BATON ROUGE – Members of the LSU Track & Field program continued their Thanksgiving tradition a week ago as they wrapped up the team’s fall training season by competing in the annual team pentathlon held at the Carl Maddox Field House held on Tuesday, Nov. 25, before the start of the holiday break.
The annual LSU Track & Field Team Pentathlon is held the Tuesday before Thanksgiving each fall, while pitting the program’s sprinters, hurdlers, jumpers and throwers against one another in a competition boasting the five events such as the 30-meter dash, standing long jump, standing triple jump, between the legs forward shot throw and overhead backward shot throw.
All-American discus thrower Rodney Brown eclipsed fellow senior teammate and All-American sprinter Aaron Ernest for the individual men’s pentathlon title, while Lady Tiger senior hurdler Mariah Georgetown edged sophomore standout jumper Nataliyah Friar for the women’s crown in the five-event pentathlon held in the Carl Maddox Field House.
The men’s and women’s sprinters and hurdlers swept this year’s group titles as the top three scorers in each event group were factored into the overall team scoring on the afternoon.
Brown scored a 15-point victory over Ernest for the men’s individual title after totaling 390 points for five events. In his victory, Brown scored bests of 87 points with a time of 3.98 seconds in the 30-meter dash and toss of 63 feet, 3 ¼ inches in the overhead backward shot throw. He also added to his totals with 78 points with his jump of 10-8 in the standing long jump, 71 points with a toss of 56-10 in the between the legs forward shot throw and 67 points with a mark of 29-8 ¼ in the standing triple jump.
Ernest followed Brown with a silver-medal-winning total of 375 points, including a new senior-class-record time of 3.76 for 97 points in the 30-meter dash. Ernest also holds the freshman-class record in the event when he also clocked a time of 3.76 over 30 meters during his pentathlon debut during the fall season of 2011.
While Brown won his first career pentathlon title on the men’s side, Georgetown outlasted Friar by nine points to claim the women’s crown as she totaled a gold-medal-winning score of 288 points on the day.
Georgetown scored 63 points apiece with a time of 4.35 in the 30-meter dash and mark of 53-9 ¾ in the overhead backward shot throw while also adding 58 points with a mark of 52-0 ¾ in the between the legs forward shot throw, 54 points with a mark of 9-0 ¾ in the standing long jump and 50 points with a mark of 26-3 ½ in the standing triple jump.
Friar’s afternoon was highlighted by setting a sophomore-class-record mark of 28-1 for 59 points in the standing triple jump en route to a runner-up score of 279 points during the five-event pentathlon competition.
One other class record fell on the afternoon when LSU’s rookie sprinter and hurdler Mikiah Brisco smashed the women’s freshman-class record in the 30-meter dash with her time of 4.09 for 80 points in the event and the highest score in any single event by a women’s competitor on the afternoon. That effort helped Brisco take home a fourth-place finish with 263 points in her pentathlon debut.
Ernest (375) teamed with senior Joshua Thompson (350) and junior Fitzroy Dunkley (348) to claim the men’s group title for the sprinters and hurdlers with their total of 1,073 points on the day. The Lady Tigers made it a clean sweep for the sprints and hurdles group as Georgetown (288) teamed with sophomore Jada Martin (266) and Brisco (263) for a winning score of 817 points in the women’s team competition.
The group titles at the annual LSU Track & Field Team Pentathlon are determined by combining the three top scores by athletes competing for the sprinters/hurdlers, jumpers/multis and throwers.