Duncan Breaks Stadium Record at Alumni Gold

 

BATON ROUGE - LSU's junior NCAA championKimberlyn Duncan solidified her Bowerman Award candidacy as a national title favorite in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 4x100-meter relay with a sweep of sprint titles in record-setting fashion during Saturday's LSU Alumni Gold meet at Bernie Moore Stadium.

On a blustery afternoon in Baton Rouge, the Lady Tigers opened the afternoon session with an easy win in the 4x100-meter relay as Duncan anchored the squad to their second-fastest time of the season.

While joining junior Takeia Pinckney, senior Semoy Hackett and senior Rebecca Alexander, Duncan held up through the finish line for a winning time of 43.35 to take the title by more than a full second over runner-up Louisiana Tech (44.71) and third-place Texas A&M (44.88).

The Lady Tigers already own the NCAA's No. 1-ranked performance in the sprint relay this season with a best of 42.99 this spring that was set in taking the Texas Relays title back on March 31.

After anchoring the Lady Tigers to victory in the 4x100 relay, Duncan returned to the track for the first of two heats in the women's 100-meter dash. Although she had already set the NCAA-leading time under all conditions in the event this year with a top wind-aided effort of 10.94, Duncan smashed her lifetime PR in Saturday's final with a national-leading wind-legal run of 11.05 seconds (+1.0) to remain unbeaten for the campaign in her three appearances in the 100-meter dash this spring.

While Duncan cruised to victory in the first heat, Hackett was impressive in winning the second heat after she crossed the finish line with a wind-aided time of 11.21 (+2.9) that earned her a second-place finish in the event. Tori Bowie of Southern Miss took third place with her run of 11.28 in the first heat.

With the win, Duncan took down the previous Bernie Moore Stadium record of 11.07 that was set 18 seasons ago by former Lady Tiger national champion Cheryl Taplin during the 1994 season.

A native of Katy, Texas, Duncan held a previous wind-legal personal record of 11.09 in the event that she set in a runner-up finish in the final at the NCAA Championships a season ago.

"Coming here, I never thought I would be breaking records or anything like that, but to break the record is very exciting," said Duncan, who was the NCAA runner-up in the 100-meter dash a season ago. "I'm sure I'll enjoy it for a little bit, but I want to keep improving and drop my times even more than that."

Duncan also opened the defense of her NCAA Outdoor 200-meter title on Saturday with a wind-aided run of 22.55 to finish more than a half second ahead of her nearest competitor. But as the wind picked up with the running of the 200-meter dashes late in the afternoon, her race was run with an illegal tailwind of 4.9 meters per second that does not allow for NCAA qualification.

Louisiana Tech's Chelsea Hayes followed well back in second place with her time at 23.10, while Hackett took third place with a wind-aided run of 23.14 in her season opener in the event.

"I was kind of disappointed, but I'll take it. I hope the wind will cooperate next time," Duncan said. "I am happy with how I opened in my first 200 of the season. I'll be very motivated to run my next race. Maybe the wind will cooperate and I'll be able to get my qualifying time."

Sophomore All-American Jasmin Stowers cracked the Top 5 of the NCAA rankings with her easy victory in the women's 100-meter hurdles while extending her winning streak to three-straight in the event.

Stowers, who lined up in Saturday's final following back-to-back wins at the "Battle on the Bayou" event and Arizona State Tri-Meet in her last two appearances, crossed the finish line with a seasonal-best run of 12.92 (+1.0) for the NCAA's No. 5-ranked performance under all conditions this spring. She smashed her previous seasonal-best time of 13.03 in a wind-aided effort at the Texas Relays.

Stowers handed Texas A&M's Donique Flemings (13.00) her first defeat of the season in six appearances this spring. Former NCAA champion and World champion Perdita Felicien of Canada followed well back in third place with her season-opening time of 13.12 in the event.

"We had some great hurdlers here today, so that was very exciting," Stowers said. "I knew I had to go out mentally prepared to do what I needed to do. Coach (Dennis Shaver) has been telling me to just have confidence in my start and focus through the race. I had to have the mentality to go out and do it."

