BATON ROUGE -- The LSU track teams put an exclamation point at the end of this year’s LSU Tiger Relays as both the men’s and women’s 1,600-meter relay teams wrapped up the meet with NCAA leading times during Saturday’s action at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium.
The Lady Tigers were the first to step onto the track and crossed the finish line with a blistering early season time of 3 minutes, 30.83 seconds in the event.
The foursome of Brooklynn Morris, Nickiesha Wilson, LaTavia Thomas and Deonna Lawrence has already established itself as the team to beat for this year’s NCAA outdoor crown after winning the 1,600-meter relay at the NCAA Indoor Championships two weeks ago.
In fact, the Lady Tigers are also the defending outdoor champions in the event as Wilson, Thomas and Lawrence return from the squad that won its third NCAA outdoor title in the last four seasons after lighting up the track with a time of 3:28.07 in the national final a year ago.
After the Lady Tigers set the bar in their final event of the meet, the Tigers followed with a national leading time of their own as the foursome of Reuben Twijukye, Elkana Kosgei, Armanti Hayes and Reggie Dardar carried the stick around the track in 3:06.11.
This marks the first time this season that the Tigers have qualified their 1,600-meter relay team into the regional meet after opening with a 3:10.88 in Arizona last weekend.
“That was a great way for us to end the meet,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “I had a pretty good idea that our teams would run well after a great week of preparation. This was also a more competitive kind of race than what they saw in Arizona last week. We’re certainly ahead of where we were at this time last year with both relays, and those times are further proof of that.
“I really like this track meet because it gives us a chance each year to run all of our relays before we line up against some great competition at Texas. I thought we ran them well these last two days except for the men false starting today in the 4x100. We’ve got to learn to stay in the block.”
Saturday marked the much anticipated debut of the men’s 400-meter relay, which is among the national favorites this season after finishing as the NCAA runner-up a year ago.
After the runner’s were set, sophomore Armanti Hayes came out of the blocks a split-second early to disqualify the Tigers’ “A” team also featuring Richard Thompson, Gabriel Mvumvure (voom-VOO-ray) and Trindon Holliday on the anchor. Hayes bounced back from his false start in a big way by scorching the track with a team best 45.33-second split on the 1,600-meter relay.
Despite the misfortune of their “A” team, the Tigers did qualify their sprint relay into the regional meet on Saturday as the “B” team of junior Jeremy Hicks, freshman Zedric Thomas, senior Ryan Fontenot and sophomore Will Coppage raced around the track in 40.53 seconds.
The Lady Tigers recorded a pair of strong NCAA regional qualifying times of their own in the sprint relay as the quartet of senior Jessica Ohanaja, sophomore Samantha Henry, senior Juanita Broaddus and senior Kelly Baptiste won the event title with a time of 43.62.
Freshman Kenyanna Wilson, junior Monique Cabral, Morris and sophomore Kristina Davis were not far behind their teammates after crossing the finish line in second place with a time of 43.97.
“I thought that was an outstanding job by both of our women’s sprint relays today,” Shaver said. “They both ran really well in a competitive race, and I think that speaks well of our depth that we put together two teams that ran under 44 seconds. That’s an event that will play an important role for us if we hope to contend for a national championship this year.”
In addition to their success in the relays, the Tigers added a pair of individual regional qualifiers during Saturday’s action as Thomas won the triple jump title with a season opening mark of 49 feet, 10 inches, and junior Patrick Lee won the 400-meter hurdles with a qualifying time of 51.89.
Three other LSU athletes improved their regional qualifying marks on the afternoon, including Wilson (13.19) and Ohanaja (13.32) who cut through a stiff 1.1 meter-per-second headwind to sweep the top two spots in the women’s 100-meter hurdles.
Junior Chad Radgowski won the javelin with a throw of 224-3, which is an 11-foot improvement from his season opening mark at the Willie Williams Classic in Tucson, Ariz., a week ago.
“Nickiesha ran really well and handled the conditions better than the other girls,” Shaver said. “She knew there was going to be a headwind and made the necessary adjustments. Jessica didn’t adapt to the wind as well as Nickiesha did but still ran an effective race. It was also nice to see Chad get back on track after a bit of a rough start to his season last weekend.”
The Tigers and Lady Tigers are heating up as they combined for 13 new regional qualifiers and 10 improved regional qualifiers at the LSU Tiger Relays. They have now qualified a total of 29 athletes and four relay teams into the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships later this spring.
The squads are back in action next weekend as they make their annual trip to Austin, Texas, to compete against many of the nation’s elite squads in the prestigious 81st Texas Relays at Mike A. Myers Stadium. They will then return to Baton Rouge for back-to-back meets as they play host to the Tiger Invitational on April 12 and the LSU Alumni Gold on April 19.
LSU’s Qualifiers for the 2008 NCAA Mideast Regional Championships (as of March 29, 2008)
Men
Athlete, Event, Time/Mark
Preston Chatham, Javelin, 220-11
Reggie Dardar, 400 meters, 46.85
Ryan Fontenot, 110 hurdles, 13.68
Rabun Fox, Hammer Throw, 210-11
Armanti Hayes, 200 meters, 21.28
Ricky Jean-Francois, Shot Put, 59-1 ¼
Patrick Lee, 110 hurdles, 14.29
Patrick Lee, 400 hurdles, 51.89
Gabriel Mvumvure, 100 meters, 10.37
Gabriel Mvumvure, 200 meters, 21.23
Chad Radgowski, Javelin, 224-3
Zedric Thomas, Triple Jump, 49-10
Adam Wilcox, Shot Put, 56-0
Hicks, Thomas, Fontenot, Coppage; 4x100-meter relay; 40.53
Twijukye, E. Kosgei, Hayes, Dardar; 4x400-meter relay; 3:06.11
Women
Athlete, Event, Time/Mark
Angel Boyd, 100 meters, 11.71
Angel Boyd, 100 hurdles, 13.04w
Monique Cabral, 100 meters, 11.54w
Brittani Carter, High Jump, 5-8 ¾
Kathy Coleman, Long Jump, 19-10 ¼
Kristina Davis, 100 meters, 11.67w
Brittany Hall, 400 meters, 54.26
Tenaya Jones, 100 hurdles, 13.70w
Deonna Lawrence, 400 meters, 53.44
Anna Lyons, Javelin, 158-8
Brooklynn Morris, 400 meters, 53.29
Jessica Ohanaja, 100 hurdles, 13.32
Katelyn Rodrigue, Pole Vault, 13-1 ½
Kim Williams, Hammer Throw, 183-0
Kenyanna Wilson, 100 meters, 11.50
Nickiesha Wilson, 100 hurdles, 13.19
Ohanaja, Henry, Broaddus, Baptiste; 4x100-meter relay; 43.62
Morris, Wilson, Thomas, Lawrence; 4x400-meter relay; 3:30.83