Thursday was a day of strong tune-up performances and top-10 field event finishes for the LSU track and field teams on a rain-soaked track at the Penn Relays in Phildelphia.
Before a crowd of nearly 50,000 at the historic Franklin Field, the No. 1 Lady Tigers turned in preliminary heat victories in both the women’s college 4×100-meter and 4×400-meter relay events.
The 100-meter group of senior Kenyanna Wilson, juniors Rebecca Alexander and Semoy Hackett and sophomore Kimberlyn Duncan combined to post a time of 44.21 seconds, good enough for third among all schools in the preliminaries. The event’s championship heat will run today at noon CDT.
In the 4×400-meter relay, the Lady Tiger quartet of sophomore Latoya McDermott and juniors Rebecca Alexander, Jonique Day and Cassandra Tate won their heat with a time of 3:35.79 seconds and finished third overall in the preliminary round. The finals kick off on Saturday at 4:45 p.m. CDT.
LSU added a slew of impressive finishes in the afternoon and evening field events to its swift sprints.
Freshman Annie Simoneaux threw 141 feet, 11 inches to finish fifth in the college women’s javelin throw championship in her first Penn Relays.
Freshman Jen Clayton stretched a jump to 19 feet, 4 3/4 inches to capture seventh place on the women’s long jump championship.
Junior Rachel Laurent vaulted to a height of 12 feet, 11 1/2 inches feet before fouling on her next three attempts to settle for seventh place in the college pole vault final.
The women’s hammer throw championship featured two Lady Tigers in the top 10, as Karen Henning and Brieanna Kennedy finished fourth and sixth, respectively.
Action at the Penn Relays resumes at 10 a.m. CDT today and continues through Saturday night, with dozens of LSU athletes competing each day.
 
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Contact Chris Abshire at [email protected]