PHILADELPHIA — LSU’s Katelyn Rodrigue has enjoyed a record-setting freshman season for the Lady Tigers, and she added to her already impressive resume Thursday by becoming the first athlete in program history to clear 13 feet in the pole vault at the 113th Penn Relays.
Rodrigue, who is also the first Lady Tiger to compete in the event at the Penn Relays, broke her own outdoor school record of 12 feet, 9 ? inches set at the LSU Tiger Classic on March 31 by taking third place in the event with a new personal best vault of 13-1 ?.
The New Orleans native equaled the effort of event champion Katie Stripling and runner up Stephanie Irwin ? both of Arkansas ? but finished third when the tie was broken according to the number of missed attempts over the course of the competition.
Rodrigue has already established herself as the most prolific pole vaulter in the history of the LSU women’s track and field program as she owns both the indoor (12-10 ?) and outdoor (13-1 ?) school records. She also became the first Lady Tiger to score at the conference meet as she took fourth place in the event at the SEC Indoor Championships in February.
“My goal was to clear 13 feet by the end of the season, and it feels really good to do that at a meet like this,” Rodrigue said. “I think it really helped to have people jumping my height because they pushed me today. I have a lot of confidence heading into the championship season, and I’d like to try and go higher if possible.”
LSU head coach Dennis Shaver said that Rodrigue has proven to be one of the most dependable field event athletes for the Lady Tigers this season and that she is sure to contribute to the team’s success as it heads into the championship season.
“Katelyn is just a great competitor,” Shaver said. “She’s been one of our most consistent field event athletes all year long, and I would not want to have to jump against her with the confidence she has right now. Those two girls from Arkansas have scored before at the NCAA meet, which says a lot about what kind of competitor she really is.”
Junior Andrea Linton and freshman Kim Williams also earned a pair of top-five finishes in the field events for the Lady Tigers as Linton took third in the long jump with an impressive mark of 20-4 ?, while Williams placed fourth in the hammer throw with a solid effort of 176-2.
The Lady Tigers also enjoyed success on the track on the first day of the annual relay carnival as they qualified their 4×100 and 4×400-meter relay teams into the Championship of America finals at Franklin Field on Thursday afternoon.
The 4×100-meter relay team will have an opportunity to win its 11th title all-time at the Penn Relays on Friday as the foursome of Sherry Fletcher, Samantha Henry, Brooklynn Morris and Kelly Baptiste advanced with the third-fastest time of the day at 44.92 seconds. The final heat is scheduled to run at 11:50 a.m. CDT.
The 1,600-meter relay squad of Morris, Nickiesha Wilson, Cynetheia Rooks and Deonna Lawrence turned in the field’s fastest qualifying time by nearly four seconds after crossing the finish line with an impressive time of 3 minutes, 32.60 seconds.
The Lady Tigers, who clocked a world-leading time at the LSU Alumni Gold last weekend with a an effort of 3:30.13, are the favorite to win their third Championship of America title all-time in the event as they are slated to line up in the event finals on Saturday at 4:35 p.m.
“In a meet like this, we just want to get the stick around the track in the conditions that we’re running in,” Shaver said. “I thought we ran a little bit conservative on our relays today, but we were able to advance everyone to the final. Still, it’s getting to that point in the season where we can’t run conservative and expect to win.”
In addition, the women’s distance medley relay team of Lindsay Day, Carliesa Meakes, Tanya Osbourne and Katie Dawson clocked the fifth-fastest time in program history after finishing sixth in the event’s college division. The foursome carried the stick around the track in 11:43.99 in the first relay final of this year’s meet.
Junior distance standout Joseph Simuchimba wrapped up the evening by clocking the fifth-fastest time in school history in the men’s 10,000 meters as he stopped the clock with a time of 29:39.83 in his LSU debut in the event. Simuchimba missed the NCAA provisional standard by just 10 seconds as he looks to run better than 29:30.00 the next time he steps on the track.
“That was really a great effort by all of our distance people tonight,” Shaver said. “We had a top-10 time and a seasonal best by about 30 seconds in the distance medley relay, and Joseph really looked good running in his first 10k race here at LSU. He’s certainly a guy who can help us when we get into the championship meets.”
Collegiate action continues Friday at the 113th annual relay carnival with the running events starting at 8 a.m. CDT followed by the first field events at 9 a.m. LSU will start off in the field at 9 a.m. with the women’s triple jump, while the prelims of the men’s 4×100 relay will kick things off on the track at 12:20 p.m.