BATON ROUGE - Throughout his squad's preparation for the 2008 outdoor track and field season, Southeastern Louisiana University track and field head coach Sean Brady stressed the need for his squads to "peak at the right time of the year." As the stretch run of the outdoor season now approaches, Brady is even more confident that his team is on the right path after several personal and school records were rewritten at the prestigious LSU Alumni Gold in Baton Rouge on Saturday.
"It was a very good meet for us," Brady said. "We had several student-athletes step up in many different events, and any time you can post some personal and school records and earn some NCAA Regional qualifying marks against a very deep field like this, it's a good day. It looks like we're starting to peak right when we need to. This bodes very well for us as we continue to prepare for the Southland Conference Championships."
The men's 4x400 m relay squad turned in the most noteworthy performance on Saturday. The relay squad of George Cunningham, Shannon Grover, Jerel Butler and Adlus Wiltz turned in a time of 3:09.83 to claim fourth place. In doing so, the quartet posted a new school record in the outdoor event and earned a NCAA Regional Qualifying bid by coming in .17 seconds under the qualifying time of 3:10.00.
Several Lion and Lady Lion distance runners turned in notable performances, but sophomore distance runner Everlyn Matonyei led the way for the women's squad with a pair of impressive perfromances on Saturday. The Kenyan native posted a new school record with a 4:39.81 mark in the 1500 m run after clockin in at 2:18.43 in the 800 m run.
Senior thrower Teremine White once again stole the show in the discus as his toss of 184 ft. 1 in. (56.12 m) marked the third time this season the veteran thrower surpassed 180 ft. White currently owns the 14th best throw in the nation at 57.07m. The Donaldsonville native also claimed fourth in the shot put with a 54 ft. 2 in. (16.51m) throw.
The only lowlight for the Lions on the day was an injury suffered by freshman jumper Michael Rheams.
"Michael's injury hurts us a little," Brady said. "We'll need to get him healthy as we get ready for the stretch run of the season. But we'll take some time and see how he feels the next couple of days after treatment."
The Lions will return to action with a scheduled trip to the prestigious Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa April 24-26.