AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn track and field team looks will look to make a statement at the conference level as it travels to the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships Thursday through Saturday at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The Tigers will send 26 men and 26 women to compete in this year's championships.
This marks head coach Leroy Burrell's first outdoor conference championships with the Tigers after spending the previous 23 years as head coach at his alma mater, the University of Houston, where he led the program to 41 conference championships. A two-time world record holder at 100m, Burrell won a gold medal with the United States at the 1992 Summer Olympics as part of the 4x100m relay.
"I am really excited about what we have going heading into conference championship especially as the team's health is rounding into gear," said Burrell. "I told the group, from here on out it is all about trying to put points on the board for Auburn and there are going to be challenges. This is the best track and field league in the world. We have some really good athletes and I want to show a glimpse of what we can be in the future and the foundation we built for this program to grow."
At last year's SEC championships, the Tigers sent six athletes to the podium. Collecting four gold medals and two silver. The gold medal sweep of the long throw events by Madi Malone (hammer), Ashley Carter (javelin) and Maura Huwalt (discus), which marked the first time in conference history that a school has won gold in all three long throw events at the same championships.
Malone and Huwalt will be ones to watch in Baton Rouge as they each will look to become the first Auburn female to repeat as SEC outdoor champions since 2012. Malone enters the weekend ranked second in the conference and fourth in the nationally in the hammer, while Huwalt is ranked fourth in the league in the discus.
Entering the meet atop the national leaderboard is senior high jumper Dontavious Hill. The Mobile, Alabama, native finished second at this meet a year ago clearing 2.21m/7-3 in the men's high jump. Hill has a personal best this season of 2.24m/7-4.25 for the second-best mark in Auburn history just behind Olympian, Donald Thomas (2.35m/7-8.5).
Traveling to his first Outdoor SEC Championships, freshman Keyshawn Strachan has not lost a competition in his collegiate career for which he looks to continue his streak. Strachan threw the conference, national and world leading mark of 84.27m/276-6 at the 2023 Texas Relays in Austin, Texas, back in March.
Sophomore sprinter Favour Ashe was the SEC 100m outdoor champion in 2022 while a freshman at Tennessee. He will look to become the conference's first repeat winner since Kentucky's Tim Harden who won three straight years from 1994-96.
Additionally, making trip to Baton Rouge are seniors Matthew Asplund, Kyle Brown, Erik Ebel and Mo Mpoke, junior John Murray, and freshman Azeem Fahmi, all of whom are ranked amongst the top eight in the conference for their respective events.
On the women's side, Alyssa Quinones-Mixon and Abasiono Akpan, and senior Sanaa Barnes are poised to make noise in their outdoor SEC Championships debut in the Bayou State.
Fans can catch the Tigers in action at SECs via the SEC Network+. Thursday's events will be streamed from 12-4:15 p.m. CT and then from 5:30-9 p.m. CT.
On Friday, the stream will begin at 11:30 a.m. to 4:30p.m. and again at 5-8:30 p.m. CT.
For Saturday's action, the SEC Network+ will offer a stream from 2-3:30 p.m. CT and the SEC Network will broadcast the evening's finals from 5-9 p.m. CT.
Live results will also be available at Deltatiming.com.