BATON ROUGE — While pessimists point out that there has been significant turnover in the LSU track and field program, the newcomers seem to be doing just fine.
For the second consecutive week, the LSU newcomers stole the show, as both the men’s and women’s squads were particularly sharp at the LSU Purple Tiger at the Carl Maddox Field House on Saturday.
“We had about as good a day as we could have had,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “Our newcomers are coming along exceptionally well and the people we expect to step up are doing just that.”
The Tigers and Lady Tigers dominated the sprints, picking up four wins by newcomers in the process, part of a day that saw LSU win 11 events overall. But the highlight of the day was a scintillating triple jump competition with five of the premier American jumpers on hand.
Walter Davis made his much anticipated LSU debut and did not disappoint. In a competition that saw four jumpers surpass the 55-foot plateau, Davis won the event, breaking the LSU school record in the process with a jump of 55 feet 6 1/4 inches. SEC triple jump champion Marcus Thomas picked up right where he left off a year ago, also registering an automatic mark with a jump of 54-0 1/2.
Davis won the event on his sixth and final jump, beating U.S. Olympic teammate LeMark Carter, who came up with a jump of 55-3 3/4, former All-American Kenta Bell who came up with a jump of 55-2 1/4 and former LSU All-American and NCAA champion LeVar Anderson who finished fourth with a mark of 55-0 1/4. Thomas finished fifth despite his tremendous effort.
The triple jump concluded what had been a tremendous day for LSU all around.
A pair of Lady Tiger freshmen came up with wins in the short sprints, as Lolo Jones looked sharp, winning for the second consecutive week in the 60-meter hurdles with an NCAA provisional time of 8.39 seconds, while Muna Lee won the 60-meter title with a provisional time of 7.41.
Jones exploded out of the blocks and seized control after the 30-meter mark. Jones spearheaded a Lady Tiger attack that notched four of the top five positions. April Sams finished second in 8.45, just .001 off the provisional standard, while freshmen Zamyal Jackson and Tiffany Robertson finished third and fifth respectively.
Lee’s victory in the short sprint capped another 1-2-3 finish for the Lady Tigers, as she edged All-Americans Sa’Donna Thornton and Myra Combs for the title. Thornton matched her winning time of a week ago, clocking a provisional 7.42 while Combs ran a time of 7.52.
Lee also finished second in the 200-meter dash to teammate Ronetta Smith, a fellow newcomer, who led a 1-4 LSU finish with a time of 24.50. Jemia Ellis finished third followed by Jones in fourth.
On the men’s side, it was Alleyne Francique who made a successful debut in his first open event at LSU. Francique, the junior college national champion in the 400-meter dash, ran his first open quarter at LSU as cruised to a solid 48.35 victory.
Francique opened to a 22.2 split through the first 200 meters and eased his way in for the comfortable victory on LSU’s notoriously narrow turns.
Freshman Robert Parham won the men’s deuce in a time of 21.83, giving LSU a sweep of the 200-meter dashes. Dwhyte Barrett looked strong, finishing second with a time of 21.97.
Greg Scott gave LSU a sweep of the short hurdle titles, taking the men’s 60-meter hurdles. The junior from Gonzales ran a clean race and picked up the win in a time of 7.93, just off the NCAA provisional standard.
The men’s triple jump wasn’t the only hot jumping event for LSU on the day. Myra Combs led a 1-4 LSU finish with a victorious leap of 20-5, an NCAA provisional qualifier. Chenelle Marshall finished second with a jump of 19-9 1/2, while Bianca Rockett finished third and Ashley Gardner fourth.
The Lady Tigers combined to break two school records in the morning session of the Purple Tigers Invitational. Candice Gonzalez broke the LSU record in the 20-lb. weight throw and claimed the title in the event, while Randi Opperman broke the LSU pole vault record.
Gonzalez won the event with a throw of 55-4 3/4, bettering the previous LSU record of 54-6 set by Angela Jones last year. Gonzalez won the event by nearly five feet, besting Anne-Laure Gremille of Texas-El Paso, who finished second with a mark of 50-5 1/4. Opperman finished third in the pole vault, but broke the LSU record with a clearance of 10-6, bettering teammate Margaret Reaves’ previous best of 10-2. Misty Ballard of Stephen F. Austin won the event and broke the Carl Maddox Field House record in the process, vaulting 12-5 1/2, beating the existing record by nearly a foot.
LSU now turns its attention to a pair of critical road meets over the next two weekends. Both squads travel to Gainesville next Saturday for the Gator Invitational at the University of Florida, before heading to the Tyson Invitational at Arkansas the following weekend, a Golden Spikes event to be televised by ESPN.