EL PASO, Texas - Louisiana Tech junior Jarvis Gotch tied a national leading mark in the long jump as the Bulldogs’ field event competitors dominated at the UTEP Invitational Saturday.
Gotch’s mark of 26-0.25 (7.93m) matches Florida’s Marquis Dendy’s national-best mark this season and currently ties Dendy for eighth in the world this year. The mark, which won the event at the meet, ranks second all-time in Louisiana Tech history. He also ran 10.54 in the 100m dash to finish third.
Junior Joshua Cox won the javelin with a school record throw of 228-4 (69.61m), beating his own school record by almost five feet. That mark currently ranks 16th in the nation this season. Aaron Orduno also excelled, winning the shot put (53-7.75/16.35m) and discus (156-4/47.65m). Of the eight field events held, LA Tech’s men competed in five and won four.
The women were also successful in the field Saturday as freshman Chloe Lautric’s height of 5-8 (1.73m) in the high jump claimed the win. The Lady Techsters had a pair of horizontal jumpers finish second as well as Danielle Zenon was the runner-up in the long jump with a mark of 19-1.5 (5.83m) and Jamelia Johnson placed second in the triple jump with a mark of 40-6 (12.34m).
On the track, Taneka Henderson claimed a pair of wins as she finished first with a 1:01.36 time in the 400m hurdles and ran the second leg of the winning 4x400m relay as she teamed with LaQuanda James, Aminah Blount and Aldresha Bailey to run a winning time of 3:42.11.
Yusuf Muhammad sealed the sweep in the 400m hurdles as he won with a time of 51.80.
Kim Francis’ time of 11.84 won her the 100m dash title while she was the runner-up in the 100m hurdles with a time of 13.27. Francis also led off the 4x100m relay that finished second with a time of 45.17.
After spending the last three weeks competing in Texas, Louisiana Tech will return to its native state next weekend to compete at the LSU Alumni Gold in Baton Rouge on April 19.
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