AUSTIN, Texas – The Tigers and Lady Tigers will be well-represented in Friday’s final of the men’s and women’s 400-meter hurdles at the 88th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays as senior Quincy Downing, junior Chanice Chase and sophomore Ka’Lynn Jupiter earned their lanes in the qualifying rounds on Thursday afternoon at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
Downing and Chase each opened their 2015 seasons in the wake of their All-American campaigns a year ago, while Jupiter raced to a personal best for the second-straight week to advance to Friday’s finals.
As LSU’s first athletes to step onto the track at this year’s Texas Relays, Jupiter broke one minute for the first time in her collegiate career with a personal best of 59.21 seconds to win the eighth preliminary heat, while Chase followed with a win in the ninth qualifying heat with a season-opening time of 58.49 as they cruised into the women’s final that is slated to run Friday at 6:55 p.m. CT.
Jupiter recorded a personal best for the second time in as many races to open her sophomore season after kicking off the 2015 campaign with a time of 1 minute, 0.32 seconds in winning the 400 hurdles last week with her effort at the Louisiana Classics meet. Her 59.21 clocking in Thursday’s qualifier was the sixth-fastest time in the field as the top nine hurdlers earned a spot in the championship final.
Chase, who earned All-America honors in the 400 hurdles as the fifth-place finisher nationally at the NCAA Outdoor Championships a year ago, claimed a spot in the Texas Relays final for the second-straight season for opening her season at 58.49 for the second-fastest time in the field. She won the bronze medal at last year’s Texas Relays after running 57.67 in the final.
Chase and Jupiter will race against Arkansas’ Sparkle McKnight (58.21), Harvard’s Autumne Franklin (58.49), Texas’ Ariel Jones (58.96), Purdue’s Symone Black (59.20), Clemson’s Samantha Elliott (59.61), Texas’ Melissa Gonzales (59.62) and Baylor’s Kiana Hawn (59.69) in the final of the event.
Jupiter was not the only Lady Tiger to record a personal best with a heat-winning performance in Thursday’s qualifying round as freshman Kymber Payne raced to victory in the seventh section with a run of 59.73 in her collegiate debut for LSU. A heralded recruit from Long Beach Poly High School in Long Beach, California, Payne just missed a spot in the final as the 10th-fastest hurdler in the field with her season opener.
The reigning NCAA Outdoor Bronze Medalist on the men’s side, Downing opened his 2015 season by running 51.17 for the win in the 11th heat with the fifth-fastest time of the day to advance to the nine-man final.
Downing was a revelation for the Tigers in his first full season running the 400-meter hurdles in 2014 as he ran his personal best of 49.97 in a third-place finish in the national final at the NCAA Outdoor Championships on June 13. It’s an All-American performance that has propelled him into his senior season where he will run in the final of the men’s 400 hurdles at the Texas Relays for the first time in his career.
Downing qualified on Thursday with Pittsburgh’s Desmond Palmer (49.59), Texas-San Antonio’s Keyunta Hayes (50.28), Kansas’ Michael Stigler (50.41), Florida’s Eric Futch (50.75), Texas-San Antonio’s Jurmarcus Shelvin (51.26), Texas’ Byron Robinson (51.46), Texas Tech’s JW Smith (51.49) and Texas A&M’s Aikan Graham (51.92) into the men’s final on Friday at 7:05 p.m. CT.
Kicking off Thursday’s action for the LSU Track & Field teams in the field events was freshman Sidnie Wilder, who unleashed her seasonal-best throw of 180 feet, 8 inches in the third round en route to a finish of eighth place in the University section of the women’s hammer throw. Junior David Collins was the top Tiger in the men’s hammer throw as his series-best of 196-9 earned him ninth place in the top division.
Thursday was certainly a long day coming for Lady Tiger senior Annie Simoneaux as she made her long-awaited return to the javelin runway after missing much of the last two seasons through injury.
On her very first throw of the women’s B section javelin, Simoneaux let loose a throw that landed a distance of 154-10 into the Mike A. Myers Stadium infield for her best of the day. It was a mark that earned her third place in the competition behind only Sam Houston State’s Elizabeth Lyssy (156-1) and Georgia’s Jenna Wargo (155-1) in what proved to be a tight battle for first place in the final.
Simoneaux’s only appearance in either of the last two seasons came at the LSU Relays in her sophomore season in 2013 before requiring Tommy John surgery to repair an injured elbow that same campaign. She didn’t compete in a single meet for the Lady Tigers a year ago while recovering from other injuries that sidelined her for the entire 2014 campaign.
Simoneaux was followed in the women’s B section final by junior teammate Doren Welch, who came up just two feet short of her personal best with a seasonal-best throw of 152-8 for fourth place in the event.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers wrapped up Thursday’s action by running in the University final of the 4×800-meter relays as the Lady Tigers took third place in the women’s relay with a time of 8:49.83 and the Tigers clocked 7:38.60 for fifth place in the men’s relay in their final events in the day.
Running with freshman Danielle Avery, sophomore Morgan Schuetz, freshman Hanna Deworth and junior Andria Aguilar, the Lady Tigers clocked 8:49.83 to follow Baylor (8:39.25) and Oklahoma State (8:45.78) across the finish line in the women’s 4×800 relay final. The Tigers clocked 7:38.60 with a squad of sophomore Matthew Rhorer, freshman Jack Wilkes, senior Julian Parker and sophomore Blair Henderson for fifth behind Texas A&M (7:27.57), Texas (7:31.53), Oklahoma (7:31.61) and Texas State (7:36.43) in the men’s 4×800 relay final.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers will return to Mike A. Myers Stadium bright and early for the start of Friday’s events at the 88th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays as the action gets underway at 9:30 a.m. CT in the field events and 9:35 a.m. CT with the first preliminary races on the track. Live results of the meet can be found online at the official athletics website for the University of Texas at http://texassports.com.