PHILADELPHIA – The LSU Track & Field program extended its streak to 24-straight seasons of winning at least one Championship of America relay title at the Penn Relays when the Lady Tigers cruised to victory in the women’s shuttle hurdle relay to highlight Friday’s action in the 121st running of the carnival at historic Franklin Field.
Featuring a youthful squad of freshman Danielle Phillips, junior Chanice Chase, freshman Mikiah Brisco and freshman Daeshon Gordon, the Lady Tigers stormed to victory over defending champion Auburn to win LSU’s 10th Penn Relays title all-time in the event and their first since the 118th Penn Relay Carnival in 2012.
The Southeastern Conference rivals lined up side-by-side as the top two seeds in the race as LSU took the tape with a winning time of 54.22 seconds ahead of title holders Auburn’s 56.04 for second place.
Phillips gave the Lady Tigers a strong first leg before Chase took control of the contest with a blistering second leg to put the team well ahead as she gave way to Brisco. Running her first hurdle race since the Razorback Invitational back in January during the indoor season, Brisco held the advantage with Gordon bringing the Lady Tigers home more than one second ahead of their SEC rivals.
Their victory marked LSU’s 69th Championship of America relay title all-time at the Penn Relays as the Tigers and Lady Tigers have now combined to bring home at least one relay wagon wheel from Franklin Field in each season since 1991. They have also combined for a total of 137 event wins in the championship division all-time at Penn, including 67 individuals titles.
“It’s difficult but at the same time we’re confident because we have a strong team in the 100 hurdles,” Chase said of the challenges in preparing for such an event that is only run once a season. “We prepared for it and practiced it over the last week or so before we got here, and I think we executed it pretty well today. We won it, so we’re happy.”
Rounding out the Top 5 teams behind LSU (54.22) and Auburn (56.04) in the Championship of America final in the women’s shuttle hurdle relay were Maryland (56.43), Coastal Carolina (58.09) and Harvard (59.10).
Perhaps using their appearance in the shuttle hurdle relay as a warm-up for the preliminary round of the 100-meter hurdles, both Chase and Gordon easily advanced to Saturday’s final in the open race as they will race for the Penn Relays title in the meet’s finale. Chase (13.41w) and Gordon (13.45w) finished 2-3 in the first qualifying heat with the second-fastest and fourth-fastest times of the day, respectively.
“I’ve never had to run back-to-back hurdle races like that, so that was different,” Gordon shared. “We do it in training sometimes, but never in a competition like this. I feel like it did get me warmed up enough for it so I knew how I needed it to run it. Being able to run that relay was great preparation for me to come back that quickly and run the open hurdles.”
The Tigers and Lady Tigers finished off Friday’s action at Franklin Field by running in two more Championship of America finals with foursomes in both the men’s and women’s 1,600-meter sprint medley relays.
The Tigers lined up in the men’s final as the defending Penn Relays champions in the event after winning their third Championship of America title all-time with a winning time of 3 minutes, 17.96 seconds a season ago. LSU’s team of junior Darrell Bush (200 meters), junior Fitzroy Dunkley (200 meters), senior Quincy Downing (400 meters) and sophomore Blair Henderson (800 meters) finished runner-up this time around as they were second to champion Penn State (3:21.29) with a time of 3:21.95.
The Tigers also led the likes of third-place Tennessee (3:24.65), fourth-place St. Augustine’s (3:24.76) and fifth-place Texas A&M (3:26.46) across the finish line as the top five teams in the men’s sprint medley field.
The Lady Tigers, eight-time winners of the event all-time, brought the baton home in 3:54.78 for a fifth-place finish as they took to the track in the first race with a team of freshman Kymber Payne, sophomore Ka’Lynn Jupiter, sophomore Travia Jones and sophomore Morgan Schuetz. The Oregon Ducks closed strong in the final 150 meters to take the title over Clemson (3:44.71) with a winning time of 3:44.59.
“We had another good day with what we were able to do here today,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver following the day’s events. “I thought our athletes competed very well on another difficult day weather-wise. It’s not always easy to turn in those great performances when it’s cold and windy like it has been this week, so I’m pleased with what our athletes were able to do today.”
The Tigers cruised into the Championship of America final in the men’s 4×100-meter relay once again at the 121st running of the Penn Relay Carnival after winning the second preliminary heat in 40.31.
