AUSTIN, Texas — The LSU track and field team won four titles on Saturday to conclude a strong weekend at the 73rd Texas Relays on a windy day in front of 20,112 fans at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas. Russ Buller won the pole vault and broke his school record in the event, Keisha Spencer broke the LSU triple jump record, Joyce Bates posted victory in the hurdles, while the Lady Tigers won their first-ever 4×200-meter relay title.
Buller became the first man since 1985 to win consecutive pole vault titles and broke his own LSU outdoor school record in the process, clearing 18 feet 8 3/4 inches. It took only one clearance for the NCAA indoor champion to secure victory. Buller entered the meet at 18-0 + and cleared the height on his first attempt, then immediately moved the bar to 18-8 3/4. The mark surpasses his previous mark of 18-8 1/4 set in El Paso, Texas, last year.
Spencer became the first Lady Tiger to win the triple jump title since Suzette Lee claimed back-to-back titles from 1996-97 and broke Lee’s LSU school record with a leap of 45-10, besting the old record of 45-8. Spencer also broke Lee’s Texas Relays record of 44-11 + in the process and set a new Mike A. Myers stadium record. The mark is tied for third in the world outdoors.
“I feel like I let the wind get ahead of me too much,” said Spencer. “The wind affected me a lot. I had to back off my run of most of my jumps and that affected my speed.”
Bates claimed her first Texas Relays 100-meter hurdle title, blasting out of the blocks and seizing control of the race by the second hurdle to win in 12.82 seconds. A wind of 2.8 meters per second was just over the allowable limit as far as giving her the meet record, but her time is the fastest in the nation this year. April Sams finished fifth with a high provisional mark of 13.26.
‘”t is really important to me that I perform well at big meets like this one,” said Bates, the NCAA indoor runner-up in the 60-meter hurdles. “This is my last year to compete at the university level, so I wanted to prove that I still have a lot of talent. I just wanted to break 13(seconds) and I was able to do that even though I hit a couple of hurdles.”
The Lady Tigers opened the day by claiming their first ever Texas Relays 4×200-meter relay title. Sa’Donna Thornton, Valma Bass, Myra Combs and Peta-Gaye Dowdie combined to run a time of 1:33.77 to easily outdistance second place Barton County Community College.
“This was a good run for us,” said anchor leg Dowdie. “We were second here last year so it was good for us to pull out the win. The wind was really strong and had a big effect on me in the curve. When I got into the straightaway I was able to fight through it until the finish line.”
Less than 90 minutes later the same foursome finished third in the 4×100-meter relay with a time of 44.49. Texas won the event in a time of 43.96, while Barton County Community College placed second in 44.35.
The Tigers finished second in the men’s 4×100-meter relay with their fastest time of the season, an NCAA provisional 39.66. Gerald Green, Derrick Brew, Carlos Garcia and Dwhyte Barrett were clean on each of their exchanges, but TCU continues to be the class of the NCAA, bettering its own national leading time with a winning effort of 38.73.
Greg Scott nearly made it a clean sweep for LSU in the short hurdles with a second place finish in the men’s 110-meter hurdles in a wind-aided high NCAA provisional time of 13.78. Bashir Ramzy of Texas A&M won the event in a time of 13.68.
Elsewhere in the field, Marcus Thomas finished third in the men’s triple jump with an NCAA provisional mark of 53-0 1/4. Bianca Rockett placed fourth in the women’s triple jump with an NCAA provisional effort of 42-4 1/4 and Blake Theriot finished fifth in the men’s javelin with the second best throw of his career, a toss of 218-9.
In action from late Friday night, Likhaya Dayile finished second in the men’s 5,000 meter run with a time of 14:47.53. Bridget Cusack placed fifth in the women’s 5,000 meter run with a time of 17:27.83. Dayile’s second place finish came at nearly midnight Friday evening after inclement weather pushed the schedule back nearly two hours.
LSU returns to action on Saturday in their final regular season home appearance, the LSU Alumni Gold Relays. Field events will get underway at 10 a.m., with running events starting at 1 p.m.