SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Stadium records by both the men’s and women’s 4×100-meter relay teams highlighted first-day action for the LSU track and field team at the NCAA Championships here at the Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex.
The Tiger foursome of Kelly Willie, Robert Parham, Pete Coley and Bennie Brazell shattered their previous season best mark clocking the top qualifying time of the day, 38.84, a mark that ranks sixth all-time in the LSU record books.
The women were just as impressive as the quartet of Stephanie Durst, Monique Hall, Lolo Jones and Muna Lee easily outdistanced the field in the qualifying round with a top time of 43.08.
Lee, the NCAA Indoor national champion in both the 60 and 200 meters, began her quest for the another individual nation title advancing through both the first round and the semifinals of the 100-meter dash with the third-best time of the day (11.45).
The Lady Tigers also had athletes advance to the second round of competition in the both the 800 meters, the 100-meter hurdles and the long jump. Neisha Bernard-Thomas finished second in her half-mile heat with a time of 2:05.28. Her mark ranks seventh among advancing athletes.
Lolo Jones and RaNysha LeBlanc both moved on to the second round in the 100 hurdles. Jones won her heat to automatically qualify to Thursday’s semifinal with the fourth best mark of the day (13.39), while LeBlanc finished fourth in the same heat (13.56) to advance with an at-large bid.
In the long jump LaToya Payne moved on to Friday’s final, jumping 20-9 to finish fifth in the prelims.
For the men, John Moffitt advanced to the finals in the long jump and Bennie Brazell qualified into the semifinals in the 400-meter hurdles. Moffitt, an All-American in the long jump during the indoor season, recorded the sixth-best mark of the day, jumping 25-6 3/4. Brazell, who finished second in the 400 hurdles at last year’s national meet, advanced with the field’s fourth-best time (50.18).
LSU will continue its quest for Pat Henry’s 25th NCAA national title when it resumes competition Thursday morning. Field events are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. (PST) and running events will follow at 10:15 a.m.