BATON ROUGE — The LSU track and field team got off to a good start as five Tigers had regional qualifying times on day two of the Tiger Relays at LSU’s Bernie Moore Track Stadium Friday.
“I thought it was important to get everyone we could on the track today and running relays,” said LSU head track and field coach Dennis Shaver. “You saw Bennie (Brazell) run, you saw Kelly Willie run, and pretty much everyone got on the track today and you are going to get a chance to see everyone run once and at most even twice tomorrow.
For the men, Kelly Willie had a regional qualifying time of 10.30 in the 100-meter dash with the fastest time of the day. Ryan Fontenot had a qualifying time in the 110-meter hurdles. Fontenot’s time of 14.20 was the top qualifying time in the hurdles.
“I thought Ryan Fontenot did a good job,” said Shaver. “He was real close to his high school outdoor personal best in his first outdoor collegiate three inches higher hurdle race. That is pretty promising for him.”
RaNysha LeBlanc and Jessica Ohanaja both had regional qualifying times in the 100-meter hurdles. Ohanaja had the second best time of 13.74, while LeBlanc had a time of 13.84. In the women’s 100-meter dash freshman Ashley Owens had the top qualifying time of the day with a regional qualifying time of 11.54.
In the Heptathlon, Megan Akre had a provisional qualifying score of 5067. The junior won the long jump with a jump of 18-0 1/2, and finished second in the 800-meters. Dianne Harrison finished fourth in the heptathlon with a personal best score 4842.
“In the multis, Megan Akre gets better each year and each time she does it,” said Shaver. “She is really not 100 percent. She just works hard and over achieves. I saw a solid performance and personal best from Dianne and that is good.
The Tigers completed as sweep of the multi events, as Alleyne Lett would have a strong second day and win the decathlon. Lett’s score of 6781 fell just short of the provisional qualifying standard. Lett finished first in the 110-meter hurdles (14.15), the discuss throw (165-1) and the javelin throw (179-9).
“Alleyne Lett, after you no height in the high jump you don’t know what the desire is the second day, but I thought he came out and had a good second day,” said Shaver. “Realistically with a decent high jump his performance is going to put him at 7,200 or 7,300 points, and that really is pretty good for him.”
Brooklyn Morris, RaNysha Leblanc, Deonna Lawrence and Brittany Harris would combine to win the Sprint Medley relay with a time of 1:40.53 edging out the Tiger Olympic team of Muna Lee, Nadia Davy, Debbie Ann Paris and Marian Bennett. In the distance medley relays the Tigers swept both with a time of 11:52.51 for the women and 9:52.58 for the men.
The Tigers will rap up action tomorrow on the final day of the Tiger Relays at Bernie Moore Track Stadium. LSU will go on the road next weekend, as they will travel to Starkville, Miss. for the Bulldog Relays April 2.