STARKVILLE, Miss. – The Samford University men's and women's track & field teams took part in a one day meet that pitted five teams from the state of Alabama and five teams from the state of Mississippi at the Mike Sanders Track Complex on the campus of Mississippi State University.
 
The universities representing the state of Mississippi claimed the men's bragging rights with a 98 to 93 result while the teams from Alabama took home the title in the women's competition 108 to 81; both the men and the women competed in 18 total events.
 
Individually, the Bulldogs continued to surpass previous personal bests and break more school records in today's meet. Four was the actual count on school records set on the day as Claire Goodson, Marie Demedicis, Javion Lee and Brandon Hazouri each put their name atop the school-record books.
 
"I thought the day went about as well as could be expected." Samford head coach Rod Tiffin said. "It was great to see Javion (Lee) back out jumping and Claire Goodson getting it going in the vault."
 
Hazouri turned out to be the standout athlete of the night as his school-record run of 1:48.12 in the men's 800m turned out to be a first place finish amongst a bevy of talented runners. The Birmingham native's time broke his own previous record of 1:48.54 set just last season in 2014.
 
"I think the distance group had another great weekend with Brandon (Hazouri) and Marie (Demedicis) setting school records." Tiffin continued. "Sarah Sanford continues to improve in the hurdles and Karisa Nelson had a big day in the 1,500."
 
In the men's long jump it was Javion Lee who absolutely crushed Samford's previous top mark by more than a meter. Lee tallied a second place finish in the event with a leap of 15.29m which beat out Chinedu Amah's previous record of 14.28m that was set in 2010.
 
The men continued to post impressive results especially after taking the top three spots in the men's pole vault. Gavin Gautreau, Austin Eckenroth and Chris Thrasher took first, second and third place respectively in the event. Gautreau notched a personal best 5.10m vault while Eckenroth and Thrasher turned in marks of 4.70m which was also a personal best for Thrasher.
 
Freshman Sarah Sanford improved on her second-place time of 13.95 to 13.83 to inch closer to the top-mark in the record books in the women's 100m hurdles.

Marie Demedicis and Claire Goodson each improved upon school-record marks that they already held. Demedicis took second place and improved her school-record mark in the women's 800m with a time of 2:07.48 while Goodson improved her school-record mark with a 4.07m.
 
Last season Demedicis set the record with a time of 2:07.84 and Goodson marked a 3.98m mark during the 2014 season.
 
Nelson made strides as she notched a personal best in the 1,500m run with a time of 4:28.96 which was good for fourth place in the event.
 
"Overall I am impressed with the teams' progressions toward our ultimate goal, the conference and national championships." Tiffin ended.