AUSTIN, Texas – In his final appearance as an LSU Tiger at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, senior Rodney Brown returned to his home state one last time and went out a champion when he let fly a seasonal-best throw of 209 feet, 8 inches in the fifth round to claim the men’s discus championship on Friday afternoon at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
Brown, the early-season NCAA leader after opening up at 207-11 in a win at the Louisiana Classics a week ago, made it a perfect 2-for-2 in 2015 as he captured his first career Texas Relays title in his final appearance and became the first LSU Tiger to strike gold at the University of Texas in 23 seasons since former NCAA Champion John Nichols back in 1992.
Despite qualifying for the final in sixth place with a top mark of 186-7 on his third throw of the preliminary round, Brown outclassed the field in the final as he finished nearly 14 feet ahead of second place.
He took the lead with a throw of 201-3 in the fourth round and never looked back as he raised the stakes to 209-8 in the fifth round and 205-1 in the sixth round to take the title over professional athlete Russ Winger of Asics with a series-best mark of 195-10 to score the silver medal. University of Pennsylvania’s Sam Mattis brought home the bronze medal with a top throw of 192-4 on the afternoon.
Rounding out the nine finalists following behind Brown (209-8) in the standing were Cornell’s Stephen Mozia (192-2) in fourth place, Texas’ Ryan Crouser (192-0) in fifth place, Virginia Tech’s Marek Barta (188-2) in sixth place, South Dakota’s Cody Snyder (187-0) in seventh place, Tennessee’s Tavis Bailey (186-7) in eighth place and Texas State’s Darian Brown (183-2) in ninth place overall.
Brown’s victory is LSU’s fourth all-time at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays after Nichols was crowned a three-time men’s discus champion at the meet in his storied career in 1989, 1990 and 1992. LSU’s teams have now combined for 148 event wins all-time at the Texas Relays with 73 relay titles and 75 individual titles since winning their first events at the Texas Relays in 1935.
“I had a great feeling when I released it. When it leaves my hand like it did, I kind of know it’s going to be a big throw,” Brown shared of his winning throw in the fifth round. “I know what a throw like that feels like. I’ve put in a lot of hard work to get ready for this season. Coach (Derek) Yush and I have a plan, and I feel like I’m in a really good place. I know success will come in time if I stay patient.
A native of nearby Chappell Hill, Texas, and product of Navasota High School, Brown won his first Texas Relays title on Friday after throwing 206-3 for second place in 2013 and 206-5 for fourth place in 2014.
“It means a lot,” Brown added when talking about being able to come back to his home state and go out a Texas Relays champion. “It’s a sentimental meet because I always have a lot of family here watching me, and a lot of my friends from back home who get to see me throw. It just gives me a lot of confidence to have them here supporting me and to come back here to my home state and throw well.”
Brown’s gold-medal-winning performance in the men’s discus highlighted an outstanding day of competition for LSU’s throws crew as sophomore Rebekah Wales also enjoyed a career-best performance in the javelin when she kicked off the day’s events by throwing a series-best of 176-5 to raise her personal best by nearly 10 feet.
Wales became the first Lady Tiger in 27 years to throw more than 170 feet in the javelin when she stepped onto the runway for her sixth and final attempt in the final and unleashed a throw of 176-5 to move five spots up the leaderboard from eighth place to third place to take home the bronze medal in the women’s University division on Friday morning.
After qualifying for the final in eighth place with her season-opening throw of 162-4 on her first attempt for the 2015 season, Wales followed with throws of 156-1 in the fourth round and 159-1 in the fifth round before letting loose a nearly 10-foot personal best of 176-5 in the last round to take home the bronze medal behind professional Kara Winger (199-6) of Asics and Irena Sediva (188-2) of Virginia Tech in the event.
Wales also edged the likes of Texas Tech’s Hannah Carson (176-4), Stanford’s Brianna Bain (174-10), Florida’s Fawn Miller (172-8) and Texas A&M’s Maggie Malone (166-5) for third place with a PR on her final throw.
LSU’s sophomore from West Monroe, Louisiana, became the No. 3-ranked javelin thrower in the history of the Lady Tiger program with her personal best of 176-5, trailing only the likes of school-record holder Laverne Eve and All-American Cheryl Coker as the last two Lady Tigers to eclipse 170 feet during their senior seasons in 1988. She raised her personal best by nearly 10 feet with her performance after recording a previous PR of 166-11 in a sixth-place finish right here at the Texas Relays during her freshman season a year ago.
“We’re seeing a number of our athletes competing at a very high level right from the start this outdoor season. That’s great to see as we know they will be able to raise their level of performance as we progress week-to-week and continue preparing for the championship meets,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “It’s great to perform so well this early, but we want to be at our very best at that time of the season.”
Wales was not the only Lady Tiger to throw a personal best in the University division of the women’s javelin as junior teammate Mayme Cook threw a PR for the second-straight week to open the 2015 season.
After opening with a mark of 153-2 on her first throw of the competition, Cook fouled her second throw before adding nearly five feet to her personal best with a series-best mark of 165-11 on her third attempt for an eighth-place finish in the event. It marked her second personal best in as many weeks after opening the season with a throw of 161-0 to take the title at the Louisiana Classics last Friday.
LSU’s athletes were outstanding in their preliminary races on the track held Friday morning as they arrived at Mike A. Myers Stadium bright and early for a 9:35 a.m. CT start to 4×100-meter relay qualifying.
