BATON ROUGE — The LSU track and field team came up with another stellar performance as the LSU Team Championships on Saturday afternoon, as the men’s and women’s teams combined to register 18 NCAA qualifying marks.
“There were so many incredible performances today I don’t think any one in particular could stand out, this was just a fantastic effort,” said LSU head coach. “We’ve got Penn Relays next weekend and then SECs, so we really needed to line some people up in their events and get after it and we did that today.”
The Lady Tigers won the women’s team competition by an overwhelming margin, while the Tigers finished second to Texas in the men’s race. Muna Lee and Stephanie Durst dazzled the Bernie Moore Stadium crowd with strong showings in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, while Alleyne Francique posted a huge mark for the Tigers in the 400-meter dash.
Lee and Durst opened the day by helping the Lady Tigers to a victory in the 4×100-meter relay, joining with Bianca Rockett and Lolo Jones to run an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 44.99 seconds.
Just over an hour later Lee and Durst locked up in one of two great races on the day. Lee took the 100-meter title in an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 11.29, while Durst was second with a high provisional time of 11.39.
But as was the case on Friday evening, it was the 200-meter dash that turned heads. Lee blasted out to an NCAA-leading time of 22.33, while Durst was second at 22.46, the two fastest times in the nation this year. Lee’s time is the second fastest time in the world in 2002 under all conditions.
Francique looked in top form and ran an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 44.87seconds, the second best time in LSU history. The NCAA Indoor champion and collegiate record-holder seized the race in the first 200 meters, hitting the first 200 in 21.6, then holding off teammate Pete Coley for the win. Coley ran a season best time of 45.53, a very high NCAA provisional mark.
Francique and Coley helped the Tigers close out the competition with a victory in the 4×400-meter relay in an extremely fast time of 3:02.88.
Lueroy Colquhoun led off and handed to Coley, while Bennie Brazell ran third and Francique anchored as the Tigers to victory by nearly 10 seconds.
Elsewhere on the track, Robert Parham continued to show consistency at 200 meters and won his event in a time of 20.45, just off his season best of 20.44. Parham ran a technically sound race, taking the lead at the curve before hammering down the straightaway for a comfortable victory.
Walter Davis came up with another big mark in the triple jump, winning by a substantial margin with a jump of 55-5.
Lolo Jones continued to look sharp in the 100-meter hurdles and coasted to victory in a time of 13.17. Jones seemed poised to run a faster time, but a false start by former Lady Tiger great Joyce Bates, competing unattached, took some of the steam out of the race, as Jones beat the depleted field with ease.
Other wins for the LSU on Saturday came from Marian Burnett in the 800-meter, Nicole Toney in the triple jump, Blake Theriot in the javelin and the men’s 4×100-meter relay. LSU returns to action on Thursday when both squads travel to Philadelphia for the 108th running of the prestigious Penn Relays at Franklin Field.
Team Scoring
Men
1, Texas, 142 1/2. 2, LSU, 119 1/2. 3, Minnesota, 90. 4, UL-Lafayette, 66. 5, Houston, 58. 6, Rice, 53. 7, Texas A&M, 50. 8, Alabama, 42. 9, Northwestern State, 38. 10, Tulane, 31. 11, Louisiana Tech, 29. 12, McNeese State, 8.
Women
1, LSU, 233 1/2. 2, Tulane, 78. 3, Alabama, 69 1/2. 4, Houston, 60 1/2. 5, UL-Lafayette, 59. 6, Texas A&M, 50. 7, Louisiana Tech, 48. 8, Northwestern State, 42. 9, Rice, 26 1/2.