LSU’S BRIEANNA KENNEDY HIGHLIGHTS PERSONAL BESTS AT ARIZONA STATE
TEMPE, Ariz. – Lady
Tiger senior Brieanna Kennedy added nearly two feet to her personal
bests in the hammer and discus throws to highlight 14 personal-best
performances by the LSU Track & Field teams at the inaugural
Arizona State Tri-Meet held Saturday afternoon at Sun Angel Stadium. Kennedy
kicked of the meet in the first event of the morning session by
finishing as the top collegiate and as the second-place finisher
overall with a best of 204 feet, 7 inches in the women’s hammer throw. She
then followed in the afternoon by throwing a new personal record of
163-6 en route to her sixth-place finish in the women’s discus final
while improving her position on LSU’s all-time list in the event. “Coach
(Derek Yush) really set us up for a good met today,” Kennedy said.
“Coming out here on Tuesday allowed us some time to get in the circle
and get in a good week of training. Each circle you throw in is
different, so to get out here for a few days and train allowed us to
find a comfort level and prepare to have a good meet today. We came in
here confident based on our training this week.” Kennedy,
who entered Saturday’s competition with a hammer PR of 203-0 set during
the LSU Relays, set her new mark of 204-7 with the third round of
throws en route to a runner-up finish to unattached thrower Chelsea
Cassulo (212-0) in the final standings of the first event of the
tri-meet. With her performance Saturday, Kennedy moved to
within 16 inches of matching Britney Henry’s 8-year-old school record
of 205-11 and solidified the No. 9 spot in the NCAA rankings this
season. She then followed with another personal-best
performance in the women’s discus when she posted her top mark of 163-6
to take sixth place. While entering the day with a previous PR of
161-7, Kennedy extended her best by nearly two feet with the No.
6-ranked performance in the women’s discus in school history. “Coming
from my freshman year when I didn’t really feel like a qualified hammer
thrower to now having a chance to work with the people I have and to be
where I am now is a blessing. It’s exciting,” Kennedy said. “It just
makes me want to work harder these next few weeks to improve even more
as we keep going to the postseason. I don’t want to be content. I want
to do even better things.” While Kennedy took second place
in the hammer throw, sophomore Denise Hinton followed in fifth place
with a personal-best performance of her own as she posted a series-best
mark of 191-5. Senior standout and Tempe native Samia
Stokes was the top Lady Tiger in Saturday’s discus throw as she
eclipsed the 170-foot mark for the third time in five meets with a best
of 171-4 to earn a third-place finish. Freshman Tori Bliss established
a personal best of 149-6 en route to an eighth-place finish in the
discus. Two other Lady Tigers captured event titles during
Saturday’s tri-meet with performances that move them up LSU’s all-time
list with top-10 performances in school history. Junior
Laura Carleton smashed her outdoor PR in taking the women’s 3,000-meter
run on Saturday with a time of 9 minutes, 37.17 seconds that moved her
up four spots on LSU’s all-time outdoor performance list with the No.
4-ranked time in program history. Joining Carleton with new 3k personal
records were Laura Aleman (10:29.31) in second place and Leigh-Ann
Naccari (10:30.54) in third place. Sophomore Annie
Simoneaux added a victory for the Lady Tigers in the women’s javelin
throw in setting a personal-best mark of 154-5 to win by nearly 30 feet
over Arizona State’s Alex Hartig (126-1). She set a new PR by breaking
her previous best of 152-9 set just one week ago at the “Battle on the
Bayou.” That is the No. 7-ranked performance for a javelin thrower in
the history of the Lady Tiger program. The Tigers were led
by their sprint group during Saturday’s tri-meet, which featured a trio
of 2012 season bests in the 200-meter dash by seniors Riker Hylton and
Keyth Talley and junior Caleb Williams. Hylton slashed
more than two-tenths of a second off of his 200-meter PR with his
wind-legal run of 20.76 seconds to take fourth place overall. He
entered the weekend with a previous best of 20.98 that was run as a
sophomore at Essex County College before his arrival at LSU. Talley
followed in fifth place after racing to a seasonal-best time of 20.91,
while Williams won the first heat with the sixth-fastest time of the
day of 21.14 in setting a new wind-legal personal record in the event
outdoors. Freshman Quincy Downing was also impressive in
his second-place finish in the men’s 400-meter dash as he cut .89
seconds from his lifetime personal best with a run of 46.88 to finish
behind William Henry of Arizona State (46.47). Downing held a previous
PR of 47.77 set as a high school junior. Senior James
Thurn added a third-place finish in his first 400-meter hurdles race of
the outdoor season, as he raced to the finish line in 52.34 out of Lane
2 to set a new personal record in the event. Also setting
lifetime personal bests on Saturday afternoon were junior Cullen Doody
at 8:42.25 for a third place in the men’s 3,000-meter run and freshman
Kaitlyn Moreau with a wind-legal mark of 17-0 ¾ in her ninth-place
finish in the women’s long jump competition. Other Tigers
to take home individual event titles during the Arizona State Tri-Meet
included senior Kyron Blaise (24-6 ½w) in the men’s long jump, senior
national champion Barrett Nugent (13.68) in the men’s 100-meter hurdles
and freshman Jeremy Tuttle (211-11) in the men’s javelin competition. Among
the Lady Tigers taking home event championships during Saturday’s
action were senior Rachel Laurent (13-5 ¾) in the women’s pole vault,
junior Kimberlyn Duncan (11.37) in the women’s 100-meter dash and
sophomore Jasmin Stowers (13.50) in the women’s 100-meter hurdles. The
Tigers and Lady Tigers return home next weekend to play host to this
year’s LSU Alumni Gold event on Saturday, April 21, at the Bernie Moore
Track Stadium. It will be a true celebration of the history of the LSU
Track & Field program as they will also host their third-annual
Team Awards and Alumni Recognition Banquet at the Pete Maravich
Assembly Center on Friday night.
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