The LSU track and field team posted five wins in the relay races at the Penn Relays this weekend, a feat coach Pat Henry said he will remember for many years to come.
“In front of 60,000 people, this team put on a show,” Henry said. “I would say this meet is one of the highlights of my 16 years here at LSU.”
The Lady Tigers earned first place finishes in the 4×100-meter relay, the shuttle hurdle relay and the sprint medley relay on Friday, while LSU’s men finished first in the distance medley relay.
“There’s no question we had a great day today,” said Henry after Friday’s competition. “We’ve never come in here and won four relays in one day before.”
The Lady Tigers became the second team in Penn Relays history to post four relay wins in the meet, with a first place finish in the 4×200-meter relay. Texas was the only other team to accomplish that feat in 1989.
Junior Muna Lee was named Outstanding Track and Field Female performer after anchoring the winning 4×100 and 4×200 relay teams. She also earned first place in the 100-meter dash, with a time of 11.23 seconds.
The foursome of Stephanie Durst, Monique Hall, Lolo Jones and Muna Lee ran the 4×100 relay in a meet record time of 42.73 seconds. The mark is the squad’s second best this season and the third fastest in NCAA track and field history. The team ran a 42.63-second race earlier this season and still holds the world-leading time in the event.
Durst, Hall, Nadia Davy and Lee also set a collegiate record in the 4×200 relay with a time of 1:29.78. The foursome broke its own record of 1:30.07 set at the Texas relays earlier this month.
The combination of RaNysha Leblanc, Tiffany Robinson, Zamyal Jackson and Lolo Jones led LSU to the shuttle hurdle relay title in 53.04 seconds. The time was the second-fastest in both the Penn Relays and LSU school history.
The Lady Tigers’ sprint medley relay team of Durst, Davy, Hazelann Regis and Neisha Bernard-Thomas posted a first place finish in 3:45.65. It was the team’s fastest outdoor time of the season in the event.
Nicole Toney was the only Lady Tiger to place first in a field event. The All-American junior recorded her best distance of the year in the triple jump with a distance of 44 feet 4 inches.
The LSU men earned one first-place finish at the Penn Relays. Ben Shumaker, Marlon Greensword, Jeff Fisher and Jamison Carter led the Tigers to victory in the distance medley in 9:56.58.
The Tigers had a handful of top three finishes in field events.
Daniel Trosclair finished second in the pole vault with a height of 16-05. John Moffitt and LeJuan Simon finished third and fourth in the long jump with jumps of 25-00 and 24-09 1/4, respectively. Simon and Moffitt then finished second and third in the triple jump with leaps of 54-09 1/2 and 53-02 3/4 , respectively.
The Tigers sent a group of throwers to the Rice Twilight Invitational in Houston, Texas. Five LSU athletes met regional qualifying marks at the meet.
Keith Nunez recorded the seventh-best javelin throw in LSU history with a launch of 218-11, earning him a third place finish at the meet.
Mallory McDonald, Monet Rice and Katie McKeever all posted regional qualifying marks for the Lady Tigers. McDonald had a first-place finish in the hammer throw with a distance of 185-10. Rice posted two regional qualifying marks in the hammer and shot put with throws of 169-0 and 45-11, respectively. McKeever also recorded a regional qualifying distance in the shot put with a launch of 48-02.