AUSTIN, Texas — The LSU women’s track and field team won a pair of sprint relays on Saturday afternoon, while Walter Davis won the triple jump, as LSU closed out a strong three day showing at the Texas Relays at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin.
“We had a very good three-day effort overall, which concluded with some great performances today, particularly on the women’s side,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “The ladies really got after it today and on the men’s side, Walter’s performance definitely stands out, it’s good to see him closer to 100 percent.”
The Lady Tigers regained the 4×100-meter relay title they last held in 1996, posting an NCAA-leading 43.43 seconds to snap Texas’ three-year stranglehold on the title. The group of Sa’Donna Thornton, Stephanie Durst, Myra Combs and Muna Lee got the baton around with relative ease to overcome a tough Texas squad which finished second in 43.82.
The 4×100-meter relay title won by the Lady Tigers was their second relay title of the day, as earlier they defended their 4×200-meter relay title, once again beating rival Texas. The foursome of Ronetta Smith, Lee, Durst and Combs blew away the field by two full seconds, winning the event in a time of 1:31.63, the fourth fastest time in LSU history.
The men’s 4×400-meter relay had been one of the most talked about events heading into the competition and it did not disappoint. Baylor avenged two earlier losses to LSU by edging the Tigers with a winning time of 3:02.54 in a race slightly slower than their showdown of a week ago. The Tigers’ foursome of Robert Parham, Lueroy Colquhoun, Pete Coley and Alleyne Francique clocked a time of 3:03.81.
Francique inherited the stick with too significant deficit and was unable to rally the Tigers on Saturday even with a blazing anchor split.
In the field, Walter Davis became the first Tiger to ever win the Texas Relays triple jump title, coming up with a huge effort of 54 feet 11 inches to claim victory. In a field that included three of the top four finishers from the NCAA Indoor meet last month, also won by Davis, the junior Olympian closed out a solid weekend by winning the triple jump a day after finishing second in the long jump.
In individual competition on the track, Sa’Donna Thornton came up with her best outing of the young season while hurdler Lolo Jones continued to perform well beyond her freshman status. Thornton, an All-American from Arlington, Texas, finished fifth in the women’s 100-meter dash, running a season-best NCAA provisional time of 11.39.
Jones finished fifth in the 100-meter hurdles in a high NCAA provisional time of 13.31, a personal best time in the event for the All-American.
Elsewhere on the track, the Lady Tigers got a tremendous performance in the distance area from Susanne Strunz who became the first LSU woman to ever compete in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. The junior finished second with an NCAA provisional time of 10:40.17.
LSU returns to action next Saturday for its final major home competition of the 2001 season, when both squads welcome in a solid field to the LSU Alumni Gold Relays at Bernie Moore Track Stadium. Field events will get underway at 10 a.m., while track events will start at 1:30 p.m.