AUSTIN, Texas – Junior Thomas Reinecke set the pace for the LSU Track & Field teams on the second day of competition at the 85th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays while being crowned the event champion for the “B” section of the men’s pole vault on Thursday evening at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
After setting a lifetime personal record at the LSU Relays on Saturday with a season-opening clearance at 17 feet, 3 inches, Reinecke raised the bar even higher during Thursday’s pole vault action with a new best of 17-4 ½ to win the Texas Relays “B” section over event runner-up Alex Bishop of Kansas.
Reinecke showed impressive form throughout the competition as he sailed over the bar at a height of 16-0 ¾, 16-6 ¾ and 17-0 ¾ on his first attempt. He then clinched the title with a third-attempt clearance at 17-4 ½ for his second lifetime best of the 2012 outdoor season. Reinecke then went out of the competition with three misses after the bar was raised to a height of 17-8 ½.
Although Reinecke and Bishop were the only two vaulters in the field to clear 17-4 ½, Reinecke secured a victory with fewer misses. Two other Tigers also cleared a height of 16-6 ¾ as junior Joseph Caraway and freshman Andreas Duplantis tied for fourth place in the final standings.
With his performance, Reinecke moved into a tie for the No. 7 spot in the NCAA rankings for 2012 in the men’s pole vault while finishing just ¼ inch shy of a spot in LSU’s all-time Top 10 list.
While Reinecke claimed LSU’s first event title of this year’s Texas Relays, sophomore Denise Hinton and freshman Jeremy Tuttle added personal bests of their own in the throws during Thursday’s action.
Tuttle took second place in the “B” section of the men’s javelin with a PR of 215-1, while Hinton claimed eighth place in the women’s championship hammer with a PR of her own at 191-0.
Tuttle set his second personal record in as many appearances in the javelin during his freshman season for a runner-up finish in Thursday’s competition. He kicked off the outdoor season March 17 by throwing his previous best of 212-11 during the Louisiana Classics held at the Ragin’ Cajuns Track Stadium.
The native of Sierra Vista, Ariz., wasted no time in establishing a new PR in the javelin as he fired a mark of 215-1 on his very first throw of the day. He also wrapped up his series with another impressive effort at 212-2 in the sixth round of throws en route to a runner-up finish to Kent State’s Robert Robbins (217-10). LSU senior Ryan Roubion added a seventh-place finish with a series-best of 197-7 on the afternoon.
Sophomore Karen Henning led a trio of Lady Tigers competing in the women’s championship hammer on Thursday as she took seventh place overall with a top mark of 192-3 recorded on her sixth and final throw of the day. Henning’s series also featured impressive marks of 191-8 in the second round and 191-0 in the fifth round just one week after setting her PR in the event of 197-2 at the LSU Relays.
Hinton followed Henning in eighth place in the final hammer standings as she posted a top mark of 191-0 on her third throw of the preliminary round to earn a spot in the final.
Hinton, who also set her previous PR at the LSU Relays with a top throw of 182-6, posted three marks on Thursday that eclipsed her best entering the meet after throwing 187-1 in the second and fourth rounds for the competition. With a series-best of 191-0 on her third throw, Hinton moved up one spot to No. 6 on the school’s all-time outdoor performance list in the women’s hammer throw.
Lady Tiger freshman Alex Gochenour wrapped up her first collegiate heptathlon Thursday afternoon with a ninth-place finish among the 22 competitors at this year’s Texas Relays.
After scoring 3,149 points in the first four events to wrap up Wednesday’s action in 10th place, Gochenour added 2,076 points to her total Thursday as she moved up one spot into ninth place on the final heptathlon standings with 5,225 points in her collegiate debut in the event as a Lady Tiger.
She opened the second day of action with a best jump of 17-11 for 688 points in the long jump, before she added 580 points with a best throw of 116-3 in the javelin and 808 points with her run of 2 minutes, 21.14 seconds in the 800-meter run. By scoring 5,225 points for the week, Gochenour posted her third-best total in the heptathlon in her career, following her PR of 5,300 points set in winning the event at the 2010 USA Junior Outdoor Championships and 5,260 points at the 2010 IAAF World Junior Championships.
In the first relay final of this year’s Texas Relays, the Tigers took eighth place in the men’s 4×800 relay as senior James Thurn, junior Howard Shepard III, sophomore Keith Griffith and freshman Quincy Downing teamed to carry the stick around the track in a time of 7:37.60 in the event.
The action at the 85th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays continues Friday at 9:30 a.m. CDT as both the Tigers and Lady Tigers compete in the first field events of the day and the first relay prelims of the meet.
Live results for the 85th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays can be found online at the official athletics website for the University of Texas at www.texassports.com. Fans can also receive live updates of both the Tigers and Lady Tigers competing throughout the meet by liking LSU Track & Field on Facebook and following @LSUTrackField on Twitter while joining the largest social media following in track and field.