GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The LSU track and field team closed out day one of the SEC Outdoor Championships on Thursday.
After one day of action at the SEC Outdoor Championships the LSU women sit in eighth with six points and the men sit in seventh with six points.
The weekend scoring started off with Will Lawrence taking bronze in javelin at his first ever SEC Championship. The former Division III national champion reached a distance of 74.58 meters (246’ 5”) to solidify his third-place finish and score six points for the Tigers.
On the women’s side of javelin freshman Trinity Spooner also got the job done with a bronze-medal-worthy finish. Spooner claimed third place and six points for the women with her toss of 53.06 meters (174’ 1”) on the second attempt of the afternoon.
The women’s 200-meter prelims did not disappoint the electric crowd on Thursday as sophomore Brianna Lyston finished first overall and senior Thelma Davies finished in fourth to punch their tickets to the final. Lyston clocked a new PR and No. 6 time on the all-time LSU performance list of 22.31 seconds (-1.0 m/s) to take the win, which ranks her fifth in the world so far this outdoor season. Davies also clocked a new personal-best time with 22.60 seconds (-0.5 m/s) for her heat win.
LSU’s middle-distance besties, Michaela Rose and Lorena Rangel Batres, both punched their tickets to the 800-meter final with their top-three finishes in the prelims. Rose finished first as she coasted to a heat win in a time of 2:04.52, while Rangel Batres finished third overall with her time of 2:04.97.
Senior Da’Marcus Fleming punched his ticket to the 200-meter final as he clocked a new personal-best time of 20.42 seconds (+0.2 m/s) in the heats. Entering the meet Fleming held a PR of 20.50 seconds (+1.9 m/s) in the event from earlier this season on the same track.
The women’s 400-meter hurdle squad lived up to the hype on Thursday as they qualified three student-athletes for Saturday’s final. Leah Phillips led the way for LSU with her time of 56.86 seconds, finishing in front of Shani’a Bellamy who qualified with her time of 57.19 seconds. Junior Garriel White also made it into the final, taking the final spot with a time of 57.45 seconds.
The former national champion across the 400-meter hurdles, Sean “Squirrel” Burrell, also qualified for his respective event on Thursday. Burrell clocked a time of 50.36 seconds to earn the Big Q and finish sixth overall in the prelim.
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