weight throw with a heave of 10.63 meters.
 
On the men's side, it was junior Dedrick Gates leaping to tie the school record in the long jump. Gates equaled the previous mark of 6.01 (co-held by himself and former teammate Jacob Vickers).
 
The men's shot put record was set by senior Tanner Collins, who had a toss of 11.84 meters to best his own previous record.  As it turned out, Collins' new record in the shot would only have a shelf life of less than 24 hours.
 
That's because, at Sunday's Emory's Crossplex Showdown, Collins would re-establish the record yet again. This time the Sulligent, Ala., native let loose with a throw of 12.05 meters. His effort would be one of eight new MUW records set on Sunday.
 
Two of those would belong to Gates, as he lowered his own record times for both the 60-meter dash and the 200 meters. In the 60, Gates ran a 7.28 (previously 7.32) and followed with a 23.17 for the 200 meters (previously 23.62).
 
Newcomer Sinaj Lynn became the first MUW competitor in the men's 300, crossing the line at 45.17 seconds.
 
On the women's side of things on Sunday, Young and McCollum both added to their weekend record collection, as well. Young was just a hop, skip, and a jump from a triple jump record with a distance of 10.29 meters (erasing Erin Jones' 2023 mark of 9.89m).
 
Meanwhile, McCollum lengthened the women's shot put distance to 9.42 meters (from its previous mark of 9.01m).
 
Junior Kalee Sanders dropped her own record in the women's mile to 6:51.63 minutes. In the women's 300, Vonisha Towns sliced better than for full seconds off the previous standard (48.46 by Kaitlyn McRee in 2021), hitting the tape at 44.44 to finish sixth, overall, in the race.