Baton Rouge, La. – Two members of LSU’s jump squad – Mercy Abire and Christian Miller – came away with individual pentathlon titles on Tuesday evening at the annual LSU Thanksgiving Pentathlon that is held on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving every year at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse. Abire scored 325 points to claim the women’s title and Miller registered 391 to take the men’s.
2019 LSU Thanksgiving Week Pentathlon
Event/Individual/Team Champions ??
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— LSU Track & Field (@LSUTrackField) November 27, 2019
The pentathlon is made up of five events that are measurements of testing for the LSU track and field program – the 30 meter dash, standing long jump, standing triple jump, between the legs forward shot put and overhead backward shot throw.
The event squad winners came from the jumps crew as has been the norm in the past several years. Abire along with Serena Bolden (288 points) and Kyndal McKnight (246 points) claimed the women’s team title, and the threesome of Miller, JuVaughn Harrison (388 points), and Rayvon Grey (348 points) combined to win’s the men’s squad championship.
It was Abire’s first individual title, while Miller collected his third pentathlon title in the last four years. Miller was dethroned by Harrison at the 2018 event, but got his payback this week with a narrow three-point margin to reclaim his spot at the top. Abire had the best mark of any woman in the standing long jump and standing triple jump. She went 3.00 meters in the standing long jump for 66 points and set an LSU pentathlon record of 8.90 meters (65 points) in the standing triple jump. Interestingly enough, Miller didn’t have the top mark in any event, he just stayed consistent throughout the whole meet.
Freshman Amber Anning had the second highest total in points on the female side with 300 points. She had the farthest overhead backward shot put of the night with a toss of 17.10 meters. Milan Young had the lengthiest between the legs shot put forward with a throw of 14.97 meters, and transfer Symone Mason ran the fastest 30 meter dash time of the event with a 4.07. Lisa Gunnarsson set event records in the standing triple jump (7.53 meters), overhead backward shot put (13.90 meters) and total points (217) for the pole vaulting group. Freshman Serena Bolden matched the all-time freshman record in the standing triple jump with a bound of 8.47 meters.
On the men’s side, the aforementioned duo of Miller (391 points) and Harrison (388 points) finished one-two, and sprinter Tyler Terry accumulated 373 points to take bronze. Harrison claimed the fastest 30 meter dash of the night with a readout of 3.84 seconds. Freshman Charles Lewis stole the show in the throws with heaves of 18.24 meters in the overhead backwards shot put and 16.50 meters in the between the legs forward shot put. Both of Lewis’ throws were LSU sprinter records.
Surprisingly, Terry won titles in the standing long jump (3.46 meters) and standing triple jump (10.31 meters) over jumpers who have won NCAA and SEC titles in the jumps. Terry’s marks in the standing triple jump and standing long jump set LSU sprinter records in the event. Dylan Peebles had a standing long jump of 3.44 meters which ranks No. 2 on the sprinters’ list behind Terry.
The Tigers will return to training for a brief time after Thanksgiving before preparing for December exams. The first meet of the 2020 season will be on January 10 at Carl Maddox Field House.
Individual Winners
Mercy Abire (325 Points)
Standing Triple Jump – 8.90 meters (65 points)
Standing Long Jump – 3.00 meters (66 points)
30 Meter Dash – 4.24 (70 points)
Between The Legs Forward Shot Put – 16.06 meters (60 points)
Overhead Backward Shot Put – 16.61 meters (65 points)
Christian Miller (391 Points)
Standing Triple Jump – 10.06 meters (84 points)
Standing Long Jump – 3.31 meters (85 points)
30 Meter Dash – 4.00 (86 points)
Between The Legs Forward Shot Put – 16.83 meters (66 points)
Overhead Backward Shot Put – 17.69 meters (74 points)