The LSU Lady Tigers won their 13th NCAA title Saturday at the Outdoor Track National Championships.
The Lady Tigers leaped over Texas during the last day of competition with a 44-foot-5 1/4-inch jump by junior Nicole Toney.
Toney finished fourth in the triple jump event, earning five points for the Lady Tigers. The team finished with a total of 64 points.
“This was a great title because we came in with a lot of expectations,” said coach Pat Henry. “This team is young. We don’t have any seniors, so it really makes for a great championship.”
The outdoor title was the second NCAA championship the Lady Tigers won this year and is their 23rd overall. The women won the Indoor National Championships earlier this season.
The men’s team, 2002 NCAA outdoor champions, finished the competition fourth overall with 36 points.
Arkansas took the men’s title with 59 points, while Auburn came in second with 50.
The championships, held at Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex in Sacramento, Calif., marked Henry’s 25th national championship title.
Junior Neisha Bernard-Thomas broke a four-year school record by running the 800-meters in a time of 2:01.75. Bernard-Thomas, a Brooklyn native, finished second in the event.
The undefeated 4×100-meter relay team comprised of Stephanie Durst, Monique Hall, Lolo Jones and Muna Lee took first place in Friday’s event.
The team was trailing South Carolina by two meters heading into the final leg of the race. Anchor Muna Lee sprinted past Gamecock Aleen Bailey.
However, Bailey beat Lee for the title in the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Durst, Hall, Jones and Lee finished the race in a world-leading time of 42.55, beating their previous world-leading time of 42.63.
“The key was good handoffs,” Lee said. “[South Carolina] raced like they were supposed to, and that pushed us big time. I just really wanted to win a relay. We lost last year and that was a heartbreaker.”
The men’s 4×100-meter relay also took the NCAA victory Friday. Kellie Willie, Robert Parham, Pete Coley and Bennie Brazell crossed the line in 38.65, edging out Tennessee (38.72).
This is the fourth time in school history the men’s and women’s teams won the championship in the 4×100-meter relays in the same year. LSU is the only university to accomplish this feat.
“I just knew that if God brought us here that we could do it,” Brazell said. “We just tried to stay together as a team and not beat ourselves.”
The men’s 4×100-meter relay team also won the 4×400-meter race. Parham, Brazell, Coley and Willie took the victory in 3:02.01, the second fastest time in school history.
The women’s 4×400-meter relay team of Nadia Davy, Monique Hall, Neisha Bernard-Thomas and Hazelann Regis finished second overall in 3:27.88. Texas beat out the team with a time of 3:26.76.