BATON ROUGE — Two world-leading times, 12 event titles and numerous personal bests highlighted competition for the LSU track and field team on Saturday at the LSU Alumni Gold.
“I thought both squads competed well today,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “I felt like we make a lot of progress. Historically this has been a good meet for us and I felt like once again the athletes did a good job of getting themselves ready to go.”
Sophomore Nickiesha Wilson proved she was more than ready to go in the women’s 400-meter hurdles. The sophomore from Kingston, Jamaica, not only won the event, but improved on her already NCAA-leading time of 56.67 by nearly one full second as she clocked a personal-best and world-leading time of 55.87 to take home the event title.
Wilson wasn’t the only Lady Tiger to position herself among the world’s best as the Lady Tigers’ 4×400-meter relay of Brooklyn Morris, Tanya Osbourne, Cynetheia Rooks, and Deonna Lawrence ran a blistering 3:30.13, the fastest time in the world this season.
The women’s 4×400 was one of four LSU relay team that came away with victories on the afternoon.
The Lady Tigers’ short relay team of Sherry Fletcher, Samantha Henry, Morris and Kelly Baptiste shot to number one on this year’s NCAA performance list circling the oval in 43.26 seconds.
The men’s 4×100 squad of Trindon Holliday, Will Coppage, Marvin Stevenson and Richard Thompson were nearly as good, posting the second fastest time in the NCAA this season, 39.43, to secure the victory.
Stevenson along with Melville Rogers, Isa Phillips, and Reggis Dardar then wrapped up the meet’s relay sweep for LSU as they clocked 3:04.51 to improve on their already NCAA-leading time of 3:04.64 in the 4×400-meter relay.
Not only successful in the relays, Holliday and Phillips also found individual success on the track.
Holliday blazed to a personal-best 10.31 in the 100 meters in picking up his first win of the season in the event. He also climbed to No. 5 on the national descending order list with the performance.
Phillips won his fourth meet in as many tries in the 400-meter hurdles, crossing the finish line in 49.86.
LSU had three other athletes not only posted event victories, but did so with personal-best efforts that moved them up in the school record books.
Sophomore Chad Radgowski moved to No. 3 on LSU’s list of all-time performers in the men’s javelin, winning the event with a heave of 236-0.
Middle distance standout Reuben Twijuke won the men’s 800 meter with a time of 1:48.53, the eight fastest in Tiger history. Teammate Jamaal James was on his heels, also posting a personal-best and the ninth fastest time in school history with his 1:48.58 clocking.
In the men’s 5,000 meters, Joseph Simuchimba cracked the all-time top 10 at No. 10, winning his race in 14:21.96.
Other event winners for LSU included Sherry Fletcher in the 200 meters (23.06), Deonna Lawrence in the 400 meters (52.33) and Katie Dawson in the 1,500 meters (4:36.83).
Not taking home an event title, but still posting impressive performances were Lady Tigers LaTavia Thomas and Jessica Ohanaja and Tiger Jeremy Hicks.
Thomas improved on her personal best in the 800 meters by over two full seconds to finish in 2:04.38. The top collegiate performer in the competition, Thomas’ mark moved her to No. 5 on this season’s NCAA performance list and No. 7 in the LSU record books.
Ohanaja ran a season-best 13.16 in the hurdles to improve to No. 4 in the NCAA, while Hicks jumped 25-2 ? in the long jump to move from No. 11 to No. 5 in the NCAA this season.
The LSU track and field team returns to action April 26-28 when it travels to Philadelphia, Pa., for the 113th running of the prestigious Penn Relays.