MSU ready to show skill in home meet

Logan Boss looks at this weekend's home track meet for Mississippi State a little bit differently than other athletes on the team.

For the graduate jumper from O'brien, Florida, the Al Schmidt Bulldog Relays hosted at the Mike Sanders Track Complex this weekend will also be treated like a senior day.

The meet will be the only one for the Bulldogs in Starkville this season and Boss looks to take advantage of it.

“It's the last one I get to experience being on the team and here at home,” Boss said. “I'm excited to have my family come out. It's been a year since I've represented Mississippi State and jumped. I'm excited to get back into it and get started.”

There will be quite a bit of athletic activity going on at MSU over the weekend with a key baseball series against Auburn at Dudy Noble Field, a home softball series against Auburn at Nusz Park, the first and second rounds of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament at Humphrey Coliseum and several other events.

Interim track coach Chris Woods of the Bulldogs is happy to showcase his team as a part of that with the only home meet and expects “a great atmosphere.”

“I think this is the best weekend to do it,” Woods said. “There are so many sports going on so we're excited to have so much foot traffic as we are planning to have here. For me as a coach and an alumni here, it's exciting for me to be able to get these kids the opportunity to perform at a high level in front of the same crowd that cheers them on from afar.”

The men will carry on the momentum from a successful indoor season into outdoor. Just this week, the Bulldogs achieved a No. 12 ranking.

Woods wants to build on that and continue to reach goals set out for the team.

“Obviously, that's not where we want to rest our hat on,” Woods said. “We've got our own internal team goals as a program on both the men's and women's side and 12th doesn't quite hit the mark, so there are things we've got to do in order to reach our team goals. Obviously the success of the javelin program with coach (April) Thomas has done helps us get to that ranking as well. For us to reach our goals nationally, we have to identify a few more events that we can score in. I think as a coaching staff, we have done that."

The Bulldogs are led by the javelin duo of Anderson Peters and Curtis Thompson, while 800-meter runner Marco Arop owns the top time in the NCAA at 1:45.25. Dejon Devroe has also excelled in the 800 meters.

Woods expects the outdoor season to become tougher as MSU moves on from this weekend and that was by design.

“The way we set up the outdoor schedule is each meet, we want to get a little more difficult or a little more challenging each week to prepare for the conference championship and first rounds of the national championship," Woods said.

Admission is free to the events of the Al Schmidt Bulldog Relays.