Bryan-College Station, Texas – The LSU track and field team scored points in six different events on Friday night at the Gilliam Indoor Stadium to highlight day one of action at the SEC Indoor Championships. The Tigers also had 12 athletes advance out of the preliminary rounds to Saturday’s finals.
After one day of action, both the LSU men and women are in 10th place, but both squads are poised to score some points on Saturday to improve their positioning. The women have a total of 17 scoring opportunities on Saturday, while the men have eight.
Morgan Smalls scored points for LSU in the long jump with a fifth place finish with a best jump of 20’ 6.25” (6.25 meters) that came in the fifth round; that earned LSU four points. Apalos Edwards (7th) and Ji’eem Bullock (8th) both scored at the SEC meet for the first times in their careers on Friday. Edwards registered a personal best long jump of 24’ 8.25” (7.52 meters), while Bullock earned his place with a leap of 24’ 6.25” (7.47 meters).
Jon Nerdal chipped in with two points in the weight throw as he took seventh with a best throw of 67’ 2.75” (20.49 meters). The final two scoring performances of the night for LSU came in the distance medley relays. The men’s foursome of Davis Bove, Aaron Smith, Dyllon Nimmers, and Eric Coston ran the eighth fastest time in LSU history, a 9:45.39, to place sixth in the event. The women’s crew of Sara Funderburk, Garriel White, Hannah Carroll, and Alicia Stamey placed eighth with a time of 11:23.65 to score a point.
Although they weren’t point scoring performances, Addison Stevenson and Jackson Martingayle threw down some pretty impressive personal bests in the 5,000 meter run. Stevenson, in her first collegiate 5,000 meter run, clocked a time of 16:47.23 to become the third fastest performer in LSU history; she finished 16th in the event. Martingayle moved into the No. 9 slot on the LSU list with a personal best time of 14:30.17 to finish 13th in the event.
Other than that, it was strictly qualifying for the Tigers as they moved on numerous runners to Saturday’s finals. Favour Ofili, Leah Phillips, Alia Armstrong, and Dorian Camel all qualified for two events apiece.
Ofili ran quite fast in the prelims with a personal best of 22.61 in the 200 meters to better her own previous African indoor record in the event; it moved her up to No. 3 in both the LSU record book and the NCAA rankings this season. She owns the fastest three times in African history indoors over the 200 meter distance with times of 22.61, 22.71, and 22.75. She also advanced on to the finals of the 60 meters with a 7.21.
Alia Armstrong and Leah Phillips both advanced to the finals of the 60 meter hurdles with respective times of 7.95 and 8.06. Armstrong (7.21) also moved on to the finals of the 60 meter dash, and Phillips qualified for the finals of the 200 meter dash (23.20/PR). Eric Edwards Jr. will be LSU’s third finalist in the hurdles as he qualified through with a time of 7.76.
Dorian Camel ran times of 6.68 in the 60 meters and 20.96 in the 200 meters to move on. The time of 20.96 was a personal best for Camel. Katy-Ann McDonald had the top qualifying time in the 800 meters with a readout of 2:04.02, and fellow distance runner Davis Bove moved on in the mile with a time of 4:02.01. Amber Anning was the final sprinter to advance out of qualifying with a time of 52.54 in the 400 meters.
The second and final day of the SEC Championships will take place Saturday. There will be two separate live streams where fans can watch the action; those links are below. Action gets started for LSU at 1:15 p.m. CT on Saturday with four Tigers – Ronnie Rounds, Abigail O’Donoghue, Morgan Smalls, Nyagoa Bayak – in action in the high jump.
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