Ruzevic Shines on Opening Day of LSU Relays

Mar 23, 2012

BATON ROUGE, La. - The Tulane track and field program saw one student-athlete grab a meet record and four women's competitors advanced to Saturday's sprinting finals on Friday (March 23) evening at the LSU Relays hosted at Bernie Moore Track Stadium.

Ana Ruzevic made the opening statement for the Green Wave when she claimed the javelin competition to open up the meet. The senior uncorked a toss of 51.32-meters on her opening attempt to set the meet record by nearly ten feet. Her mark stood up as the best of the day and won the event by over five meters. Ruzevic's mark was the second best toss of her career and was just shy of her school record mark of 51.37-meters.

A trio of Green Wave participants took to the lanes in the 400-meter hurdles and each one of them qualified for the finals. Candice St. Etienne was the top collegiate and second overall finisher with a time of 61.62, marking her second fastest career showing. Zandria Debowles placed third overall in 61.83 and Tiffanie Smith posted her second straight personal best in the event of 63.39 to place sixth.

In the 100 meter, Kasey Rodgers will enter the finals of the event on Saturday with the second fastest qualifying time in the event. The senior won heat three of the event in a time of 11.83 and was just one one-thousandth of a second off of the top time in the race.

Freshman Cody Gibbons had a solid evening on the track for the men's program when he finished eighth overall in the 1500 meter. The rookie covered the distance in 4:11.05 to account for the team's top time in the event this season. Senior Brian Lozes finished ninth overall with a time of 4:15.06.

Raquelle Collins continued her improvement in the long jump in 2012 and grabbed a seventh place overall finish. Collins took to the runway and made her first attempt of the afternoon count with a leap of 5.54-meters to finish as the fifth best collegiate in the event.

Also for the men, Jared Firestone ran 10.94 in the 100 meter and Hampton Farrcompeted in his first competition for the Olive and Blue and ran 16.83 in the 110 meter hurdles.

The Green Wave will continue their stay at the LSU Relays on Saturday, March 24. Events will start at 11:00 a.m. with the women's discus.

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