BATON ROUGE -- Super Sophomore Xavier Carter lit up the track in the men\'s 400-meter, blazing to a nation leading time of 45.78 at the LSU Tiger Classic held on Saturday.
Carter\'s mark led a pack of five Tigers who regionally qualified this weekend. Reginald Dardar (45.86), Melville Rogers (45.96), Marvin Stevenson (46.59), and Siraj Williams (46.88) all surpassed the regional bar in the open quarter, qualifying in their first chance of the outdoor season.
\"I was real pleased,\" said head coach Dennis Shaver. \"We had got a few personal bests today in the 400-meters. All along I felt like these guys could do it, but just haven\'t been able to put it together. Well, they did today and that was really good for us.\"
All-American Kelly Willie qualified for his fourth regional event as he crossed the finish line in the men\'s 200-meter with a time of 20.21. Willie has already qualified in the 100-meter and is a member of the 4x100- and 4x400-meter relay teams.
For the women, Kelly Ann Baptiste turned in an amazing time in the women\'s 200-meter, clocking in at 22.94 in the half-lap event. The mark blew past the regional bar by over a full second. The All-American, who already holds the best wind-aided mark in LSU history, improved her record by a half-second.
Brooklynn Morris and Sherry Fletcher easily finished in the top two spots in the women\'s 100-meter for the Lady Tigers. Morris\' mark of 11.32 makes her the third Lady Tiger to qualify for the NCAA Regional Championships in the short sprint.
LSU\'s women long jump duo of Kathryn Coleman and Tina Harris garnered the first and second place crowns in the long jump. Harris\' mark of 19-9 ½ qualifies her for the regional meet where she\'ll be joining Coleman (19-10 ¼) who qualified last week.
Sophomores Jessica Ohanaja and Angel Boyd and senior Megan Akre swept the top three spots respectively in the women\'s 100-meter hurdles for LSU. Boyd\'s wind-aided mark of 13.65 regionally qualifies the Lady Tiger. Ohanaja (13.47/w) qualified last week at the LSU Tiger Relays.
Tiger long jumpers Jeremy Hicks and Paul Thompson gave LSU the sweep of the long jump, picking up first and second place respectively. Hicks claimed his second straight long jump crown with a mark of 24-11, surpassing his regional qualifying mark from last week for a new season best.
Seniors Megan Kliebert and Sarah Colosimo led LSU to a sweep of the women\'s 1500-meter with Lady Tigers claiming the top five spots. Kliebert\'s time of 4:44.94 is a new personal best for the Thibodaux, La., native.
Lady Tiger Meisue Francis added her name to the regional list in the women\'s 800-meter, picking up the crown along the way. The junior\'s time of 2:08.42 is a season best for LSU.
In the field for the Lady Tigers, Anna Lyons picked up the women\'s javelin crown for the Lady Tigers with a throw of 155-0. The throw is a new personal best for the freshman, who qualified for the regional meet in her first event earlier this season.
Up next for LSU, both the men and women will travel to Austin, Texas, for the 79th Texas Relays on Wednesday. LSU will face a stiff field of competition as the best from around the nation travel to face each other in the historic meet.