Southeastern Wins Eight Events at McNeese Indoor II

 

HAMMOND – The first full-squad participation of the season produced a strong effort Friday by the Southeastern Louisiana track and field program at the Jeff Davis Bank McNeese Indoor II in Lake Charles, La.

Southeastern athletes won eight events while combining for 10 second or third-place finishes.

“We had a good meet,” head coach Sean Brady said. “The jumpers were pretty good. Nia Stewart had a great meet and is really starting to come along. Michelle Ogashihad another strong performance and we established many personal bests.”

The Lady Lions recorded 10 of Southeastern's 18 top finishes. Brittany Pfantz won the pole vault (3.65 meters) and Ogashi won the triple jump (11.79m). Stewart took first in the long jump (5.72m) as well as both the preliminaries (7.20 seconds) and finals (7.20 sec) in the 55-meter dash.

Shannon Grover continued his strong efforts taking home first place in the finals of the men's 55-meter dash (6.41 sec). Other victors for the men included Johnel Reamsin the high jump (1.90m) and Phillippe Moore in the long jump (7.27m).

“It was a lot better competition than I expected,” Brady said. “We didn't see many Texas other than A&M-Corpus Christi. It was some Arkansas and mainly Louisiana schools – a very competitive field.”

Freshmen Kierra Crews (55-meter hurdle – preliminaries, 8.53 sec) and Ikea Kaufman (high jump, 1.58m) finished second in their respective events for the Lady Lions. Ogashi finished third in the long jump (5.61m) and Colleen Butler finished third in the pole vault (3.35m). The Lady Lions A-team also finished third in the 4x400-meter relay (4:00.01).

Other top performances for the men included second-place finishes by Grover in the preliminaries of the 55-meter dash (6.47 sec), and Abram Taylor in both the preliminaries (7.89 sec) and finals (7.82 sec) of the 55-meter hurdles. Third-places finishes included Tarvoris Mack in the preliminaries of the 55-meter hurdles (7.97 sec) and Kovey Simmons in the pole vault (5.00m).

Two Lady Lions, Tess Mullings and freshman Ashley Pfantz, as well as graduate assistant Andon Mitchell participated as unattached athletes and turned in some of the top performances at the meet. Ashley Pfantz finished second to her older sister Brittany in the pole vault (3.50m) and Mullings placed third in the finals of the 55-meter hurdles (8.48 sec). Mitchell finished second in the finals of the 55-meter dash (6.43 sec) after placing third in the preliminaries (6.49 sec).

“I think we answered the questions that we needed answered,” Brady said. “We'll start pairing down our squads and putting some energy into the folks that are ready for the championships.”

The Lions and Lady Lions will compete next in the LSU Twilight meet Feb. 17 in Baton Rouge, La. It will be Southeastern's final competition prior to the Southland Conference Indoor Championships Feb. 24-25 in Tulsa, Okla.

“We need to sustain this momentum for 2 weeks until LSU,” Brady said. “We're excited to face some elite competition.”