BATON ROUGE, La. – The Louisiana Tech men's and women's track and field teams saw several strong performances on Saturday at the LSU Opener in Baton Rouge, posting 22 top-five finishes with 15 of those among the top three and two individual victories.
A'reil Williams secured a first-place finish in the women's high jump, leaping 1.75 meters to record her sixth career jump of 1.75 meters or higher in an outdoor event. It was also her 10th career top-three outdoor finish.
The day was highlighted by
Jamara Patterson's performance in the women's 400. She ran a time of 51.56 to set a new meet record and outdoor program record, along with securing an event win. She broke the meet record's previous time of 52.13 that was set by LSU's Amber Anning on April 9, 2022.
The outdoor program record she broke was previously set by Nina Gilbert in 2006, who ran a time of 52.34 at LA Tech's home meet that season.
Both the men's and women's 4x100 relay saw top three finishes in their respective events as well. The women's squad—comprised of
Praise Ofoku,
Tyrica Sterrett,
Jaitlyn Ware and
Shayann Demeritte—finished third with a time of 45.11
The men—comprised of Carl Murray IV,
Abdulraof Oriade Rashid,
Lukundo Kapambalala and
Karo Oghomi—saw a runner-up finish clocking 39.64. Their time was good to tie the 10th-fastest time in outdoor program history.
Oscar Smith returned to the track, making his season debut in the 110-meter hurdles. The graduate ran a time of 13.71 to finish third.
Osaretin Joy Usenbor,
Tyhra Charles and
Nia Wiley rounded out the top five in the women's 400, taking the third, fourth and fifth-place spots.
Sabastian Bradley-Reed finished third in the men's 400 with a time of 46.68, while
Rickey Williams III finished fifth clocking 47.44.
Sterrett and Ware finished second and third in the women's 100, while Oghomi and
Madonna Favour also took second and third in the men's 100. Two of Tech's three javelin throwers also saw top three finishes.
Annie Jones finished as the runner-up with a throw of 39.02 meters, and
Zachary Drake finished in third for the men with a throw of 62.54 meters.
Ware and Oghomi each earned their second top-three individual finish of the meet, with Ware finishing second in the women's 200 while Oghomi finished third in the men's event.
Louisiana Tech is back in action for Baylor's Clyde Hart Classic in Waco, Texas. The meet opens on Friday, March 27 and concludes on Saturday, March 28.
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