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Bliss, Friar Soar on Day 1 at Penn RelaysBliss, Friar Soar on Day 1 at Penn Relays

Bliss, Friar Soar on Day 1 at Penn Relays

Bliss, Friar Soar on Day 1 at Penn Relays

PHILADELPHIA — The Lady Tigers are off to a flying start in the 121st running of the famed Penn Relay Carnival after senior Tori Bliss scored the women’s shot put title and sophomore Nataliyah Friar soared to a wind-legal personal best to claim the women’s long jump crown in Thursday’s opener at Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania.

Both became the second Lady Tigers in team history to win their events at the Penn Relays as Bliss fired a winning throw of 56 feet, 5 ¾ inches in the shot put and Friar posted a wind-legal personal best of 20-7 ¾ (+1.8) to set the pace for the LSU Track & Field teams on what is sure to be another exciting weekend in Philadelphia.

While Bliss and Friar each took home coveted Penn Relays watches as winners in the championship division, freshman Gabby Figueroa was also crowned a college champion in the women’s hammer throw on Thursday as she posted a personal record of her own with a winning throw of 184-1 in the event.

Bliss was the first to take her place on the award’s podium during Thursday’s opener as LSU’s first Penn Relays champion in the women’s shot put since the great Danyel Mitchell 23 years ago in 1992.

And she wasted no time in asserting her dominance over the rest of the field with an opening mark of 56-2 ½ in the first round to lead by nearly five feet over Maryland’s Chioma Onyekwere (51-4 ¼). Bliss improved to a series-best of 56-5 ¾ in the third round for the win. Penn State’s Rachel Fatherly finished runner-up with a throw of 52-4 ¾ in the third round, followed by Onyekwere in third place with her best of 51-4 ¼.

Bliss has been on fire throughout the 2015 season, winning nine shot put titles in 10 appearances between the indoor and outdoor seasons. That includes three wins outdoors as she has already broken her own school record with the NCAA’s No. 3-ranked mark this season of 57-5 ½ at the Jim Click Shootout on April 11 and a winning mark of 57-2 at the LSU Alumni Gold meet last Saturday.

The 2014 NCAA Outdoor and 2015 NCAA Indoor silver medalist was excited to add the title of Penn Relays Champion to her resume as one of the all-time great throwers in the history of the Lady Tiger program.

“I’ve not always thrown the best at Penn for whatever reason, transitioning to outdoor or whatever it is, but it was good to come to my last one and finally earn that watch and come to the stadium and just enjoy it for the last time,” Bliss shared. “I’m in a good spot getting ready for our last home meet to end the regular season and then looking ahead to SECs and nationals. I’m still training really hard, getting as many reps as I can so I can get back to the same feeling that I had going to Arkansas for NCAA Indoors.

“I feel good about training and trust the program. Coach (Derek) Yush has been doing it for a while, and I think he knows what he’s doing. I’m just eager to see how the championship season plays out.”

As Bliss was being recognized on the award’s podium by the public address announcer as this year’s women’s shot put champion, Friar wrapped up the women’s long jump title nearby when she jumped more than 20 feet five times in blustery conditions with temperatures dipping well into the 40s on the Franklin Field infield during Thursday’s competition.

After Auburn’s Dominique Bullock took over the early lead with her series-best jump of 20-2 ¼ (+2.3) in the second round, Friar responded with an impressive series of jumps that proved to be the class of the field.

The Lady Tiger sophomore inched closer to Bullock’s 20-2 ¼w with a strong mark of her own in the second round with a wind-legal 20-0 ½ (+0.5) before taking second place into the final with her improved effort of 20-1 ¾ (+2.1) in the third round of the competition. Friar then grabbed a lead she would not relinquish when she posted a wind-legal best of 20-7 ¾ (+1.8) in the fourth round before finishing off her victory with consecutive wind-aided jumps of 20-0 ½ (+3.8) in the fifth round and 20-0 ¼ (+3.6) in the sixth round of the final.

A native of Wentzville, Missouri, Friar soared into history with her performance as she became the first Lady Tiger in 22 seasons to be crowned the women’s long jump champion at the Penn Relays, joining former Lady Tiger national champion Daphnie Saunders in 1993 as the program’s only carnival champions in the event. Saunders won the 1993 title with a wind-aided jump of 20-1 ½ that season.

Friar continues to build an impressive resume in her sophomore season that has already been highlighted by a 21-0 lifetime PR when she earned All-America honors as the NCAA Indoor Bronze Medalist.

