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Sprint Relay Title Highlights Final Day in TexasSprint Relay Title Highlights Final Day in Texas

Sprint Relay Title Highlights Final Day in Texas

Sprint Relay Title Highlights Final Day in Texas

AUSTIN, Texas – The LSU Tigers sparked Saturday’s finale of the 88th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays by cruising to victory in the men’s 4×200-meter relay final on a day that saw LSU’s athletes record six career bests and seven seasonal bests to close out another outstanding three days of competition at Mike A. Myers Stadium at the University of Texas.

Senior Joshua Thompson was the lone Tiger to turn in a wind-legal personal best to close out the meet as the All-America hopeful scored the silver medal in the 110-meter hurdles personal-record time.

Recording the fastest wind-aided performances of their careers were sophomores Tremayne Acy and Jada Martin in the 100-meter dash, sophomore Nataliyah Friar in the long jump and freshman Daeshon Gordon in the 100-meter hurdles. Senior All-American Tori Bliss also rewrote the school-record books with one of the program’s all-time leading throws in the discus to wrap up the competition.

“Conditions were a bit challenging today with the wind swirling like it was, but I thought our athletes competed really well and really accomplished some things that we came here wanting to accomplish this weekend,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “We saw some performances today that are really going to help us as we move through the outdoor season. We need to keep progressing from here.”

The Tigers kicked off this year’s Texas Relays finale with a victory in the men’s 4×200-meter relay to take home the program’s second event title of the weekend and its 149th event win in meet history.

After watching the Texas Longhorns take the tape in the first section with a time of 1 minute, 23.34 seconds, LSU’s team of junior Darrell Bush, Acy, junior Fitzroy Dunkley and senior Aaron Ernest responded with a fast heat-winning performance of their own, stopping the clock in 1:22.60 to eclipse the home team by more than a half second and beat Florida (1:23.12) to the finish line in their heat for the title.

They captured LSU’s 10th Texas Relays title all-time in the men’s 4×200-meter relay and their first since 2011 when Keyth Talley, Horatio Williams, Tristan Walker and Gabriel Mvumvure set the school record of 1:20.45.

LSU’s victory in the 4×200-meter relay kick started a strong finish to this year’s Texas Relays for the Tigers as they followed with a seasonal-best run in the Clyde Littlefield 4×100-Meter Relay final as Acy and Ernest lined up on the final two legs once again. Teaming with Thompson on the first leg and fellow senior Vernon Norwood on the second leg, the Tigers carried the stick around the track in a seasonal-best time of 38.93 to finish it in second place in a photo finish at the line to the winning run of 38.91 by the Texas A&M Aggies.

Taking the stick from Acy in third place on the final exchange, Ernest closed the gap on the anchor legs for both Texas A&M and TCU down the homestretch, overtaking the Horned Frogs (39.15) and finishing more than two tenths of a second in front of the Fort Worth foursome in second place. Deon Lendore held off Ernest to give the Aggies a narrow victory in 38.91 at the line.

Following their outstanding performance in leading the Tigers’ sprint relay teams early in the day, Thompson, Acy and Ernest carried their momentum into Saturday’s individual finals on a windy day in Austin.

In what proved to be the only wind-legal final on a blustery afternoon at Mike A. Myers Stadium, Thompson took his mark in the men’s 110-meter hurdles championship and raced to a wind-legal personal best of 13.68 (+1.6) to finish runner-up to Texas Tech’s Chris Caldwell (13.56) in a tight race to the finish line. Thompson also edged Clemson’s Justin Johnson (13.69) at the tape for second place overall.

The tables were turned on Thompson in the hurdle final after he nipped Caldwell at the finish line for the win in their preliminary heat on Friday with identical qualifying times of 13.91. Thompson slashed his top time in the event by nearly one tenth of a second, eclipsing his previous PR of 13.77 (+0.2) run in the NCAA quarterfinals during his junior season in 2014.

Sophomore teammate Jordan Moore raced to a seasonal best of his own in the men’s sprint hurdle final when he crossed the finish line with a top time this season at 13.96 (+1.6) for seventh place overall.

Slashing nearly a tenth of a second off of his career-best wind-aided time in the 100-meter dash on Saturday afternoon was Acy, who brought home the bronze medal in the men’s University final with his time of 10.12 run with a blistering tailwind of +3.3 meters per second. Acy beat his previous wind-aided best of 10.20 to finish in third place in the race to Baylor’s Trayvon Bromell (9.90w) and Texas A&M’s Shavez Hart (10.10w).

Ernest wrapped up Saturday’s action for the Tigers by lining up in the men’s invitational 200-meter dash, and sprinted to a season-opening wind-aided time of 20.45 (+4.5) for fifth place in the event. Ernest was the top collegian in the field as he trailed professional sprinters Anaso Jobodwana (19.87w), Kei Takase (20.09w), Aldrich Bailey, Jr. (20.16w) and Maurice Mitchell (20.42w) across the finish line in the event.

