BATON ROUGE — The LSU track and field team had a strong showing as 17 athletes and four relay teams would regionally qualify at the 2005 Alumni Gold meet on a windy day at Bernie Moore Track Stadium Saturday.
“The thing about a meet like this is that more emphasis is put on the individual events and trying to give people the opportunity to reach a regional qualifying mark,” said LSU track and field head coach Dennis Shaver. “Most everyone was able to handle the conditions, because when you go around the oval the wind can mess with you some.”
Freshman Xavier Carter won the men’s 400-meter dash with a personal best and regional qualifying time of 45.65. The time is the eighth fastest time in school history and the fourth fastest in the nation this year.
“Xavier knew that he had to get qualified here in the quarter and then go to the conference meet and qualify in the 200-meters,” said Shaver. “Well he took care of business here pretty well.”
Kelly Willie, Xavier Carter, Bennie Brazell and Reginald Dardar combined to win the men’s 4×400-meter relay with a regional qualifying time of 3:05.35. The combination ran the tenth fastest time in school history just falling short of the seasonal best 3:05.19. For the women, Meisue Francis, Brooklyn Morris, Tonya Osborne and Deonna Lawrence would combine to finish second behind the Tiger Olympians with a qualifying time of 3:35.97.
In the 4×100-meter relay, Richard Thompson, Carter, Brazell and Willie would combine to edge out the Canadian National team with a qualifying time of 39.33. For the women, Ashley Owens, Lawrence, Morris and Kelly Baptiste just fell short finishing one hundredth of a second behind Louisiana Tech with a seasonal best and qualifying time of 44.68.
“Conditions have a lot to do with the performances, and I have been talking to them all year. Indoors you always know what the temperature and wind is going to be, but when you go outdoors you have to take advantage of every opportunity that you have in your individual event,” said Shaver. “There is going to be at least one meet that it doesn’t matter how good you are, you wont be able to get it done because of the weather. So luckily I think we got ourselves ready despite the weather.”
Calah Young broke her school record in the women’s pole vault with a regional qualifying vault of 11-113/4. Rabun Fox won the men’s hammer throw as he had a personal best and qualifying mark of 188-2. Fox’s mark is the seventh best all-time in school history
The Tigers would sweep the hurdles as both RaNysha LeBlanc and Ryan Fontenot would go on to win. LeBlanc won the 100-meter hurdles with a seasonal best and qualifying time of 13.23, while Fontenot would win with a wind-aided time of 13.91.
In the 200-meter dash, three Lady Tigers would regionally qualify, as Baptiste would win with a time of 23.37. Ashley Owens (23.56) and Brooklyn Morris (23.59) finished 4-5 as both had seasonal best and qualifying times. Olympic gold medallist Kelly Willie finished second in the men’s 200-meter relay finishing a thousandth of a second behind Steve Mullings of Mississippi State with a time qualifying time of 20.45.
Senior Matt Vincent finished third in both the discus (168-6) and the shot put (54-6 1/2) with regional marks. Katie McKeever finished second in the women’s shot put with a regional mark of 51-1 1/2. McKeever finished third in the women’s discus with a qualifying mark of 162-9.
For our seniors it was a last chance for them to compete at home for them, and I knew it meant a lot to them,” said Shaver.
Brittany Harris had a personal best in the women’s 400-meter dash with a time of 54.14. Sam Mwape and Patrick Gavin finished 2-3 in the men’s 5000 with times of 14:39.13 and 14:46.36.
The Tigers will be back in action next weekend, as they will go on the road to the prestigious Penn Relays in Philadelphia, Penn. April 28-30.