Baton Rouge, La. – Four Tigers who just finished their freshman seasons at LSU will compete at the 2018 USATF Junior Championships in Bloomington, Ind., this Friday through Sunday in search of a spot on the U.S. Junior national team that will compete at the 2018 IAAF World U20 Championships in Finland in July.
The four athletes will be JuVaughn Blake (high jump/long jump), Abby O’Donoghue (high jump), Jurnee Woodward (400 meter hurdles) and Milan Young (100 meter hurdles/400 meter hurdles). A full competition schedule can be found below. Live results will be available at usatf.org and a live webcast will be available at usatf.tv (subscription required). In order to qualify for the world junior meet, athletes must finish in the top two of their event this weekend.
Blake’s first year included trips to both the indoor and outdoor NCAA Championships in the long and high jump. He won six events during his freshman campaign and highlighted those performances with personal bests of 2.22 meters (7-3.25) in the high jump and 7.84 meters (25-8.75) in the long jump. He scored a total of seven points at the two SEC meets he competed at including a fourth-place showing in the high jump at the outdoor conference meet in May.
O’Donoghue’s inaugural LSU campaign was highlighted by a second-place finish in the high jump at the SEC outdoor championships with a second-place showing with a clearance of 1.80 meters (5-10.75). Her best clearance of the season came at the Pac-12/Big Ten Invitational in March with a 1.81 meter (5-11.25) clearance.
Young and Woodward will run in the hurdles as they did all year long. Young will double up and do both the 100 and 400 meter hurdles while Woodward will solely focus on the 400 meter hurdles. The rising sophomores pitched in eight points at the SEC outdoor meet in the 400 meter hurdles with a fourth-place finish by Woodward (57.77/PR) and a sixth-place showing by Young (58.54/PR).
USATF Junior Championships Competition List
JuVaughn Blake – Long Jump – Friday – 4 p.m. CT
Young/Woodward – 400 meter hurdles – Friday – 4:20 p.m. CT – Prelims
Abby O’Donoghue – High Jump – Saturday – 5:20 p.m. CT
Milan Young – 100 meter hurdles – Saturday – 3:45 p.m. CT
400 Meter Hurdles Final – Saturday – 5 p.m. CT
100 Meter Hurdles Final – Saturday – 6:50 p.m. CT
JuVaughn Blake – High Jump – Sunday – 1:45 p.m. CT