PHILADELPHIA – The No. 2-ranked Lady Tigers captured their first Championship of America wagon wheel of the weekend with a win in the women’s shuttle hurdle relay to highlight Friday’s competition for LSU Track & Field in the 118th running of the Penn Relays Carnival being held at historic Franklin Field.
The Lady Tigers laid claim to their meet-record ninth Penn Relays victory all-time in the shuttle hurdle as freshman Alex Gochenour, junior Shanekia Hall, freshman Kaitlyn Moreau and sophomore Jasmin Stowers combined for a winning time of 54.68 seconds to take the title over Houston (54.78).
Their victory extended an impressive streak for the LSU Track &Field program, as either the Tigers or the Lady Tigers have brought home at least one Championship of America relay title in 22-straight seasons at the Penn Relays dating back to their appearance at the 97th Penn Relays back in 1991.
The Lady Tigers last won the shuttle hurdle relay when the team of Tenaya Jones, Jessica Ohanaja, Angel Boyd and Nickiesha Wilson set a previous collegiate record of 52.77 in the event.
The favorites from Clemson dropped out of the race early on the first leg when Bridgette Owens clipped both the eighth and ninth hurdles before crashing into the 10th and final hurdle to eliminate her squad from contention. The Lady Tigers then took advantage of their opportunity as they won the first heat in front of Houston (54.78) for their first Penn Relays title in the event since 2008.
Stowers and Hall both returned minutes later to qualify for Saturday’s championship final of the women’s 100-meter hurdles as Stowers won the first heat with the fastest time of the day at 13.24 and Hall earned a third-place finish in the second heat with the sixth-fastest time of the qualifying round at 13.52.
Stowers is the defending Penn Relays champion in the 100-meter hurdles after taking the title in her debut as a freshman a season ago when she raced to a winning time of 13.16 in the championship final.
“It felt good to run such a strong anchor leg. The Clemson girls fell, so I knew we had a chance to win it,” Stowers said. “I had to get out and just finish the race. This is my first time running the shuttle hurdle ever and it was exciting. I think that also helped me get ready for my race in the (100 hurdles) prelim. This was a lot of fun today. The Penn Relays atmosphere is very hype and I love the energy here.”
Before claiming the Championship of America title in the women’s shuttle hurdle relay on Friday afternoon, the Lady Tigers came up just a split-second short of snapping a four-year drought in the 4×100-meter relay with their runner-up finish in the first final on the track.
After drawing lane No. 9 with the fourth-fastest qualifying time of Thursday’s preliminary round at 44.79, LSU clocked 44.01 in the final to finish just .14 seconds behind Texas A&M (43.87) while running with a team of Takeia Pinckney, Semoy Hackett, Rebecca Alexander and Kimberlyn Duncan.
The defending NCAA champions in the 4×100 relay saw their winning streak snapped at six-straight wins in event finals dating back to their title victory at the NCAA Outdoor Championships a season ago.
The Lady Tigers wrapped up Friday’s relay action with a second-place finish in the sprint medley relay as Hackett (200 meters) and Duncan (200 meters) joined senior Jonique Day (400 meters) and junior Charlene Lipsey (800 meters) in running the fourth-fastest time in school history in the final at 3 minutes, 44.50 seconds. Their streak of five-straight Championship of America wins in the women’s sprint medley relay came to an end as Tennessee took the title with a clinching time of 3:43.79.
The Lady Tigers will have two more opportunities to take home a Championship of America relay wagon wheel during Saturday’s finale after advancing in the 4×200-meter relay on Friday.
While running with the team of junior Latoya McDermott, Hackett, Alexander and Duncan, LSU defeated Oregon (1:34.27) by more than a second to claim the second qualifying heat with the second-fastest run of the day at 1:33.11 to finish behind only Texas A&M’s time of 1:32.84 in the first heat. LSU’s women will be featured in Championship of America finals in both the 4×200 and 4×400 relays on Saturday.
When it appeared the Tigers’ hopes of defending their 4×100-meter relay title were dashed after missing a first exchange in the first prelim heat, they were allowed to run once again in a later section with Houston and Penn after officials did not provide the teams enough time to place their marks.
