BATON ROUGE – The Southeastern Louisiana men’s 4x400 meter relay team won its event Friday to cap a strong performance at the LSU Twilight Invitational, the Lions’ final meet before the Southland Conference Indoor Championships.
George Cunningham, Adlus Wiltz, Shannon Grover and Jerel Butler put up a time of 3:18.61 to win the 4x400 meter relay, besting a pair of SLC rivals. The Lions crossed the finish line over a second ahead of Lamar (3:19.86) and nearly two seconds in front of Sam Houston State (3:20.21).
Other highlights included the performance of Cory Roberts in the 60 meter hurdles. After putting up the seventh best time in the preliminaries (8.25), which was his best of the year, he topped that in the event finals. His time of 8.16 gave him a fourth place finish, the best among collegians. He was topped only by a trio of unattached athletes.
Adonson Shallow continued his dominance of shot put. He captured his fourth victory of the season in that event with a toss of 56 feet 3.75 inches (17.16 meters), giving him plenty of confidence going into next week’s championship meet.
Kyle Golden provided the biggest highlight among Southeastern’s distance runners, earning a ninth place finish in the mile run. His time of 4:31.46 set a new personal best, and was the top mark for any Lion this season.
Michelle Ogashi led the Southeastern women’s contingent, setting personal bests in the long jump (17 feet 11.5 inches/5.47 meters) and triple jump (39 feet 0.25 inches/11.89 meters). Her triple jump effort gave her a fourth place finish, followed by Judith Schultheis at 37 feet 0.5 inches (11.29 meters) in fifth.
“Our outlook is good,” head coach Sean Brady said. “For us to win a men’s championship, everything would have to fall into place. We’re also in position for a few women to make all-conference. Traditionally, our athletes really step up at the Southland Conference meet.”
The Southland Conference Indoor Championships are set for Feb. 26 and 27 at the Mosier Indoor Facility on the campus of the University of Oklahoma in Norman.