DURANT, Okla. – Southeastern will head into the 2024 women's track and field season picked to finish eighth in the Great American Conference according to the league's preseason poll released on Thursday.
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The Savage Storm picked up 31 points in the poll, finishing one point behind Southern Nazarene in seventh and four behind Arkansas Tech in sixth.
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SE was picked to finish ahead of ninth-place East Central who had 23 points with Southwestern in 10
th place rounding out the poll.
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Oklahoma Baptist was the preseason favorite with eight of the 10 first place votes, while Harding was picked second with the remaining two first-place nods.
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Southern Arkansas was third in the poll, followed by Northwestern Oklahoma State and Ouachita Baptist who were tied for fourth.
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Southeastern is coming off a ninth-place finish in the outdoor season a year ago, led by all-conference finishes by
Alexis Longoria, the 4x100 meter relay, the 4x400 meter relay, and
Samantha Wallis.
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Longoria and Wallis each return for the 2024 campaign and are joined by a trio of athletes who rank in the top-25 in the Central region in one or more events coming out of the indoor season.
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Makensi Greenwood finished the indoor season with the 25ht best mark in the 800 meter, while the 4x400 meter group was ranked 18
th.
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In the field events, Micayla Needham posted the programs first NCAA DII provisional qualifying mark which ranked sixth in the region in the shot put, while
Jayda Williams was 23
rd regionally in the triple jump.
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