BATON ROUGE – For a program that already owns seven NCAA championships all-time in the men’s 4×100-meter relay, it comes as no surprise to fans of collegiate track and field when LSU is mentioned as a title contender in the event as the team prepares for its appearance at the national meet.
The Tigers certainly staked their claim as a title contender at the NCAA Championships with their efforts on the first day of competition at the LSU Tiger Relays on Friday afternoon.
LSU’s sprint relay team of junior Barrett Nugent, junior Horatio Williams, junior Keyth Talley and senior Gabriel Mvumvure christened the newly-installed Mondo FTX running surface at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium with a blistering run of 38.87 seconds in the meet’s first preliminary race on the track for a new LSU Tiger Relays meet record in their 2011 outdoor debut.
Their performance is believed to be the fastest in a season opener in the history of the LSU track and field program as the Tigers had not broken 39 seconds in their debut in at least the previous 10 seasons.
While the Tigers have actually captured four NCAA titles in the 4×100-meter relay since 2001, none have run faster than 39 seconds in their respective season openers. That includes national championship squads during the 2002 (39.41), 2003 (40.43), 2006 (39.72) and 2008 (40.53) seasons.
The Tigers are already well ahead of their pace from a year ago when they opened at 39.97 before posting a seasonal best of 39.00 en route to a bronze medal finish at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Championships.
“I can’t remember seeing a better performance from our guys for their first relay of the season,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “That’s about as good as they could have run it today. I thought we ran it well, but I figured we still ran about 39.4 or so for our first time. We did have some pretty good exchanges here today, but there’s always room for improvement when we line it up again tomorrow.”
Williams said he was “shocked” when it was announced that the Tigers ran 38.87 in their first relay of the season as he believes the team has the potential to run even faster with cleaner exchanges.
“We’ve been working a lot on sticks in practice this week,” Williams said. “I did not have good exchange with Barrett because I had to slow down to get it. I was able to make it up a little bit on my exchange with Keyth. Really, I was shocked when I found out what we ran. I figured we ran 39 seconds to start but when I heard them say 38.8, I was speechless. Hopefully, we can clean up the sticks tomorrow.
“The track felt really good, really bouncy today. It’s a great surface for us to run on. We were just excited to get out there and run today. We’re looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow.”
As the name might suggest, the Lady Tigers also had the opportunity to shine in the relay events Friday in the first day of action at this year’s LSU Tiger Relays while breaking the Bernie Moore Track Stadium facility record with a winning time of 8 minutes, 57.72 seconds in the women’s 4×800-meter relay.
The Lady Tigers, who feature one of the nation’s leading 4×800-meter relay teams each season, earned an impressive 17-second victory with a quartet of sophomores in Brea Goodman, Laura Carleton, Dakota Goodman and Charlene Lipsey. Lipsey ran as part of the foursome with departed All-Americans LaTavia Thomas and Kayann Thompson and returning senior Brittany Hall that established the LSU school record of 8:19.77 in a runner-up finish at the Penn Relays last spring.
Many of LSU’s athletes saw their first action of the 2011 outdoor season in the long jump on Friday night and responded with some impressive performances that are sure to rank among the national leaders.
Senior All-American Zedric Thomas opened with a wind-legal jump of 25 feet, 5 ½ inches to earn second place in the competition, while sophomore Damar Forbes followed in third place with a wind-legal mark of his own at 25-4. In his first action of the outdoor season, junior Kyron Blaise opened at a legal 24-10 to take fourth place, while fellow junior Earnest Green set a new lifetime personal best of 24-3.
Lady Tiger freshman and SEC Indoor long jump champion Jen Clayton led the way for the women’s team by taking the long jump title with a wind-legal jump and 2011 season best of 20-5 on her third jump in the competition. She also posted a legal mark of 20-3 ½ on her final attempt of the meet.
The Lady Tigers were also outstanding in the throwing events during Friday’s action at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium as five athletes set new personal bests on the afternoon.
Freshman Annie Simoneaux was the first LSU athlete to compete at this year’s LSU Tiger Relays and had a personal-best performance in her facility debut for the Lady Tigers. She took second place overall in the javelin throw with a best of 151-3 that ranks No. 9 all-time on the LSU performance list.
Four Lady Tigers then set new PRs in the hammer throw, led by junior Brieanna Kennedy in second place with the No. 5-ranked performance in school history at 179-8 and true freshman Karen Henning in third place overall with the No. 6-ranked performance in school history at 178-11. Junior Samia Stokes (172-3) and sophomore Danielle Martin (148-5) also set personal bests in the event.
Junior Richard Chautin wrapped up the evening with a record-setting performance in the 5,000-meter run as he set a new LSU Tiger Relays meet record with a four-second outdoor personal best and winning time of 14:43.90, breaking Joseph Simuchimba’s previous meet record of 14:44.33 set back in 2007.
“We did some good things today,” Shaver said. “There are always some things you’d like to do better, but I think this is a good starting point for our team. We’re looking forward to coming back tomorrow for still another chance to compete and get better as a team.”
In addition, six athletes will have the opportunity to compete in event finals Saturday after qualifying with their performance during Friday’s preliminary round action.
Freshmen Rynell Parson (10.47w) and Geno Jones (10.49w) clocked the two fastest times in the prelim of the men’s 100-meter dash, while Nugent (13.85w) also clocked the fastest time in the 110-meter hurdles.
Senior Tenaya Jones will lead the Lady Tigers into Saturday’s championship finals in the 100-meter dash (11.93w) and 100-meter hurdles (13.46w). She will be joined in the 100-meter final by freshman Toshika Sylvester (11.49w) and in the 100-meter hurdles final by freshman Jasmin Stowers (13.32w).
Saturday’s action at the LSU Tiger Relays will continue at 11 a.m. CDT with the field events followed by the first events on the track at 1 p.m. There is a brief opening ceremony scheduled for 12:55 p.m. Fans are reminded they can follow all of the action at this year’s meet by becoming a fan of LSU Track & Field on Facebook and by following @LSUTrackField on Twitter.