University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics
Track Captures Two Event Titles at LSU Alumni Gold
4/17/2004 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
Track Captures Two Event Titles at LSU Alumni Gold
Saturday, April 17, 2004
BATON ROUGE, La. - Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns track and field team wrapped up competition with a strong showing Saturday at the 2004 LSU Alumni Gold from the Bernie Moore Track Stadium in Baton Rouge. The Cajuns placed seven individuals among the top five in their respective events, which also included two event title winners and two NCAA regional marks.
Seniors Lawrence Leben and Walter Whitfield both captured titles to lead the men's team. Leben won the 110-meter hurdles with a season and personal best regional qualifying time of 14.04 seconds. Whitfield finished just four seconds off a regional mark to win the 3,000-meter steeplechase in a personal best time of 9:12.53.
Ragin' Cajuns jumper Lawrence Willis posted an NCAA regional qualifying mark of 24-03.50 to finish ninth in the long jump competition. He is the first Cajun this season to qualify for the regionals in two events.
Willis also placed second overall and first among current collegians in the triple jump with a distance of 52-04.50. The Iota, La., native currently holds the nation's second longest distance in the triple jump with a mark of 55-01.00 set on April 3 at the Texas Relays.
Sprinter Jon Erik Shanklin recorded a personal best time of 47.48 seconds to place fourth in the 400-meter dash, while Jeremy Hebert posted a height of 6-05.00 to place fourth in the high jump.
The UL Lafayette men's 4x400 meter relay team of Leben, Murchison, Shanklin, and Slaughter finished just two seconds off a regional mark to place fourth overall with a time of 3:12.49.
On the women's side seniors Natalie Gillis and Amanda Caffey both posted fifth place finishes. Gillis finished with a fifth place time of 4:37.07 in the 1,500-meter race and Caffey placed fifth in the javelin with a throw of 135-06.
The UL Lafayette track and field team will have one final tune-up at the ULM Invitational on Saturday, April 24 before the Sun Belt Championships in Denton, Texas on May 6-9.
-- Ragin' Cajuns --
