NEW YORK — In the final day of what is considered the “Meet of Champions,” the LSU track and field team showcased its No. 1 ranked Lady Tiger squad and the third-ranked Tigers on Saturday, as numerous LSU athletes thrilled the standing-room-only crowd at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York City.
“We had a very good meet this weekend,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “It’s really hard to focus in on any specific performances, but I think that our female quarter-milers really looked good and our male quarter-milers looked good as well.”
LSU finished first in six events on Saturday as the Lady Tigers earned five first-place awards and the Tigers added a crucial win in the long jump competition.
Muna Lee, the Lady Tigers’ 10-time All-American, dominated both the 60-meter dash and the 200-meter competition in the sprint events. After breezing to a meet-record time of 7.25 in the 60 meter, Lee capped off a stellar weekend at the Armory Invitational by posting an NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 23.28 in the 200-meter final.
Up to this point in the 2003 indoor season, Lee has competed in nine individual races in three meets and has not been beaten. She earned first-place finishes in all three 60-meter championships, including the Purple Tiger Invitational, the Gator Invitational and now the Armory Invitational. The Lady Tigers’ national champion from Kansas City, Mo., is also undefeated in the 200-meter event and has won titles at both the SEC West Challenge and the Armory Invitational.
“I was really pleased with Muna Lee,” Henry said. “She had a great day and I thought that Stephanie Durst also looked really good today. John Moffitt had a good day, but not a great day for him. Nicole Toney looked better today in the triple jump and we also did extremely well in the 4×400 relay events, so I think that we did very well this weekend.”
The LSU men’s and women’s track and field teams each had individuals turn in outstanding performances in the horizontal jumping events on Saturday.
The Lady Tigers’ Nicole Toney won the triple jump title and finished third in the long jump competition, while teammate LaToya Payne earned a second-place finish in the long jump. Toney, a junior from West Hartford, Conn., jumped a distance of 43-3 in the triple jump and earned a mark of 19-7 1/2 in the long jump competition. Payne’s distance of 19-9 gave the Lady Tigers’ sophomore a second-place finish in the long jump.
On the men’s side of the horizontal jumping events, both two-time junior college All-American John Moffitt and All-American Traun Smith earned top-five finishes in both the triple jump and long jump competitions.
Moffitt won the long jump event with a mark of 25-5 1/4 and finished second in the triple jump event. Smith, a native of Destrehan, turned in a distance of 51-0 1/4 to place third in the triple jump after earning a fourth-place finish in the morning long jump competition.
LSU’s women obliterated the competition in both the 60-meter hurdles and 800-meter events. In the 60-meter hurdles, the Lady Tigers finished in the top-three positions as Lolo Jones took first place (8.33), RaNysha LeBlanc garnered the second-place spot (8.37) and Tiffany Robinson completed the sweep with a time of 8.50. Both Jones and LeBlanc registered NCAA provisional times in the event.
The Lady Tigers’ Neisha Bernard-Thomas and Marian Burnett finished first and second in the 800-meter competition on Saturday. Thomas won the event with a time of 2:07.57, while All-American Burnett was on her tail the entire race and finished in 2:07.60.
“I think that overall we had a good performance,” said Henry. “We still have a ways to go, but we’re young and we’re coming.”
The LSU track and field teams will next be in action on Friday, Feb. 21, as both the Tigers and Lady Tigers return to Baton Rouge and will host the LSU Twilight meet beginning with the field events at 3 p.m.