By SCOTT D. LONGSTREET

sdl018@latech.edu

 

Baton Rouge’s Bayou Bengal Invitational played host to another great Tech track performance as the Bulldogs won four events and had strong showings in many other events. In the invitational on Friday, Tech competed with other top schools in the nation: Southern Mississippi, Mississippi State and Texas Southern. Tech also competed against host LSU and in-state schools Tulane and Northwestern State.

“We had excellent results,” Tech  coach Gary Stanley said. “We ran extremely well.”

Junior Nadia Alexander followed up a strong showing in Fayetteville with a school record-tying throw in the women’s shot put. Her event-winning throw of 52 feet, 3.25 inches is now the eleventh best throw in the nation, and it increased the NCAA provisional she previously set. She tied the mark set in 2001 by Melissa Gibbons.

“Nadia tied the school mark and posted a top score in the national rankings,” Stanley said.

Senior Shaterika Allen finished second in the event just two and a half feet behind Alexander with a throw of 49 feet, 9.75 inches.

Senior Latonia Wilson posted a thirdplace time in the 60-meter dash. In an event that she does not normally run, she ran a time of 7.52 seconds, just two hundreds of a second behind the top time of 7.35.

“Wilson had an outstanding result,” Stanley said. “We had several kids not at this meet so this was a great result.”

Also having good runs were senior Tenishia Mays with second-place finish in the women’s 800-meter run with a time 2:19.35, and senior Miriam Barnes had a second overall and top collegiate time in the women’s 400-meter dash with a time 56.86. Sophomore El Charrita Reynolds finished fifth in the same 400-meter event with a time of 58.38.

“Barnes normally competes in the 800 indoors and the 400-meter hurdles outdoor,” Stanley said. “Again with other kids not here, it was a good showing for us.”

The women’s 4x400-relay team once again brought home first place. The team of seniors Krystal Cole and Sophia Jackson, Barnes and Reynolds beat the rest of the field by ten full seconds posting a time of 3:51.27.

“We ran with a different group and still ran well,” Stanley said. “We were without Nina [Gilbert] and still posted a great time. This is a hard meet to compete in after the two-day event in Fayetteville last weekend [January 19-20], so some kids did not compete.”

On the men’s side, sophomore Deron Trotter posted a second place in the men’s 200-meter dash with a time of 22.57, just two tenths of a second behind the lead. Senior John Kent took home a fourth-place time in the men’s 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.25.

Senior Jason Morgan posted top three finishes in two events. In the men’s shot put, he finished third overall and posted the second-best score with a throw of 54 feet, 10.75 inches. He also placed third in the weight throw with a score of 56 feet, 6 inches, just three feet behind the winning toss.

“Jason is continuing to put up good numbers in his events,” Stanley said. “This is his last season as he will not be competing in the outdoor season so he wants to finish strong.”

Junior Corey Denstel won the men’s 800-meter run with a time of 1:56.82. This was his first indoor event as a Bulldog athlete.

Tech’s track and field team will next travel back up to Fayetteville on February 9. The University of Arkansas will host the Tyson Invitational which is one of the largest indoor track meets in the country.

“It is one of the biggest and best meets in the [United States],” Stanley said. “It is by invitation and we are honored to be invited up to Arkansas to compete.”

Forty-seven teams will be in the Tyson meet.

“We are taking our full team up there and we will be ready to post good scores,” Stanley said.