Sophomore Jalen Miller celebrates with the landshark during a meet. DM Photo | Dylan Rubino
It’s been a long time since the Ole Miss men’s track and field team finished with such a high placing, but the team placed 4th at the 2015 SEC Indoor Championships at Lexington, Kentucky, over the weekend.
It was the best finish for the Rebels since 1984, capping off a great finish for the team at the E.J. Nutter Field House.
“I’m extremely proud of our young men and women for the way they competed this weekend,” head coach Brian O’Neal said. “We challenged them to go in there and compete with great pride, representing Ole Miss with class and I thought we did that from the beginning and all the way to bell out.”
Representing The University of Mississippi in the strongest manner possible is something O’Neal preaches to his team every day and looks for his athletes to carry out in every meet they attend.
The 4th place finish for the Rebels was largely due to the first place finishes for sophomore Jalen Miller and senior Daniel Bulmer.
Miller, a native of Tunica, Mississippi, won his race in the 60 meters and earned Ole Miss’ first SEC title in school history in the event, almost beating his own personal record by finishing with a time of 6.56.
“I think the sky’s the limit for Jalen. I think it’s always understanding and remembering what brought you to this point and making sure you keep your priorities straight,” O’Neal said. “I think right now he’s very focused on representing Ole Miss and representing his home
state of Mississippi at the highest level.”
Miller had high expectations for himself in his second SEC indoors competition, where he finished third last year, in what Miller said left a bad taste in his mouth.
“I just wanted to come out and compete hard and listen to what my coaches tell me to do,” Miller said. “Day in and day out, I wanted to run my race and I knew I could finish it out.”
Following up the victory by Miller, Bulmer and sophomore Craig Engels finished an impressive first and second in the men’s mile. Bulmer, a native of Australia, is the first SEC mile champion in school history.
“It’s obviously really special,” Bulmer said of the performance from his team over the weekend. “We are trying to build a really good program here and we’re certainly taking steps in that direction. I’m really excited to be a part of that.”
The women finished 13th overall, but a strong performance from freshman Brooke Feldmeier in her second place finish in the 800 meter gives the women’s team positivity for the future.
Coming in as a freshman and performing right away can put a lot of pressure on someone, but not Feldmeier.
“I think it’s more exciting than anything,” Feldmeier said. “It’s a lot of fun coming in as a freshman and I’m really enjoying it so far.”
