Three Rebels medal at Pan-American U20 Track Championships

Published 2:10 pm Monday, July 22, 2019

Ole Miss sent four Rebels to the Pan-American U20 Outdoor Track Championships to represent Team USA in Costa Rica this past weekend, and three of the four came back to Oxford with hardware.

“What a great finish to the end of a very long season,” Ole Miss head coach Connie Price-Smith said. “I am so proud of the way all four of our Rebels competed this weekend and how they represented both the United States and Ole Miss. The future is really bright for this group, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.”

Freshman Brandee Presley won bronze on Friday night in the 100-meter dash before turning around and running the anchor leg in Team USA’s gold-medal winning 4×100-meter relay team.

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Presley is familiar with that final bend on the anchor leg of the 4×100-meter relay, running the same final leg all season for Ole Miss. She becomes the first Rebel woman to win gold at the Pan-American U20 Championships. She was a Second-Team All-American in the 100-meter and 4×100-meter this year at Ole Miss.

Another freshman, Jayda Eckford, had an impressive weekend in her own right. As part of a Team USA one-two punch, Eckford took home silver in the 200-meter dash final. A Clinton, Miss. native, Eckford was a Second Team All-American in the 200-meter this past year. In the process, she became the only Rebel to ever break 23 seconds with her 22.98-second 200-meter run.

Tedreauna Britt won silver for Ole Miss in the shot put on Friday night, making her the only Rebel to ever medal at this meet. The final Rebel at the event was freshman thrower Joseph Benedetto. Benedetto finished sixth in the men’s hammer throw.

The next stop for the Rebel track team is the USATF Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa on July 25 through 28. This meet serves as qualifier for Team USA and the 2019 IAAF World Outdoor Championships.