Stephen F. Austin
Bayou Bengal Invitational
Lumberjack Sprinters Solid at LSU
1/28/2006 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
Jan. 28, 2006
BATON ROUGE, La. - Led by three medal performances in the men's sprints and a near-sweep of the podium spots in the women's pole vault, the Stephen F. Austin track and field teams combined to post 33 scoring performances Friday night at the LSU Bayou Bengal Invitational. In all, the Lumberjacks and Ladyjacks teamed up for 11 Top 3 finishes - eight on the men's side and three for the women.
Sophomore Johnny Thacker led the way for the men with his first-place finish in the 200-meter dash. Thacker recorded a time of 22.50 in the race. He was joined on the podium by fellow sprinters Erik Powell and Reggie Lazenby. Powell, a sophomore, recorded a time of 49.74 to finish second in the 400-meter dash. Lazenby, a junior, finished third in the 60-meter hurdles with his time of 8.09. Lazenby also recorded a second-place finish in the long jump with his mark of 24-01.00.
Sophomore Darwin Johnson posted a second-place finish in the weight throw with his toss of 58-06.50. Senior Kenneth McKinley took third in the shot put, posting a distance of 55-09.00. Freshman Chayden Feist and senior Bo Simpson put up third-place finishes in the pole vault and heptathlon, respectively. Feist improved on his first height of the season by two inches with a vault of 15-03.00. Simpson tallied 4,848 points in the heptathlon.
Other Lumberjack scoring performances included a fifth-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay by the team of Alex Harris, Powell, Stephon Rhea and Zach Ross, as well as Aaron Harlan's fourth-place showing in the heptathlon.
Freshman Ashley Dickeson paced the Ladyjacks with her championship showing in the pole vault. Dickeson's height of 12-00.00 led a pack of three Ladyjacks who finished in the Top 4. Sophomore Kristina Windham took second with a vault of 11-03.75, and freshman Kelsea David cleared 11-03.75 to finish fourth.
The other medal-winning performance for the SFA women came in the high jump, where sophomore Meghan Denman cleared 5-04.50 to take second place.
The 4x400-meter relay team of Stevina Wyatt, Katrina Roundtree, Ashley Mangum and Crystal Chang took fourth place with a time of 3:58.02. Other Ladyjack scoring performances included Chang's fifth-place showing in the 800-meter run, Colleen Lonergan's fifth-place finish in the weight throw and Leah Matthews' fourth-place finish in the pentathlon.
The SFA track and field teams will next compete on Feb. 4, when they travel to Houston for the Hyatt Regency Invitational.
- SFA -
