LAFAYETTE, La.- In their second meet of the outdoor season the Tulane track and field program headed to the Louisiana Classics, with a handful of student-athletes setting new personal bests at the Ragin' Cajuns Track and Soccer Complex. Three Green Wave runners claimed individual titles and nine others claimed top-five finishes on the day.
Rebecca Coady set a new personal best in winning the 800 meter run, as the senior topped the field by over five seconds. Coady, a native of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, won her second straight 800-meter race of the outdoor season in a time of 2:11.67. Her time set a new career mark, besting her previous mark of 2:12.10 that she set on April 17, 2010. One of the other Green Wave wins came from freshman Tiffany George who topped the 30-person field in the 100-meter dash timed final. The rookie won the opening heat of the event in a time of 11.84 - setting a new PR - and that time stood up as the winning time for the event. The Zachary, La. native also helped the 4x100-meter Relay team to a second place overall finish and a time of 45.45, just behind Mississippi State (45.20). Jordan Vance ran the 3000-meter Steeplechase for the first time in his career at the Classics and won the event with a time of 10:23.06. Vance defeated the field by six seconds to collect the first individual title of his career. In the 200-meter dash, Kasey Rodgers posted a new career best in the event to finish runner-up. The junior broke the tape in 23.95-seconds and cruised past her previous career mark. Rodgers had never covered the distance in under 23-seconds and topped her PR by nearly a full second (24.72, 5/8/10), finishing just 0.18 behind Taneisha Baker of Mississippi State. Zandria Debowles set a new career mark in the high jump for the second straight week, clearing a height of 1.70-meters to place fourth in the event. Freshman Joanna Lapucha cleared the bar at 3.40 meters in the pole vault to set a new PR and move into second on the all-time list at Tulane. Lapucha is nearing the school record of 3.46-meters set by Lindsey Karlik in 2003.
The next competition for the Olive and Blue will come on March 25th when they travel up to Baton Rouge to take part in the LSU Relays.