Editor’s Note: The following is an official press release courtesy of LSU’s athletics department.
BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU track and field team closed out day one of the SEC Outdoor Championships on Thursday at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium. The Tigers had three total scorers and qualified eight athletes for their respective-event finals later this weekend.
Live Results | Results (PDF) | Team Standings
Day one saw two men (Tzuriel Pedigo and Jackson Rimes) score a total of 10 points for their side, and Gwyneth Hughes score a point for the women’s side. The men sit in seventh currently early on, while the women sit in ninth. The men have 35 more scoring chances this weekend and the women have 29 more chances.
Point Scorers
Tzuriel Pedigo was the first Tiger to score points in this year’s outdoor conference championships. Pedigo tallied eight points after taking silver in the javelin throw. He landed a season-best throw of 78.34 meters (257’ 0”), which would rank sixth in the nation heading into the weekend. Freshman Jackson Rimes took seventh overall in his first SEC Championship competition with a throw of 64.79 meters (212’ 6”), scoring two points for LSU.
On the women’s side to close out day one of the meet, Gwyneth Hughes recorded a time of 35:59.43 in her first career 10,000-meter race. Her time ranks fifth in LSU history and earned her an eighth-place finish. Her finish scored one point for the women’s side.
Finals’ Qualifiers
To no one’s surprise, Michaela Rose auto-qualified for the 800-meter final after coasting to a first-place finish in the preliminaries. She was the lone runner to go sub-2:04 in the prelims with a time of 2:03.33. Just outside the bubble was Cindy Bourdier with a time of 2:06.38 in 11th place.
In her first 200 meter of the season, Favour Ofili took first from lane nine of the final heat. She recorded a time of 22.58 seconds, which ranks eight in the nation. Also qualifying along side her in the 200 was Thelma Davies who recorded a time of 23.14 seconds. In her first collegiate 200, freshman Brianna Lyston recorded the ninth fastest time of the afternoon with 23.05, just missing out on making the final later this weekend.
Additional Qualifiers
Alex Selles – 800 meter – 1:48.69
Dorian Camel – 200 meter – 20.41
Da’Marcus Fleming – 200 meter – 20.38
Sean Burrell – 400-meter hurdles – 50.32
Shani’a Bellamy – 400-meter hurdles – 56.69