PHILADELPHIA — LSU’s track and field team completed another successful day of competition at the Penn Relays Friday as Andrea Linton won the women’s triple-jump title and four relay teams and an additional four athletes advanced to tomorrow’s championship finals.
Linton took home the college division triple jump title, topping the field with a leap of 41-10 1/2. The Penn Relays crown marked the second straight for the Spanish Town, Jamaica native as she won last year’s Championship of America high school title as a prep.
Also turning in an impressive effort was the freshman foursome of Ashley Owens, Deonna Lawrence, Brooklyn Morris and Kelly Baptiste who finished fourth in the 4×100-meter relay with a season-best time of 44.07.
“We have to be happy about both the 4×100 relays,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “The girls are doing a nice job. They’re trying hard, they’re learning and they are really beginning to run well together.”
The men were equally impressive advancing to Saturday’s short relay final with the field’s fastest time of the day. Richard Thompson, Xavier Carter, Kelly Willie and Bennie Brazell clocked 39.50 in topping the nearest competitor by nearly one full second.
Brazell and Carter then teamed with Austin Benton and Reginald Dardar in the 4×400 relay to advance to the finals with the third fastest time of the day (3:07.46).
Also moving on were both the men’s and women’s 4×200 relays. Tigers Willie, Dardar, Ryan Fontenot and Siraj Williams won their heat in 1:24.25, while Owens, Morris, Baptiste and Brittany Harris also took home top honors in their heat, clocking 1:34.94.
Individually, the Tigers and Lady Tigers combined to advance four athletes into the open finals.
Sophomore Alleyne Lett, was sensational in his opening round effort of the 110 hurdles, shattering his seasonal best while defeating 2004 NCAA champion Josh Walker of Florida with a time of 13.68.
On the women’s side, LeBlanc advanced in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, recording the fourth fastest time of the day at 13.41.
Baptiste and Owens were LSU’s two other qualifiers. Both moved on in the 100 meters as Baptiste finished in 11.52 and Owens crossed the line in 11.85.
In additional relay action, the Lady Tiger quartet of Jessica Ohanaja, Megan Akre, Angel Boyd and RaNysha LeBlanc recorded the seventh-fastest shuttle hurdle relay time in school history (53.90) to place fourth overall.
The men’s distance medley relay team of Andrew Huston, Siraj Williams, Michael Hendry and Patrick Gavin also picked up a fourth-place finish, crossing the line in 9:54.99.
Top performances in the field came from seniors Matt Vincent and Katie McKeever. Vincent was just a quarter of an inch shy of his personal best in the shot put, placing second in the college division with a season-best throw of 56-5 3/4. McKeever finished fifth in the championship section of the discus with a toss of 167-7.
LSU wraps up competition from the Penn Relays tomorrow as championship action gets underway at 10 a.m.