MOBILE, Ala. - On a warm day in Mobile, Ala. the Tulane track and field program saw some good performances from their field events and a handful of personal bests from both the men's and women's teams at the South Alabama Invitational. Brree Carter, Candice St. Etienne and Julius Warmsley all won individual events, while 13 other Green Wave student-athletes posted top-five finishes at the Jaguar Track.
"This is the kind of meet where we wanted a large number of our team members to be challenged," said Tulane head coach Eric Peterson. "They all competed in some races and field events that were going to create good competitive situations for them. I felt like all of our kids were pushed and challenged at a level that gave them all an opportunity to improve and progress. I am glad the meet was as competitive for our team as it was."
St. Etienne posted a career-best time of 62.46 to win the 400-meter hurdles event by over one second. The sophomore topped her former career-best by over two seconds and now holds the teams fourth fastest time of the season.
"Coach Roseby has been working very hard with (Zandria and Candice) to improve their ability to come out of the block more aggressively," Peterson said. "We are trying to get into their stride pattern early in the race. Candice struggled with that early in the year, but today she was great out of the blocks and it really paid off. Candice found her rhythm and that is going to be good for our team. The work (Candice and Zandria) are doing in practice is really paying off and we are looking for bigger things from them in the future."
|
|
 |
Later in the program both the men's and women's 4x400-meter relay teams posted season-best times in their respective races. On the women's side, Jerica Banks led the race off with a solid lead leg, but the next three runners all posted season-best splits to bring home the relay victory. St. Etienne ran the second leg and Hilary Woods later handed to Tiffanie Smith to help the squad cross the finish line in 3:47.82.
The men's squad switched their first two runners in their relay, with Jon Franoleading off and Christopher Arechiga ran the second leg. Arechiga ran a sold second leg after Frano ran a good opening split. Jordon Holtzman then handed the baton to Koplan Nwabuoku who brought home the final portion of the race and claim a second place finish in a season-best time of 3:20.57.
"These are two different stories," said Peterson. "Our women's team has a little more depth than our men's team does. It was a great sign for our women to be able to shuffle the lineup and the order of the race participants and still be able to produce a season best time. That is a really positive sign for our program. As for the men, we did change the order a little bit, changing the leadoff runner, but Jon (Frano) did a good job in the leadoff leg. Chris really ran a good (split) and ran a very competitive second leg. We are showing some good improvement."
Warmsley didn't post a PR on the day in the javelin, but did walk away as the event winner in the event. The freshman let go a 54.61-meter toss to best the field by over ten meters. He later tossed a personal best of 38.00-meters in the discus to finish 13th.
"Julius is managing a very challenging schedule right now," said Peterson. "He is practicing three days a week with football and on the other days is working with coach Smith to develop his skills. With an abbreviated practice schedule it is significant for him to be able to come out and win an event like this. We are very encouraged with his progress."
Along with Warmsley having a solid day in the field, Max Yanker tied his career best for the second straight week with a high jump of 1.88-meters and Garrett Myer used a leap of 6.50-meters to set a new PR in the long jump.
Also in the long jump, Carter and Raquelle Collins swept the top two spots in the event with leaps of 5.73-meters and 5.72-meters, respectively. The distance for Carter set a new career best mark. Elizabeth Thomassie set new PR's in both of her events on Saturday by tossing 32.01-meters in both the discus and javelin.
A trip to Knoxville, Tenn. awaits the track and field program next week, as the Sea Ray Relays will be contested on the campus of the University of Tennessee. The competition starts on Friday, April 15 and concludes on Saturday, April 16 at the Tom Black Track.