AUSTIN, Texas — LSU’s national champion track and field team cruised through the third day of the 77-th annual Texas Relays as two first place finishes highlighted the action on a very wet Friday at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
Monique Hall, Nadia Davy, Hazel-Ann Regis and Neisha Bernard-Thomas were two one-hundredths of a second off of the meet record in the sprint medley relay (200-200-400-800). They won the event with a time of 3:44.20.
“It was a good day for us today. We were right off a meet record in the sprint medley relay, and our two long jumpers jumped well, ” said LSU head coach Pat Henry.
LeJuan Simon and John Moffitt finished 1-2 in the men’s long jump . Simon won with a jump of 25-8 despite the heavy winds and wet track, while Moffitt had a jump of 25-7 1/2.
The reining national champion Tiger and Lady Tiger 4×100-meter teams picked up where they left off at the 2004 Tiger Relays, both finding themselves with best times going into the finals.
Lady Tigers Lolo Jones, Monique Hall, Nadia Davy and Muna Lee combined to win their heat with a NCAA regional qualifying time of 44.47, and Tigers Kelly Willie, Marvin Stevenson, Pete Coley and Bennie Brazell cruised to win their heat with a qualifying time of 39.23.
In the 100-meter dash, All-American Muna Lee easily won her heat with a time of 11.41. She tied with Laverne Jones of Oklahoma for the best time of the day.
All-American Lolo Jones won her heat in the 100-meter hurdles, recording the second fastest time of the prelims (13.30). RaNysha LeBlanc also won her heat and posted a qualifying time of 13.66, while Brittany Littlejohn clocked a qualifying time of 13.83.
Other notable performances include Keioike Lutcher, Nadia Davy, Tonya Osbourne and Hazel-Ann Regis who won their heat of the 4×400 in 3:36.09 to advance to Saturday’s final.
Paul Thompson finished fifth in the section B of the men’s long jump with a distance of 23-10 3/4, and Taylor Bobo finished ninth in section B of the men’s javelin throw.
Katie McKeever was eighth in the discus posting a regional qualifying mark of 154-3.
Action from the 77th-annual Texas Relays will wrap up tomorrow, April 3. The Tigers will travel to Miami, Fla. next weekend to compete in the Gatorade Invitational.