The Lady Tigers were the first to step onto the track in the fourth preliminary heat of the women’s sprint relay and raced to an easy victory with a time of 44.74 seconds with freshman Mikiah Brisco, sophomore Rushell Harvey, sophomore Jada Martin and sophomore Nataliyah Friar taking the tape ahead of McNeese State (46.19) in the section by more than one second.
Their qualifying time of 44.74 was the third-fastest of the day in the women’s prelims behind only Texas (44.01) and Texas A&M (44.26) as they are among the favorites to take the title in Saturday’s finale. They will join the likes of Purdue (44.97), Louisiana Tech (45.25), UNLV (45.68), Notre Dame (45.70), Clemson (45.75) and Texas Tech (45.75) in the final.
The Tigers followed with an easy victory of their own in the third qualifying heat of the men’s 4×100-meter relay when their team of senior Joshua Thompson, senior Vernon Norwood, sophomore Tremayne Acy and senior Aaron Ernest sprinted to the finish line in a time of 39.58 ahead of teams from Louisiana Tech (40.61) and Stephen F. Austin (41.36). Like the Lady Tigers, they also posted the third-fastest qualifying run overall on the day behind Texas A&M (39.49) and TCU (39.54) as the two fastest times in the first heat.
Also qualifying for the final of the Clyde Littlefield Men’s 4×100-Meter Relay were Baylor (39.82), Clemson (40.11), South Plains (40.12), West Texas College (40.24), Auburn (40.43) and Texas-Arlington (40.55).
After pacing LSU’s sprint relay teams into Saturday’s finals in their first races of the day, Thompson, Acy and Martin each returned to the track shortly thereafter to qualify for the finals in their individual events as some of the leading performers in the sprints and relays. Thompson and Acy each turned in heat-winning performances to highlight LSU’s individual qualifying in Friday’s morning session.
In a tight race to the finish line, Thompson (13.905) edged Texas Tech’s Chris Caldwell (13.910) by just five one-thousandths of a second with identical times of 13.91 in the fifth heat of the 110-meter hurdles to earn his spot in the final with the second-fastest time of the day. Sophomore teammate Jordan Moore also advanced to Saturday’s hurdle final with a time of 14.11 (-0.2) as the eighth-fastest qualifier on Friday morning.
Acy followed by clocking a personal-best time of 10.39 (-0.3) to win the 11th heat of the men’s 100-meter dash with the fourth-fastest time in qualifying to eclipse his previous PR of 10.41 entering the weekend.
Martin lined up for her outdoor opener in the 10th preliminary heat of the women’s 100-meter dash and turned in a season-opening time of 11.63 (-0.7) for second place in the race and fifth place overall to earn a place in her first ever final at the Texas Relays. She was the 10th-place finisher as a freshman a year ago with a time of 11.58 (+0.0) in her 2014 season opener.
Also qualifying for her first Texas Relays final while making her collegiate debut on Friday morning was Lady Tiger freshman Daeshon Gordon, who lined up in the 10th race in the women’s 100-meter hurdles. Gordon came up just one one-hundredth of a second short of her wind-legal PR in the event with a season-opening time of 13.62 (-0.3) to finish runner-up in her heat and ninth place overall to claim the final qualifying spot for Saturday’s final. She set her PR of 13.61 during her prep career at Northeast High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“We’ve set ourselves up to have a great final day at the Texas Relays this year,” Shaver said. “Both of our sprint relay teams ran comfortable races in their heats to get through, and a number of those who ran the relay came back to qualify for the finals in their individual events. They might have arrived at the track early this morning, but prepared themselves to compete at a high level when it counted.”
Each of LSU’s three finalists in the 400-meter hurdles turned in strong performances after senior Quincy Downing, junior Chanice Chase and sophomore Ka’Lynn Jupiter advanced from Thursday’s prelims.
Chase dropped her seasonal best from 58.49 in the preliminary round to 58.00 in Friday’s final as she raced to fourth place in the finale trailing Arkansas’ Sparkle McKnight (56.70), Clemson’s Samantha Elliott (57.54) and Harvard’s Autumne Franklin (57.69) across the finish line. Jupiter just missed equaling her personal best of 59.21 she set Thursday with a time of 59.25 in a seventh-place finish in today’s final.
Downing followed with an eighth-place finish in his first career Texas Relays final in the men’s 400-meter hurdles as he clocked 50.87 after opening his 2015 outdoor season with a qualifying run of 51.17 on Thursday.
Rounding out Friday’s action on the track was the running of the 1,600-meter sprint medley relays as the Lady Tigers took third place in the women’s sections in 3 minutes, 48.13 seconds and the Tigers had fifth place in the men’s relay final in 3:17.73.
Gordon and Harvey led off the women’s sprint medley relay by running the 200-meter legs for a Lady Tiger team that also featured sophomore Travia Jones running the 400 meters and sophomore Morgan Schuetz for the 800-meter anchor leg. The Lady Tigers (3:48.13) took third place in the race behind a pair of Southeastern Conference rivals in champion Arkansas in 3:42.36 and runner-up Florida in 3:44.82.
Taking fifth place in the men’s sprint medley relay for the Tigers were junior Darrell Bush, junior Fitzroy Dunkley, senior Julian Parker and sophomore Blair Henderson as they crossed the finish line in 3:17.37 behind the likes of champion BYU (3:14.74), runner-up Texas A&M (3:15.80), Baylor (3:15.99) in third place and Texas Tech (3:17.28) in fourth place overall.