The Tigers responded by running the fastest qualifying time of the afternoon at 39.72 to finish one second ahead of Houston’s 40.71 in their later race. Running the relay for the Tigers was senior Barrett Nugent, freshman Aaron Ernest, senior Keyth Talley and sophomore Shermund Allsop.
Joining the Tigers in Saturday’s 4×100 relay will be Illinois (39.94), Auburn (40.15), G.C. Foster (40.30), Hampton (40.31), Texas A&M (40.31), Texas Teach (40.40) and University Tech (40.46).
“That was a great job by our guys for not only getting themselves ready to run the relay a second time, but to execute the race the way they did after facing a little bit of adversity,” Shaver said. “Some runners were barely even on the track when the gun fired, but fortunately for us, a number of the officials saw what had happened and gave us another opportunity to run. We look forward to lining it up again tomorrow.”
After running in the qualifying round of the 4×100-meter relay, three Tigers qualified for individual finals during Friday’s action in the 100-meter dash and 110-meter hurdles.
Ernest led the way by shattering his personal record in the 100 meters with his impressive run of 10.26 set in winning the first heat with the fastest time of the day. Allsop trailed Ernest in second place in their heat with the third-fastest time of the afternoon at 10.46 for a new wind-legal seasonal-best.
By running 10.26 with an allowable tailwind of 0.8 meters per second, Ernest eclipsed his previous best at 10.30 that was set during the qualifying round at the Texas Relays.
Nugent also gave himself an opportunity for a second career Penn Relays title in the 110-meter hurdles on Friday as he clocked 13.67 (-0.1) for second place in the first heat with the second-fastest time for the day as he was edged at the finish line by Andrew Riley of Illinois (13.64). Nugent made history in 2010 as the first LSU Tiger in meet history to win the 110 hurdles at the Penn Relays.
The Tigers wrapped up Friday’s qualifying action by earning their place in the final of the 4×400 relay as the foursome of freshman Quincy Downing, senior Robert Simmons, senior Ade Alleyne-Forte and senior Riker Hylton crossed the finish line in 3:08.09 to win the second heat ahead of Texas Tech (3:10.06).
The Tigers posted the second-fastest qualifying time of the afternoon as defending champion Texas A&M clocked 3:07.77 to win the first preliminary heat as the top seed.
“We had a great day of qualifying today with both teams,” Shaver said. “Our athletes did what they had to do for an opportunity to compete again tomorrow. They will now be able to experience what a Saturday at the Penn Relays is all about. It will be electric here at Franklin Field tomorrow.”
Friday’s action also witnessed two LSU standouts take home a Penn Relays silver medal with their efforts in championship field events as senior Samia Stokes took second place in the women’s discus final with a series-best mark of 172 feet, 7 inches and junior Damar Forbes finished runner-up in the men’s long jump with his best mark of the day at 25-7 ¾ during the competition.
Stokes finished behind NC State’s Tremanisha Taylor (175-1) in the final discus standings as she eclipsed the 170-foot mark for the fourth time in seven appearances this spring.
Earning a bronze medal in his Penn Relays debut with the Tigers was freshman Rodney Brown as he took third place in the men’s championship discus with a series-best mark of 184-1, trailing only Kentucky’s Andrew Evans (185-6) and Abilene Christian’s Nick Jones (185-0) in the final event standings.
In addition, junior Joseph Caraway cleared a seasonal-best height of 16-10 ¾ to win the college pole vault on Friday morning and give the Tigers their first victory in the field events on the weekend.
The 118th running of the Penn Relay Carnival will come to an end Saturday as the Tigers are ready to race in the first Championship of America relay final of the day for LSU at 12:50 p.m. CDT. The Lady Tigers will follow in their first Championship of America final of the afternoon with the 4×200-meter relay set to run at 1:25 p.m. Both races will be featured as part of Saturday’s “USA vs. The World” extravaganza that is scheduled for a live nationally-televised broadcast on NBC from 12-2 p.m. CDT.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers will race in three other Championship of America relay finals on the final day of the 118th Penn Relays, including the men’s 4×800-meter relay at 3:40 p.m., women’s 4×400-meter relay at 4:15 p.m. and men’s 4×400-meter relay in the finale at 5 p.m.