BATON ROUGE, La. - A pair of beautiful days at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium played host to the LSU Relays, where the Tulane track and field program grabbed a handful of career-bests and one event winner. The Green Wave competed in their first of three relay meets this season and saw 17 personal bests set during the two day event in Baton Rouge.
"I think we got a lot out of this meet," said Tulane head coach Eric Peterson. "We don't participate in relay meets all of the time, even though we do have a few more on our schedule this year, but (relay meets) give us an opportunity to move some competitors into different events that are a lot of fun, for example the sprint medley on Friday. LSU's facility is brand new and the weather conditions were very good, except for a stiff wind on Saturday. We got a lot out of the meet and we are really looking forward to turning the corner into April and getting prepares for our postseason." The field event competitors were a bright spot for the Olive and Blue all weekend, with Ana Ruzevic winning the women's javelin throw and Julius Warmsley setting a new PR in the men's javelin. Brree Carter (Long Jump),Raquelle Collins (Long Jump), Joanna Lapucha (Pole Vault) and Melanie Mainor (High Jump) also set personal best marks in their respective events. Ruzevic used only three of her six attempts in the javelin and uncorked the two longest throws of the afternoon, with her opening throw of 46.95-meters being the eventual event winning distance. The junior currently ranks among the East regions best after uncorking a school-record toss of 51.37-meters in the season opening Tulane Team Challenge. Warmsley grabbed a throw of 58.60-meters in the prelims of the javelin to advance to the finals and sat in second place with a toss of 60.33-meters heading into the final throw of the competition, when Louisiana-Lafayette's Casey Comeaux grabbed a 61.03-meter toss to push Warmsley to third place in the competition.
"Ana is leading the East region with her (javelin) mark from the Tulane Team Challenge and we were not surprised that she won the LSU Relays," said Peterson. "We expected her to do and, even with a sore back, she made three really good throws to win the event. (Ana) and coach Smith are working on some technical things to help her improve and we are excited for her to throw in some of the upcoming meets. The Florida Relays, the Sea Ray Invitational and the Drake Relays will challenge her and prepare her more for the postseason competition and the national meet."
"With really limited practice time, Julius had two very nice throws yesterday in the javelin," Peterson added. "He has a lot of ability and we are really happy to have him out there, with spring football still going on. When I took the job it was one of my goals to give those athletes from other sports that wanted to, compete a chance to help our program. We are thrilled that Julius took the opportunity and is having some success so far this season." In the long jump, Collins and Carter each finished among the top-ten with PR performances in the pit at the Bernie Moore Track. Collins second leap of the afternoon of 5.81-meters was a career-best and gave her a fourth place finish, while Carter jumped only once and grabbed a seventh place showing with a PR of 5.70-meters. Mainor cleared the high jump bar on her second attempt at 1.62-meters for a personal best and tied for fifth in the event, while Lapucha cleared 3.41-meters to earn a new PR for the third straight meet in the pole vault. All three runners in the 100-meter dash set career-bests on Friday night, with Kasey Rodgers and Tiffany George advancing to the finals on Saturday. Rodgers was the top qualifier in the prelims with an 11.49-second showing, George was fourth in 11.73 and Hillary Woods crossed with a career-best of 12.37. In the Saturday finals, the wind was howling down the lanes and nullified any NCAA qualifying marks with a 6.0-mph wind, but Rodgers and George placed second and fourth, respectively, in the event. Rodgers ran 11.33, finishing second to Toshika Sylvester's 11.29, and the freshman George posted an 11.60 time. "I am really proud of Kasey," Peterson said. "The level of improvement that she is experiencing right now is really fun to watch and is significant for her. She loves the sport and is a really competitive person and for her to experience success in the sport is really changing her perspective as a competitor. That (competitiveness) really showed in the finals yesterday when she competed against some really high-level sprinters and finished second. She is now stepping up and competing very well and I know that it won't be long before she comes out and wins some of these races. She is starting to compete on a consistent basis and I know that it will soon payoff." Zandria Debowles had a solid showing in the 400-meter hurdles at the LSU Relays, qualifying for the with a then, season-best time of 61.00-seconds to qualify with the second fastest time. In the finals, the senior cruised to a second place finish and set a new season and career-best mark in the event, crossing the finish line in 59.12-seconds. All five competitors in the women's 5000-meter run set new PR's, with Callie Turlington grabbing a sixth place finish in 19:28.29 in her first race at the distance this season. Katherine Crabtree bested her PR time from earlier this season in the 1500-meter, completing the race in 4:58.31 to finish 11th in a competitive field. Mike Mainguy grabbed a time of 16:21.10 in the 5000-meter to post a PR in the event and the 4x400-meter compilation of Christopher Arechiga, Jon Frano, Jordon Holtzman and Garrett Myer posted the team's top time of the season at 3:21.74. The sprint medley relay team of Rodgers, George, Candice St. Etienne and Rebecca Coady posted a time of 3:56.87 and Jerica Banks, St. Etienne, Woods and Tiffanie Smith posted a new season's best time of 3:50.07 in the 4x400-meter relay. The next schedule meet for the Olive and Blue will be the Florida Relays starting on Friday, April 1 and concluding on Saturday, April 2 in the lanes at the Percy Beard Track Complex in Gainesville, Fla.