Official Results
CLINTON – In what turned out to be the closest thing the Millsaps College men's track and field program will have to a home meet this season due to the number of fans in attendance, every member of the team recorded a personal best at the Mississippi College Twilight Invitational on Friday.
With a majority of the fans in attendance clad in purple and white, the Majors had an impressive meet turning in several personal records.
Michael Galatas ran the fastest time this year by a SCAC runner in the 100 meter dash clocking in at 10.94 seconds to finish second behind only Justin Vance from Jackson State University.
Galatas also has the top SCAC performance in both the 200 meter dash and the 110 meter hurdles.
Not far behind Galatas in the 100 was
Christian Broussard who crossed the finish line with a time of 11.55.
In the 200 meter dash,
Cameron Varnado placed second in a time of 22.95 behind Elvis Mzamo of JSU.
However, bragging rights in the Varnado family go to Cameron's older brother Daniel, a former student-athlete at Southeastern Louisiana, who edged out his younger brother by four tenths of a second while running unattached.
Running the 800 meter dash,
Tim Gillis dropped nearly five full seconds off his time from the Rhodes Invite two weeks ago, finishing the race in 2:10.59.
Gillis also ran the 1500 meter race against two strong runners from MC and crossed the finish line with a time of 4:26.55.
Dropping close to a minute off his previous best,
Lloyd Gray won the 5000 meter race in a time of 16:42.98, one of four event champions for the Majors.
Also claiming an individual title was Galatas in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 15.76 seconds.
The Millsaps 4x400 meter relay team of Broussard,
Bruce Pears, Varnado and Galatas won the event in a time of 3:27.22
The 4x100 relay team of Galatas, Pears, Broussard and Varnado were edged out by the team from MC by .04 seconds and finished in second.
Their time of 42.26 is the fastest time turned in by a SCAC team this year, more than a full second ahead of the next closest team.
Varnado opened his afternoon with a strong performance in the long jump recording the best mark by a SCAC athlete at 6.79 meters to place third at the meet.
Pears also fared well in the event finishing with the seventh best mark at 6.28 meters, good enough for a fifth place finish.
In the triple jump, Pears turned in the sixth best jump amongst the SCAC competitors, leaping 13.02 meters while Varnado was not far behind with a jump of 12.75 meters.
Turning to the field events,
Bryce Haddad had a career day for the Majors recording personal records in all four events he entered including a first place finish in the hammer throw.
Haddad finished second in the shot put (12.13m), second in the discus (29.84m) and had yet another second place finish in the javelin throw while all three events were won by a thrower from Division I JSU.
The Majors finished the meet in second place with 76 team points behind champion Mississippi College who claimed the title with 87 points.
“This team is really starting to come together and I expect great things from them the rest of the season” head coach
Andy Till said. “We are excited to get back to work as we prepare for the conference meet in a couple weeks.”
Millsaps has several athletes in multiple events closing in on NCAA qualifying marks and will look to do so when they return to the track for the SCAC Championships in Conway, Ark., April 23-24.