BATON ROUGE – The Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays boasts a proud tradition that can trace its roots back to 1925 when its namesake founded one of the premier relay carnivals in the sport of track and field, and the LSU track and field teams have joined that tradition as one of its main attractions each season.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers are ready for their annual return to Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas, this weekend as the 83rd Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays are scheduled to begin on Thursday.
Since winning its first relay title at the Texas Relays in 1935, LSU has captured a total of 59 relay crowns all-time to rank among the most successful programs in meet history.
And with the reputation that LSU has established as the premier sprint program in the country, it comes as no surprise that the Tigers and Lady Tigers have combined for 17 relay championships in the 4×100 relay since 1989, including nine titles for the women and eight titles for the men.
The Tigers hold the distinction as the only program to win the Clyde Littlefield 4×100-Meter Relay crown in five straight seasons after accomplishing the feat in each appearance from 2004-08. LSU is second only to TCU’s nine wins in total number of men’s 4×100-meter relay crowns all-time. The Lady Tigers are the all-time leaders in number of women’s sprint relay victories, including their last in 2004.
But LSU’s dominance in the sprint relays is not limited to just the 4×100 as the teams have claimed a total of 14 victories in the 4×200 and 10 victories in the 4×400 relays.
Both the Tigers and Lady Tigers have won more 4×200-meter relays at the Texas Relays than any team in meet history as the event was first contested in 1978. The Tigers have been crowned champions of the 4×200 relay a total of eight times all-time, including three-straight wins from 1978-80 and 1996-98, while the Lady Tigers have won the event on six occasions, including five in a row from 2000-04.
Each team owns five wins all-time in the 4×400-meter relay with the Tigers winning their last crown back in 2007, while the Lady Tigers are the two-time defending champions with wins in 2008 and 2009. The Tigers are looking to return to the winner’s circle by snapping a streak of two-straight wins by Baylor.
In addition, the women are also the leaders in sprint medley relay wins all-time at the Texas Relays with a total of 10 titles, including five in the 100-100-200-400 format and five in the 200-200-400-800 format.
LSU has also captured relay crowns in events such as the 4×800-meter relay, 4×1,500-meter relay and the distance medley relay during its illustrious history while competing in the meet.
LSU enters the 83rd Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays this weekend as the defending champion in three relay events, including the women’s 4×400, 4×800 and sprint medley relays.
While LSU is no stranger to claiming its share of relay victories at the Texas Relays, it is also no stranger to doing it in record-breaking fashion as the Tigers and Lady Tigers hold four meet records in the relay events that stand to this day. The Tigers are the current meet record holders in the 4×100 relay with a time of 38.91 set back in 1998, while the Lady Tigers hold the meet record in three relays, including the 4×100 (42.63) in 2003, 4×200 (1:30.07) also in 2003 and the sprint medley relay (3:44.18) in 1999.
In addition to bringing 59 relay championships back home to Baton Rouge, LSU has seen a grand total of 66 student-athletes crowned champions of individual events all-time at the Texas Relays.
Among LSU’s individual standouts are five Lady Tigers who have been honored as the Most Outstanding Performer of the meet for their exploits. Lady Tiger great Schowonda Williams earned the title after claiming her third career event crown in the 400-meter hurdles in 1987, while Dawn Sowell (1989), Dawn Bowles (1992), Cheryl Taplin (1994) and Lolo Jones (2003) have also received the meet’s top honor.
Sowell still owns the meet record in the university women’s 100-meter dash that she set 21 years ago with a time of 10.93 seconds to win in the event in 1989. Former Lady Tiger jumper Keisha Spencer also owns a Texas Relays meet record when she jumped 45 feet, 10 inches to win the triple jump in 2000.
While Williams is the only Lady Tiger to win three career event titles at the Texas Relays, John Nichols is the only Tiger to capture three individual crowns with discus wins in 1989, 1990 and 1992.
Not only will the Lady Tigers look to defend three relay titles this weekend in the 4×400, 4×800 and sprint medley relays, but sophomore All-American Rachel Laurent is LSU’s only defending champion for an individual event as she became the first Lady Tiger in meet history to win the pole vault crown with an impressive clearance of 14-1 ¼ that still ranks as her outdoor personal best in the event.