Lady Tiger senior Brieanna Kennedy also continued her strong mid-season form while inching ever closer to the school record in the women's hammer throw in the wake of her victory on Saturday.

It only took Kennedy two throws to raise her personal best to 205 feet, 3 inches as she took the lead in the second round and never looked back as she finished nearly 15 feet clear of Lady Tiger teammate and runner-up Denise Hinton (190-8) in the final standings. Kennedy followed her best of 205-3 in the second round with another strong throw of 201-2 in the third round for another strong series.

Kennedy has now set personal bests in each of the last two weeks as she posted her previous best of 204-7 at the Arizona State Tri-Meet just one week ago. She is now just eight inches shy of the 8-year-old school record of 205-11 set by former LSU standout Britney Henry in 2004.

"Just being consistent going into the championship season is big for me," Kennedy said. "I want to be that consistent and perform when it counts the most. I thought today was going to be the day (to set the school record), but I think I got a little tense when I hit my big throw. I probably got too excited. I learned a great lesson from this meet that I need to just stay relaxed and take each throw as it comes."

Despite chilly conditions with winds gusting up to 15 mph throughout the afternoon, the Lady Tigers took home five other event championships in impressive fashion on Saturday.

Alexander claimed the women's 400-meter title with a strong effort of 53.19, while senior Cassandra Tate won the 400-meter hurdles by more than one second with a time of 57.39 and junior Charlene Lipsey won the 800-meter run with an impressive time of 2 minutes, 3.13 seconds despite swirling winds plaguing the competitors throughout the afternoon. Each has now won two event titles on the season.

The Lady Tigers also claimed a pair of event titles in the throws as senior Samia Stokes posted a top mark of 163-1 to take the discus title and freshman Tori Bliss threw 49-6 ¼ to claim the shot put crown.

The Tigers wrapped up Saturday's LSU Alumni Gold event with a dominating victory in the 4x400-meter relay final as freshman Quincy Downing, senior Robert Simmons, senior Ade Alleyne-Forte and senior Riker Hylton combined for a winning time of 3:07.45 to take the title over Texas A&M (3:09.02).

Sophomore Shermund Allsop got the Tigers rolling in the right direction with a sweep of the "B" sections in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. Allsop raced to seasonal-best wind-aided times of 10.37 to secure the 100-meter title and 20.92 to capture the 200-meter title during the morning session.

Senior Barrett Nugent took home the silver medal as the top collegian in the men's 110-meter hurdles this afternoon after clocking a wind-aided time of 13.41. Former Tigers standout Ryan Fontenot edged Nugent at the finish line with his winning time of 13.39 in the championship.

Senior Aaron Moore added a bronze-medal winning performance in the men's javelin final as he posted a series-best mark of 225-9 on his fifth attempt of the competition.

Freshman sprinter Aaron Ernest also continued his strong form while earning a pair of fifth-place finishes in the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash. After racing to a wind-aided time of 10.16 in the first 100 heat for fifth place, Ernest recorded a seasonal-best wind-legal time of 20.84 in the first section of the 200 with the third-fastest time in his heat and the fifth-fastest time of the afternoon.

"The wind made it a difficult to get some people qualified for the NCAA meet, but I still thought we got a number of solid performances from our athletes on what proved to be a challenging meet," said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. "All you can do is worry about what you can control on a day like today.

"I did think we were very good in that aspect. We showed that we were prepared to compete well today in some difficult conditions. I'm proud of our athletes in the way they approached the competition."

With this year's LSU Alumni Gold meet now in the books, the Tigers and Lady Tigers are set to finish up the 2012 regular season next weekend with their annual trip to Philadelphia, Pa., for the 118th running of the Penn Relay Carnival being held at historic Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania. The event is set to begin Wednesday in one of the truly historic venues in all of track and field.

The teams will then kick off the postseason on May 10-13 as they welcome 11 other SEC programs to the Bernie Moore Track Stadium for the 2012 SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships. LSU will host the SEC Championships on its home track for the first time since the 2000 season.