BATON ROUGE — A school record-breaking performance by junior Muna Lee headlined the LSU track and field team’s impressive performance at the Purple Tiger Invitational Saturday.
Lee’s sizzling, NCAA automatic mark of 7.20 in the 60 meters not only set a school record, but a Carl Maddox Fieldhouse record as well. Her time bettered the previous school record mark of 7.21 that she had shared with Olympian D’Andre Hill.
“We’ve had some gold medallists here at LSU and Muna Lee ran faster then any of them today,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry, “That’s a pretty remarkable accomplishment.”
Sophomore Mallory McDonald had a remarkable performance of her own as she won the weight throw competition with a school record and NCAA provisional toss of 64-5. Her mark ranks as the sixth best in the nation to date and is nearly two feet better then the previous school record mark (62-8 3/4) that she set last season.
The highlights didn’t stop there as LSU recorded eight other first-place finishes over the course of the day’s competition. Junior Stephanie turned in a time of 24.42 in the 200 meters to outrun her nearest competitor by almost a full second and grab gold, while in the open quarter the Lady Tigers finished one, two as Hazelann Regis topped the field with a provisional mark of 54.53 and Monique Hall followed with a time of 56.17.
LSU also swept the distance medley relay titles as both the men’s and women’s teams recorded first-place finishes. Tomario Thomas, Jeffrey Fisher, Jamison Carter and Marlon Greensword combined for a winning time of 10:16.85, while the women’s team of Marian Burnett, Brandy Walker, Neisha Bernard-Thomas and Sandra Smith clocked the field’s top time at 12:16.59.
The Lady Tigers also ran away with the top-two spots in the 4×400-meter relay as the team of Nadia Davy, Keioike Lutcher, Monique Hall and Hazelann Regis took first (3:43.9) and the quartet of Althea Thomas, Brandy Walker, Neisha Bernard-Thomas and Marian Burnett followed in second (3:45.27).
In the field events junior John Moffitt again paced the Tiger team. Already leading the nation in the long jump after last week’s performance at the SEC West Challenge, Moffitt improved upon his season-best, recording a mark of 25-8 3/4 to win the event for the second straight week. Moffitt’s jump was just short of the NCAA automatic mark of 25-9 1/4, but it still provisionally places him at the national meet.
In the men’s shot put junior Joe Lochridge won his second title in as many meets turning in a toss 57-4 3/4. Sophomore Katie McKeever matched his effort claiming the women’s shot put title with a distance of 48-9 1/2.
“It’s a long climb to the top, but we took another step towards it today,” said Henry. “We are beginning to develop some consistency in a number of events and if we continue to do that we are going to improve pretty quickly.”
The LSU track team returns to action next week when it hosts the Bayou Bengal Invitational Friday at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse.