LAFAYETTE, La. – For the second time in three seasons, LSU’s Rodney Brown stepped into the ring for his outdoor season debut and walked out as the men’s discus champion at the annual Louisiana Classics meet at the Ragin’ Cajuns Track Stadium as he bombed an early-season NCAA leader of 207 feet, 11 inches during Saturday’s competition.
Brown had already sealed the title on Saturday afternoon with a season-opening throw of 198-6 in the first round and an improved attempt of 198-7 in the fifth round before ascending to the top of the NCAA rankings with a meet-record throw of 207-11 on his final attempt to outclass the rest of the field by more than 50 feet.
Brown led a 1-2-3 sweep by the Tigers in the event as he was followed on the leaderboard by juniors Patrick Geers in second place with a mark of 155-1 and Terry Hughes in third place with a mark of 147-7.
Saturday’s win marked Brown’s best career season-opening performance as he outdistanced his previous best season opener of 197-1 recorded in winning the Louisiana Classics title as a sophomore in 2013. It also has him off to a flying start in 2015 after ending the 2014 season by setting his school record of 212-2 in his last discus competition at the USA Track & Field Throws Initiative held in Chula Vista, California, last summer.
The senior from Chappell Hill, Texas, is poised to regain the form that saw him crowned the SEC Outdoor Champion and earn All-America honors in his sophomore season as one of the NCAA’s leading discus throwers.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers also hit the ground running in their debut appearances in the 4×100-meter relay as they swept relay titles during Saturday’s finale at this year’s Louisiana Classics. Running with its foursome of freshman Mikiah Brisco, sophomore Rushell Harvey, sophomore Jada Martin and sophomore Nataliyah Friar, LSU raced to the women’s relay title in 44.63. The Tigers followed by taking the men’s title with their season opener of 39.47 featuring a team of senior Joshua Thompson, senior Vernon Norwood, sophomore Tremayne Acy and senior Aaron Ernest.
LSU’s sprint relay teams proved to be the class of the field as the Lady Tigers (44.63) beat McNeese State (46.09) to the finish line before the Tigers (39.47) edged Louisiana-Lafayette (40.26) in the men’s final.
Junior Andria Aguilar led a host of other event winners for the LSU Track & Field teams during Saturday’s finale as she raced to a nearly one-minute outdoor personal best of 17 minutes, 15.54 seconds to capture the 5k title on the women’s side by more than one minute over freshman teammate Elizabeth Dunning in second place at 18:32.72.
Aguilar cracked LSU’s all-time Top 10 list as one of the school’s leading performers in the 5,000 meters as she smashed her previous outdoor PR of 18:09.48 with the No. 6-ranked performance in school history.
Other Lady Tigers taking home event titles this Saturday at the Louisiana Classics included Harvey with a time of in the women’s 100 meters, freshman Bria Druilhet with a mark of 38-9 ½ in the women’s triple jump and freshman Sidnie Wilder with a throw of 177-8 in the women’s hammer throw.
Among the Tigers joining Brown and their 4×100-meter relay team as event champions on Saturday at the Louisiana Classics were seniors Andreas Duplantis (16-7 ½) in the men’s pole vault, Julian Parker (1:50.70) in the men’s 800 meters, Philip Primeaux (14:57.80) in the men’s 5,000 meters and Thompson (13.94) in the men’s 110-meter hurdles and sophomores Fitzroy Dunkley (47.15) in the men’s 400 meters, Blair Henderson (3:49.29) in the men’s 1,500 meters and Jonathan Pitt (48-8 ¾) in the men’s triple jump.
Two other Tigers also set outdoor personal bests in following Parker across the finish line in the men’s 800 meters as freshman Jack Wilkes clocked 1:51.62 for third place and sophomore Matthew Rhorer ran 1:53.26 for fourth place in the event.
Aguilar wasn’t LSU’s only athlete to crack the school’s all-time Top 10 list with her performance on Saturday afternoon as Tiger junior David Collins raised his personal best in the hammer throw by more than 17 feet in a runner-up finish in his event. Collins unleashed a series-best on his sixth and final attempt with a mark of 203-11 to follow only Louisiana-Lafayette’s national leader Justin Victory (215-11) in the event.
Collins kicked off his junior season by shattering his previous personal-best mark of 186-9 that he set as a sophomore a season ago to become the No. 7-ranked performer in the hammer throw in school history.
Collins led six other silver medalists for the Tigers and Lady Tigers on Saturday with junior Chanice Chase (13.48) in the women’s 100 hurdles; sophomores Travia Jones (55.03) in the women’s 400 meters, Jordan Moore (14.22) in the men’s 110 hurdles and Cameron Robichaux (16-1 ¾); and freshmen Gabby Figueroa (172-3) in the women’s hammer throw and Christian Johnson (9:44.05) in the men’s steeplechase all runners-up.
With their 2015 outdoor season opener at the Louisiana Classics now in the books, the Tigers and Lady Tigers will return to action next weekend when they make their annual trip to Austin, Texas, to compete as part of the 88th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays that will be held March 26-28 at Mike A. Myers Stadium at the University of Texas.