On Feb. 24, Southeast Missouri State University’s men’s track team made a strong statement and impact in the program, winning the Indoor Ohio Valley Conference Championship.

The Redhawks defeated Eastern Illinois 198-196.50 on Thursday to win their fourth OVC Indoor title and first since 2015.

Over the two-day championship, the SEMO men scored 64 points in jumping events, 43 points in throwing events, 34 points in distance events and 24 points in multis. On Thursday, the Redhawk men won 11 medals, including five gold and five silver.

Junior long-distance runner Terrico Garrett won the men's 800-meter race with a time of 1:53.13. Garrett said he felt he had something to fight for and as if he had a chip on his shoulder heading into the meet.

“To finally win a championship to me feels amazing. This was only my sophomore season for indoor, but last time I watched our men's team lose by 3.5 points, and I was disappointed,” Garrett said. “This year, it felt good to come in as a collective group and just dominate.”

Garrett is still confident in his and the team's ability to win another championship.

“Going forward, this only motivates me to want to do better for outdoor season,” Garrett said. “I want us to use this as fuel to help us win another championship this spring for outdoor and also want to make it past the first-round Nationals in my individual events.”

Junior Markieth Crawford, who helped put points on the board for SEMO in the 800 meters, is joyful all of the hard work the team has put in has paid off.

“For me, it feels like it’s been a long time coming,” Crawford said. “Since missing out on outdoor because of Covid freshman year and being injured for last outdoor season, all the hard work has finally paid off.”

Crawford is using this statement win as fuel heading into the rest of the season.

“I’ll use this win to remind myself of what me and our team are capable of and just do what we need to do to win outdoors, too,” Crawford said.

Byron Sowerby, a sophomore distance runner, also played a crucial role in SEMO’s victory.

Sowerby won silver in the mile with a personal best time of 4:11.73.

Sowerby said he feels this team is more capable than what they’ve shown, and he believes his team is more than ready to showcase their abilities at outdoor meets.

“It was great to finally win a championship and end EIU’s streak,” Sowerby said. “Everyone knows outdoors is the main one; we feel we’re even stronger outdoors, and that’s the big one everyone wants. This championship is a nice confidence booster going into outdoors, but also motivation.”

SEMO will begin their next championship run Friday, March 18, in Memphis, Tenn., against Rhodes College.

The Redhawks will wait for their final indoor rankings after the 2022 OVC Indoor Track & Field Championship to determine if they advance to the 2022 NCAA Indoor Championship, which will take place March 11-12 in Birmingham, Ala.