PHILADELPHIA — LSU’s LaToya Payne and the Lady Tigers’ 4×100 relay team highlighted the opening day of the prestigious 2003 Penn Relay Carnival on Thursday here at venerable Franklin Field on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania located in Philadelphia.
In Thursday’s 4×100 relay competition, LSU’s highly-talented quartet of Stephanie Durst, Muna Lee, Lolo Jones and Monique Hall cruised to a first-place finish in its heat by posting a time of 44.51. With the win, the Lady Tigers qualified for Friday’s championship final where they will face off against relay teams from Auburn, Indiana, Texas, TCU, South Carolina, Miami (Fla) and Houston.
Payne, LSU’s sophomore long jumper, posted her fifth-consecutive top-three finish of the outdoor season on Thursday as the Lady Tigers’ native of Killeen, Texas, earned the third-place position by jumping a distance of 20-5 1/4. Payne has finished in the top three in all five long jump competitions of the 2003 outdoor season.
The Lady Tigers’ 4×400 relay team was disqualified in its heat on Thursday. Maryland’s foursome won the race with a time of 3:44.40.
The college portion of the 109th-annual Penn Relay Carnival will resume on Friday at 11 a.m. with the men’s 4×100 relay heats.
Event 11, Thursday, 12:40 pm
College Women 4x100m (Heats)
Heat 2
1 44.51 LSU
2 46.08 Virginia
3 46.63 Penn State
4 47.39 Tennessee State
5 48.10 Monmouth
6 48.37 New York Tech
7 49.01 Delaware
8 49.26 Central Connecticut State
9 50.17 Southern Connecticut State
Event 119, Friday, 12:35 pm
College Women 4x100m
Championship of America Qualifiers
A Auburn
B Indiana
C LSU
D Texas
E Texas Christian
F South Carolina
G Miami (Fla)
H Houston
Event 61, Thursday, 5:20 pm
College Women 4x400m
1 3:44.40 Maryland
2 3:44.83 Morgan State
3 3:46.44 Temple
4 3:47.84 Delaware State
5 3:50.99 Hampton
6 3:55.37 Kentucky
dq LSU
Event 279, Thursday, Noon
College Women Long Jump Championship
1 6.65 / 21’10.00 Elva Goulbourne Auburn
2 6.57 / 21’06.75 Victoria Rybalko Maine
3 6.42w / 21’03.75 Antoinette Wilks South Carolina
4 6.23 / 20’05.25 LaToya Payne LSU
5 6.09w / 19’11.75 Chi-Chi Aduba Penn State
6 6.00w / 19’08.25 Gina Harris Miami (Fla)