“I’m extremely happy to get the win. Last year, I didn’t get even make the final, so that was a goal of mine this year was to make the final, and then go on and try to win it,” Friar said following her award’s presentation. “We were so close going to the final, but I was determined to win. I hit my big mark in that first round, and I kind of made (Dominque Bullock) chase it from there. I wasn’t going to let anyone beat me after that.

“This weather and wind didn’t make jumping any easier for us today, but I knew that I just had to give it my all and be better than my competition. Everyone had to go through the same things in our preparation and in the competition, so you just have to battle through it. I was kind of telling myself, ‘You’ve jumped in the cold before, so you can go and do it again!’”

Figueroa became one of the Top 10 hammer throwers in the history of the Lady Tiger program when she stepped into the circle in the women’s college event and unleashed a series-best and career-best throw of 184-1 in the second round to take the title in her Penn Relays debut. Her winning throw of 184-1 moved her into the No. 8 position on LSU’s all-time outdoor performance list for the event.

After entering the meet with a previous PR of 180-1 set during her time at Ohio’s Austintown-Fitch High School, Figueroa also added a mark of 181-3 in the sixth and final round of the competition that also broke her PR at the start of the competition. The Lady Tigers made it a double over Penn State’s Fatherly (181-7) as she finished runner-up to Figueroa in the college hammer after also finishing second to Bliss earlier in the day.

Lady Tiger freshman Sidnie Wilder also stepped into the ring for the women’s college hammer throw on Thursday afternoon and turned in a series-best mark of 174-2 for fifth place behind Figueroa’s winning 184-1.

Sophomore Rebekah Wales nearly made it four wins for the Lady Tigers to open the meet when she unleashed her second-best throw of the season at 172-3 to capture second place in the championship section in the women’s javelin, finishing just eight inches shy of Florida’s Fawn Miller with a winning throw of 172-11.

After opening her sophomore season back on March 27 throwing a personal best of 176-5 at the 88th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, Wales eclipsed the 170-foot mark for the second time in her career with a top mark of 172-3 in the second round Thursday to take the early lead in the competition. Miller responded by throwing her best of 172-11 in the third round to emerge as this year’s women’s javelin champion.

Lady Tiger junior Mayme Cook followed in fourth place with a throw of 159-2 in the second round, while senior Annie Simoneaux trailed in sixth place with a best of 149-10 in the third round of the competition.

In other college field events, freshman Danielle Phillips jumped a series-best wind-aided mark of 18-4 ½ (+3.1) in the second round to claim 11th place in women’s long jump qualifying and junior Shanice Hall cleared the bar at 5-4 ½ to tie for 21st place overall in the women’s high jump in the first event of the day on Thursday morning.

LSU’s athletes lined up in their first Championship of America relay final during Thursday’s Penn Relays opener as the Lady Tigers crossed the finish line in 11th place in the women’s distance medley relay. LSU’s team of sophomore Morgan Schuetz (1,200 meters) and freshmen Keterra Harris (400 meters), Hannah Deworth (800 meters) and Danielle Avery (mile) clocked 11:53.02 for 11th place overall in the race. Villanova took the tape by two seconds over Stanford (11:11.07) with a winning time of 11:09.06.

The qualifying round in the women’s Championship of America 4×400-meter relay marked the end of Thursday’s action on the track for the Lady Tigers as they turned in a time of 3 minutes, 44.46 seconds to claim third place in the third heat and 10th place overall in the event. As the 10th place team, they qualified as the No. 1 seed into the college final that will run as part of Saturday’s meet finale.

Running 3:44.46 in the qualifying round of the 4×400-meter relay for the Lady Tigers were freshman Daeshon Gordon, sophomore Jada Martin, sophomore Travia Jones and junior Chanice Chase.

The Lady Tigers were unable to get the stick around the track in Thursday’s qualifying round of the women’s Championship of America 4×100-meter relay, missing the final handoff while leading the fifth heat.

Bliss will actually kick start the second day of competition at the 121st Penn Relays for the LSU Track & Field teams when she steps into the circle in the women’s discus championship beginning at 10:30 a.m. CT, followed by the first events on the track with the qualifying round of the men’s Championship of America 4×100-meter relay at 11:35 p.m. Friday’s action at Franklin Field for the Tigers and Lady Tigers will move through both the men’s and women’s sprint medley relay championships beginning at 5:20 p.m. CT at Franklin Field.

LSU fans will receive live updates of the Tigers and Lady Tigers competing throughout the three days of competition at the 121st Penn Relays by liking LSU Track & Field on Facebook at http://facebook.com/lsutrackfield and by following @LSUTrackField on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lsutrackfield and Instagram at http://instagram.com/lsutrackfield.