Baton Rouge, La. – The LSU track and field program heads to Austin, Texas, for outdoor meet No. 2 of the 2021 season. The 93rd edition of the Texas Relays begins Thursday and runs through Saturday at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
Live Results | Competition Guide | Meet Schedule | Meet Hub
The three-day meet will be televised and streamed exclusively on the Longhorn Network. Thursday’s coverage starts at 4:30 p.m. CT, Friday’s action begins at 1 p.m. CT, and Saturday’s window commences at 1:30 p.m. CT. Live stream links are available below. Coverage will air live on Longhorn Network Thursday (6-9 p.m. CT), Friday (1-6 p.m. CT) and Saturday (1:30-5:30 p.m. CT).
LSU will have 49 athletes making the trip to Austin for the Texas Relays. Monique Hardy and Emma Robbins get the action started on Thursday with the hammer throw at 10:15 a.m. CT. A full competition guide for the meet can be viewed above and lsusports.net will cover all the action that happens in Austin.
LSU at the Texas Relays
LSU has won a total of 84 relay titles and 84 individual event titles over the years at the Texas Relays. Damion Thomas (110m hurdles/2018), Jurnee Woodward (400m hurdles/2019), and Tonea Marshall (60m hurdles/2019) are the three current athletes who have claimed individual titles at the Texas Relays. Akanni Hislop (men), Dylan Peebles (men), Marshall (women), and Ariyonna Augustine (women) were all members of the 4×100 meter relays that won titles at the 2019 Texas Relays meet.
Texas Ties
LSU has three athletes set to represent the Tigers this week that hail from the state of Texas. The aforementioned Tonea Marshall (Arlington, Texas) will be competing in the 100 meter hurdles and 4×100 meter relay, while Milan Young (Houston, Texas) and Kyndal McKnight (Denton, Texas) are scheduled to compete in the 400 meter hurdles and triple jump, respectively; Young is also a candidate for the 4×400 meter relay.
Outdoor Debuts
Sixteen LSU athletes with big time credentials will be making their individual outdoor debuts this week in their premier events. We can start with the hurdling trio of Tonea Marshall, Damion Thomas, and Eric Edwards Jr. opening up their 2021 outdoor season. Marshall, who became the third-fastest hurdler in collegiate history of the distance of 60 meters indoors in 2020, will open up her hurdling season outdoors. She comes into the meet with a wind legal PR of 12.57 that she ran to win the U20 NACAC Championships in the summer of 2019 to claim gold while representing the United States. Thomas is two weeks removed from winning his first career national title with a triumph in the 60 meter hurdles and will open up at the distance of 110 meter hurdles this week; fellow hurdler Edwards Jr., who placed fifth at NCAA indoors, will do the same. Thomas brings in a personal best of 13.44 and Edwards Jr. is not too far off with a career best of 13.49.
The jumps crew has six big hitters competing this weekend. Lisa Gunnarsson (2021/pole vault) and Rayvon Grey (2019/long jump) have both won national titles during their career, and Abigail O’Donoghue (high jump) and Mercy Abire Matanmi (long jump) will open up as well. It will be Abire’s first competition for LSU since February of 2020 and O’Donoghue is coming off a scoring performance at the NCAA indoor meet. In the men’s triple jump, 2019 SEC champion, Christian Miller, and Sean Dixon-Bodie will be competing; Dixon-Bodie notched a fifth place finish two weeks ago at NCAA indoors.
In the sprints and long hurdles, reigning Texas Relays champion Jurnee Woodward will attempt to defend her title in the 400 meter hurdles; she won in 2019 with a time of 57.28. Woodward went on to win the 2019 SEC title in the 400 meter hurdles later that season with a personal best of 56.77.
Amber Anning and Sean ‘Squirrel’ Burrell will open up in the quarter mile with prelims on Thursday and hopes of advancing to Saturday’s finals. Anning is coming off a indoor PR of 51.83 at the NCAA indoor meet. Terrance Laird, the indoor school record holder and NCAA runner up indoors, is scheduled to run the 200 meters on Thursday (prelims) and Saturday (finals) alongside teammate Dylan Peebles, who has NCAA experience. Laird’s outdoor PR in the 200 is 20.41 and Peebles’ career best is 20.66.
Davis Bove and Eric Coston, who both had stellar indoor seasons and set massive personal bests, are scheduled to compete twice this week. They will run the 1,500 meter competition on Thursday and the 800 meter competition on Saturday. Bove set the LSU school record indoors in the mile with a time of 3:57.49.
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