While lining up with the same team they have run all season in senior Joshua Thompson, senior Vernon Norwood, junior Tremayne Acy and senior Aaron Ernest, the Tigers (40.31) finished nearly one second ahead of runner-up Northeastern (41.22) in the second heat. They will also be joined in the final by fellow qualifiers University Tech (39.74), South Carolina (40.16), Texas A&M (40.37), Texas (40.74), Clemson (40.76), G.C. Foster (40.87), St. Augustine’s (41.06) and Boston University (41.06) in Saturday’s final that will run at 12:40 p.m. CT.
Thompson later returned to the track and qualified for his second-straight Penn Relays final in the men’s 110-meter hurdles as he took second place in the first heat with the third-fastest time of the day at 13.80 (+1.2). Joining Thompson in the final will be sophomore teammate Jordan Moore, who grabbed the eighth and final spot in the final with a time of 13.89 (+0.5) as the fourth-place finisher for the second heat.
The Tigers then wrapped up Friday’s qualifying on the track by turning in the fastest time of the day in the men’s 4×400-meter relay at 3:08.81 to finish nearly two seconds clear of the rest of the qualifying field.
Before running for the Tigers in the Championship of America men’s sprint medley relay in their final event of the day, Downing, Bush and Dunkley joined with junior Cyril Grayson in winning the second qualifying heat in 3:08.81 as the fastest foursome of the day ahead of Texas A&M’s heat-winning time of 3:10.52. They will also line up in the relay finale against Western Kentucky (3:11.90), Clemson (3:11.94), South Carolina (3:12.18), St. Augustine’s (3:12.65), G.C. Foster (3:12.67), Texas (3:12.90) and Pittsburgh (3:12.91).
The Lady Tigers advanced to the Championship of America final in a sprint relay on a cool, crisp afternoon at Franklin Field as they turned in the fourth-fastest qualifying time in the women’s 4×200-meter relay.
They followed Jamaica’s University Tech (1:32.38) across the finish line in the third qualifying heat with a time of 1:36.40 had by the squad of sophomore Rushell Harvey, Payne, Jupiter and sophomore Jada Martin. Also qualifying in the event were Texas A&M (1:32.90), Duke (1:35.38), Indiana Tech (1:36.73), Penn State (1:36.83), G.C. Foster (1:36.89), Northern Illinois (1:37.34) and Marshall (1:37.71).
After becoming the second Lady Tiger all-time to win the women’s championship shot put at the Penn Relays in Thursday’s opener, senior Tori Bliss returned to the circle Friday and walked away with the bronze medal in the championship division of the women’s discus throw when she unleashed her second-best throw of the season at 171-1 in the third round of the prelims.
Bliss, who opened her 2015 outdoor season with a personal best of 178-4 to rank No. 13 nationally, bagged the bronze medal behind Brown’s champion Josie Natrasevschi (183-8) and NC State’s silver medalist Sequoia Watkins (172-6) in the final. She also heads down the homestretch of the regular season as the NCAA’s No. 3-ranked shot putter this spring with a school-record throw of 57-5 ½ posted at the Jim Click Shootout.
Sophomore Nataliyah Friar also returned to action Friday after winning the women’s championship long jump title on Thursday, and she turned in a wind-aided career-best in a fifth-place finish in the triple jump.
Opening with a wind-aided jump of 40-7 (+3.6) in the first round, Friar posted her best wind-legal jump in the second round when she soared 40-6 (+0.5) before improving with a wind-aided 41-4 ½ (+3.6) in the third to take fifth place into the triple jump final. That’s where she would remain as Florida’s Ciarra Brewer took the title with a series-best wind-legal jump of 44-0 during the event.
While competing in the college division of the women’s javelin throw, junior Doren Welch finished runner-up to South Carolina’s Shelby Freedman (150-8) with a series-best mark of 147-6 on her sixth and final attempt of the day. Sophomore teammate Alli Brasuell followed in 25th place overall with a mark of 121-10 in the event.
Saturday’s finale at the 121st Penn Relay Carnival kicks off bright and early for the LSU Track & Field teams at 8 a.m. CT with the first field events of the day. They will step onto the track for the first time at 12:40 p.m. CT in the final of the men’s Championship of America 4×100-meter relay. Live results of the meet can be found online at the official website of the Penn Relays at http://www.thepennrelays.com.
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.