Track and Field: Badeaux Era Underway as Cajuns Take in Indoor Meet at McNeese

The Ragin’ Cajuns men’s and women’s track and field squads kicked off the Lon Badeaux era on Friday with a youthful flair at the McNeese Cowboy Indoor and came away with several good marks at the Ralph O. Ward Rec-Complex  in Lake Charles.
 
Badeaux mentioned prior to them meet that he was looking forward to seeing some of the Cajuns new athletes compete and he had plenty opportunity to do so. Louisiana saw 19 freshmen participate in Friday’s meet, which signaled the start of the 2012 indoor season.
 
Freshmen Stacey Imagbe and Joshua Sigler came away with individual titles in their UL debut.
 
Imagbe claimed the women’s long jump with a leap of 5.73m/18-9 ¾. Sigler took top honors in the men’s long jump with a distance of 7.36m/24-1 ¾.
 
A pair of veterans joined Imagbe and Sigler in the winner’s circle with Chris Roy returning from a season off to capture to the men’s pole vault with a recorded height of 4.95m/16-2 ¾ which was five inches higher than runner-up Kovey Simmons of Southeastern Louisiana (4.80m/15-9).
 
Tarvia Conway, daughter of Olympian and UL great Hollis Conway, began her sophomore campaign in style with a title in the women’s triple jump. Conway’s first jump of 2012 reached 11.84m/38-10 ¼.
 
Senior Amber Laurent picked up a second-place finish in the women’s pole vault with a height of 3.20m/10-6. Newcomer Michael Vani placed third behind Roy in the men’s pole vault at 4.65m/15-3.
 
A pair of freshmen claimed runner-up spots in the men’s and women’s long jump. Jasmin Fusilier was runner-up to Imagbe in the women’s long jump with a leap of 5.67m/18-7 ¼. In the men’s long jump, Devin Davis was runner-up to Sigler with his leap of 7.26m/23-10.
 
Both Kenneth Bellard and Sigler qualified for the men’s 55 meter dash finals. Bellard moved past preliminaries with a time of 6.76 seconds, while Sigler made the cut in 7.01 seconds. Sigler finished fourth in the finals clocking in at 6.64 seconds.
 
Six freshmen – Asja Whitmore, Essence Torres, Brandi Franks, Precious Lollis, Ashley McElroy and Jana Jones – all made their collegiate debut in the women’s shot put. Whitmore turned in a Top 10 finish with a distance of 12.04m/39-6.
 
Louisiana had a men’s distance medley team consisting of freshman Michael van AsWegen and returners DeMarcus Runnels, Kali Kidd and Zach France post a time of 11:09.05.
 
UP NEXT
Louisiana travels to Murfreesboro, Tenn., for the Blue Raiders Invitational on Saturday, Jan. 21 at the Murphy Center on the campus of Middle Tennessee. It will be a chance for the Cajuns to familiarize themselves with the surroundings of the host site of the 2012 Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championships (Feb. 25-26 at Murphy Center).
                                                                                                                                                   
— Ragin’ Cajuns —

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