NEW YORK — Junior All-American Reggie Dardar proved why he is considered one of the nation’s elite 400-meter runners as he clocked the second-fastest time in the world this season in the finals of the event at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational on Saturday.
Dardar had not competed in the quarter mile prior to this weekend, but shattered his previous best indoor time by more than a second with a second-place effort of 46.24. The Cecilia, La., native moves into the sixth spot on the school’s all-time indoor list with his performance.
Ricardo Chambers of Florida State ? a two-time All-American in the 400 meters during the 2006 campaign ? wowed a lively crowd at the Armory Track and Field Center by nipping Dardar at the tape with the No. 1 time in the world this season at 46.23 to claim the event championship.
“I felt pretty good coming into the meet, and I just came out and executed my run like I needed to,” Dardar said. “I’ve been training a lot with the rest of the guys as a team and we’ve been working really hard. This wasn’t really something that surprised me because of how hard we’ve been working. I just ran with a lot of confidence today.”
Dardar also anchored the men’s second-ranked 4×400-meter relay team to a first-place finish over the fourth-ranked squad of South Carolina with a 46.70 split on the last leg. He teamed with seniors Siraj Williams, Melville Rogers and Marvin Stevenson to clock an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 3:07.54 in the final event of the evening.
“The team put me in a good position in the last leg, and we all knew what we had to do because it was a strong field,” Dardar said. “We’re just anxious to show everybody what we can do this year because everybody’s doubting us without Xavier (Carter) and Kelly (Willie). I’m real excited with our performance today.”
Fellow junior All-American Jessica Ohanaja continued her dominating season in the women’s 60-meter hurdles as she tied the meet record at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational and claimed her fourth-straight championship in the event this season.
Ohanaja’s sizzling time of 8.14 in the final heat is also a facility record for a collegiate athlete at the Armory Track and Field Center and marks the third time this week she has equaled her personal best in qualifying automatically for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
“I’m doing what I’ve been doing all season, but I’m just trying to work on my technique looking ahead to NCAAs,” Ohanaja said. “I’m just doing what Coach (Dennis) Shaver’s been telling me about competing with a positive attitude and preparing myself mentally to run a great race. I’ve done that pretty well this year and it showed again today.”
“I also think winning my heat at Millrose last night gave me a lot of confidence coming into today’s race. I still want my time to come down below 8.14, and I don’t want to be satisfied with that because I think there’s still a lot of room for me to improve. I’m looking forward to breaking that at Tyson next weekend.”
Dardar and Ohanaja spearheaded LSU to a pair of runner-up finishes in the team standings as the Tigers finished six points behind Texas at 62.5 points for the meet, while the Lady Tigers trailed women’s champion Texas A&M with a total of 70.5 points.
“We made some progress at the meet this weekend and I was really pleased with a lot of the individual performances,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “We just need to compete a little bit better as a team across the board. I anticipate that they’ll do that as the competition and the intensity level gets better and better when the NCAA Championships roll around.”
In addition to the victory by the men’s relay squad, the Lady Tiger foursome of juniors Brooklynn Morris and Deonna Lawrence, freshman LaTavia Thomas and sophomore Nickiesha Wilson finished second in the event by clocking the fifth-fastest time in school history with an NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 3:31.77.
The Lady Tigers finished closely behind South Carolina’s foursome that posted the nation’s best time this season at 3:30.95. The time put up by the Gamecocks is a meet record for the New Balance Collegiate Invitational and a collegiate facility record at the Armory.
“I was really pleased with the way our relay team ran tonight,” Shaver said. “They both competed very well and ran well, and the women were able to qualify for the NCAA meet. Even in defeat against South Carolina, they ran just a heck of a race. I’m really looking forward to how they’ll develop leading up to NCAAs.”
Shaver said he was particularly pleased with the individual performances of Rogers, Lawrence and Thomas in addition to their contribution on the relay teams. Rogers ran a personal best in the 200 meters and qualified provisionally for the NCAA Championships as his time of 21.15 ranks seventh on the school’s all-time indoor performance list.
Both Lawrence and Thomas posted NCAA provisional times of their own in the 400 meters (53.65) and 800 meters (2:07.73), respectively. Thomas, who was the nation’s No. 1 recruit in the event as a high school senior, now ranks eighth on the women’s all-time list as she made her collegiate debut in the 800 meters.
“I was really pleased with what some of our athletes were able to do individually at this meet, particularly LaTavia and Deonna, and even Melville Rogers on the men’s team,” Shaver said. “This was the first time both LaTavia and Deonna ran their specialty, and Melville has never run that fast since he’s been here. That was certainly encouraging to see from each of them.”
Junior Kelly Baptiste also shined for the Lady Tigers by taking top honors in the women’s 200 meters as the All-American clocked an NCAA provisional qualifying of 23.37 in the final heat, while senior Sherry Fletcher took second in the 60-meter dash with a provisional time of 7.37 and Wilson finished third in the hurdles with a 8.35.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers return home Sunday before taking to the road for the second consecutive weekend as they are set to compete in the prestigious Tyson Invitational at the Randall Tyson Track Complex in Fayetteville, Ark., from Feb. 9-10. They will then host the LSU Twilight at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse on Feb. 16.
“This will be another test for our athletes at Tyson, but one I know we’re all looking forward to,” Shaver said. “It’s going to be a little bit different because it’s not a scored meet, but it will give them the chance to improve once again as the indoor season begins to wind down.”