The Lady Tigers opened their Saturday afternoon at the Texas Relays with an appearance in the women’s invitational 4×200-meter relay as they crossed the finish line in fifth place at 1:36.36 with the foursome of junior Chanice Chase, Gordon, sophomore Travia Jones and sophomore Rushell Harvey. LSU followed Texas A&M (1:32.41), Texas (1:32.53), Clemson (1:36.06) and Notre Dame (1:36.31) across the finish line in the race.

Like the Tigers, the Lady Tigers followed their run in the 4×200-meter relay in their first event of the day with a seasonal-best performance in the 4×100-meter relay when the team of freshman Mikiah Brisco, freshman Aleia Hobbs, sophomore Jada Martin and sophomore Nataliyah Friar turned in a 44.46 for third place in the women’s final behind champion Texas (43.70) and runner-up Texas A&M (43.72).

They lowered their seasonal best from 44.63 in their season opener at the Louisiana Classics a week ago while edging the likes of Clemson (45.00), Louisiana Tech (45.18) and Purdue (45.25) at the line for third place.

Gordon turned in the top individual performance on the track for the Lady Tigers on the final day of this year’s Texas Relays when she just missed a spot on the medal podium as the fourth-place finisher in the final for the women’s 100-meter hurdles. The ninth and final qualifier into the final, Gordon scorched to a wind-aided 13.09 (+3.7) for fourth place in her collegiate debut outdoors.

While eclipsing her previous career-best wind-aided time of 13.41 as a high school senior last spring, Gordon (13.09w) raced to fourth place in Saturday’s hurdles final behind Baylor’s Tiffani McReynolds (12.75w), Notre Dame’s Jade Barber (12.81w) and Texas Tech’s Le’Tristan Pledger (12.99w). She also edged Texas All-American Morgan Snow (13.15w) at the line.

With winds continuing to swirl on the straightaway, Martin clocked a windy 11.27 (+5.1) for fifth place in the women’s 100-meter final as Texas’ Morolake Akinosun sprinted to victory in the event with a windy 10.94.

In the wake of Rodney Brown‘s seasonal best to win the men’s discus title and Rebekah Wales‘ personal best to take home the bronze medal in the women’s javelin final on Friday, senior Tori Bliss carried the torch for LSU’s throws group in Saturday’s finale as she unleashed a personal best of her own to bag the bronze medal in the University division of the women’s discus throw.

Opening the competition with a previous personal best of 171 feet, 1 inch set during her junior season in 2014, Bliss added more than seven feet to her lifetime best when she took and turn and let loose the discus to a mark of 178-4 into the Mike A. Myers Stadium infield on her second throw of the competition to take third place into the final.

That’s where Bliss (178-4) would remain as she won the bronze medal in the discus final behind Texas A&M’s gold medalist Shelbi Vaughan (201-8) and Northern Arizona’s silver medalist Julia Viberg (187-3).

It’s an outstanding start to the 2015 outdoor season for Bliss as she took home All-America honors in her last appearance indoors on March 14 while recording a lifetime PR of 60-7 ¾ in a silver-medal-winning runner-up finish in the women’s shot put final at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships. She is a two-time NCAA silver medalist in the shot put during her collegiate career with the Lady Tigers.

Wrapping up LSU’s appearance at this year’s Texas Relays was sophomore All-American Nataliyah Friar, who stepped onto the long jump runway for the first time outdoors this season in the team’s final event.

After opening with back-to-back wind-aided jumps of 19-11 ½ (+3.2) and 19-11 ¾ (+3.7) in the first and second rounds, Friar soared to a series-best of 20-9 ¼ (+2.5) in the third round for her best career wind-aided leap to move into third place in the preliminary round. She slipped to fourth place overall in the final standings, trailing Lorraine Ugen (22-10w), Chelsea Hayes (21-10 ¾w) and Kansas’ Sydney Conley (21-4w) in the final.

“We’re off to a pretty good start as a team this outdoor season. We’re seeing a number of athletes turning in personal bests and competing very well each week, and that’s a great sign early in the season,” Shaver said following Saturday’s competition. “We just need to keep working hard and improving as a team, and we have another great chance to do that at home next weekend.”

With the 2015 outdoor season now fully underway, the Tigers and Lady Tigers are ready to return home next weekend for their first home meet of the year to play host to their fifth-annual “Battle on the Bayou” meet on April 4 at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium. They will then travel to Tucson, Arizona, to compete at this year’s Jim Click Shootout being held April 11 at Arizona’s Drachman Stadium.