Track & Field: Women’s 4×1 Headed To Eugene After Setting School Record
Seven Ragin’ Cajuns headed to NCAA Outdoor Championships from June 9-12
Matt Sullivan | Associate Director of Athletics Communications
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The final day of the NCAA East Preliminary saw another long-standing record fall for the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns Track and Field team on Saturday at the University of North Florida’s Hodges Stadium.
Kennedy London
Ta’La Spates
Serenity Rogers
Kiana Foster
Capping off the four-day meet, the women’s 4×100-meter relay team of Kennedy London, Ta’La Spates, Serenity Rogers and Kiana Foster clocked a school-record time of 44.39 seconds to finish 12th overall and advance to the NCAA Championships, scheduled for June 9-12 in historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
Louisiana’s record-setting performance – one of two school records broken in as many days – increased the Ragin’ Cajuns total of national qualifiers to seven. The quartet, part of Louisiana’s school-record 21-member contingent at the NCAA East Preliminary, joined Cole Courtois (Men’s pole vault), Maria Bienvenu (Women’s javelin) and Yves Cherubin (Men’s 110-meter hurdles) in advancing to nationals.
"We had a phenomenal week at the regional meet," head coach Lon Badeaux said. "The kids really stepped up and had great performances to qualify to nationals. We are still a very young team on both sides, so even the ones that didn’t qualify came out of the meet really motivated and that will help us at this meet in the future."
Running from Lane 9, the Ragin’ Cajuns finished fifth overall in their heat which was claimed by top-ranked LSU (42.63) with North Carolina A&T (42.92), Clemson (43.46) and Virginia (43.75) following.
Louisiana, which claimed the Texas Relays in March after posting a time of 44.81, eclipsed the previous record (44.80) set by Leafay Henry, Cecily Gully, Twilet Malcolm and Keisha Ray Owens in 1993.
Brooklynne Wilson finished 36th in the women’s discus (157-6) for Louisiana with Frankie Griffin finishing tied for 41st (5-5 ¾) in the women’s high jump.
