BATON ROUGE, La.  – The LSU track and field program hosted its annual intra-squad Thanksgiving Week Pentathlon on Tuesday afternoon at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse.

Junior sprinter Shani’a Bellamy was the individual women’s winner with 276 points, and sophomore sprinter Godson Oghenebrume captured the men’s individual title with 388 points.

The annual event is held the Tuesday before Thanksgiving every year to measure how much athletes have improved throughout fall training. It consists of five events where designated point totals are assigned for registering certain marks.

The five events contested are the 30-meter dash, standing long jump, standing triple jump, between-the legs-forward shot put, and overhead backward shot throw.

In the women’s team race, the sprint/hurdle group of Bellamy, Leah Phillips (271 points) and Favour Ofili (245 points) combined to score 792 points to defeat the trio of jumpers – Morgan Smalls (261 points), Emery Prentice (211 points) and Aly Jo Warren (178 points) – that accumulated 650 points.

Phillips placed second behind Bellamy in the overall women’s individual standings, while Smalls finished third overall.

Bellamy was the women’s individual event winner in the standing triple jump with a leap of 8.42 meters.

Phillips captured two women’s individual event titles, placing first in the overhead backward shot throw (15.37 meters) and in the between-the-legs forward shot put (15.44 meters).

Smalls recorded a first-place effort in the women’s standing long jump (2.84 meters), and Brianna Lyston won the 30-yard dash in 4.16 seconds.

Prentice’s throw of 13.90 meters in the overhead backward shot tied the LSU women’s Thanksgiving Pentathlon pole vaulters’ record, which was first set by Lisa Gunnarsson in 2021.

There was also a women’s postgraduate competition on Tuesday, featuring Mikiah Brisco (287 points), Lolo Jones (273 points) and Candace Hill (240 points).

The sprint/hurdle group of Oghenebrume, Da’Marcus Fleming (353 points) and Sean Burrell (337 points) won the men’s team title with a total of 1,092 points, outdistancing the jumpers (1,086 points) and the throwers (997 points).

Brandon Hicklin (385 points), Apalos Edwards (355 points) and Ji’eem Bullock (346 points) led the jumpers’ effort, while Jaden James (354 points), Tzuriel Pedigo (333 points) and Luke Witte (310 points) competed for the throwers.

Hicklin and Edwards placed second and third, respectively, behind Oghenebrume in the overall men’s standings.

Hicklin won three individual men’s events – the 30-yard dash (3.86 seconds), the standing long jump (3.54 meters) and the standing triple jump (10.49 meters).

James placed first in the men’s overhead backward shot throw (19.05 meters) and Oghenebrume won the between-the-legs forward shot put competition (16.53 meters).

Fleming tied the men’s Thanksgiving Pentathlon sprinters’ record with a mark of 18.24 meters in the overhead backward shot throw (also set by Charles Lewis in 2019), and James established the overall record in the overhead backward shot with a heave of 19.05 meters, exceeding the previous school mark of 18.49 meters set by Daniel Obioha in 200.

LSU Thanksgiving Pentathlon

Top Finishers – Women

Shani’a Bellamy               276

Leah Phillips                    271

Morgan Smalls                261

Top Finishers – Men

Godson Oghenebrume   388

Brandon Hicklin              385

Apalos Edwards              355