Cajuns earn three first-place finishes; LaGarde finishes second in women’s 1,500-meters

BATON ROUGE – Alena Hrusoci and Morgann Leleux each established new school records in their respective events while Bartul Basic set a personal-best in the men’s javelin to lead the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns track and field team at the LSU Alumni Gold on Saturday at Bernie Moore Track Stadium.

Lindsay LaGarde and Hailey Hesterman each set personal-bests for Louisiana in the women’s 1,500-meter run with Beau Robinson earning a first-place finish for the Ragin’ Cajuns in the men’s 5,000-meter run and Dylan Heck setting a personal-best in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase.

Hrusoci, the current school-record holder in the women’s 400-meter hurdles (1:00.08), became the first runner to eclipse the 1-minute mark after she finished first overall in 58.73 seconds. Leleux, the current school-record holder in the women’s pole vault (14-1 ¼), broke her own stadium record after clearing the bar with a winning mark of 14-9 ½.

Basic finished fourth overall in the javelin, posting a personal-best throw of 217-2 with Hunter Stelly finishing 10^th overall at 185-9. Ricky Theyard, competing in the men’s triple jump, recorded a mark of 48-1 ¼ to finish seventh overall while Kyle Baudoin finished 10^th overall in the pole vault (15-10).

Robinson, who set the school-record (14:49.67) earlier this month at the Auburn Tiger Track Classic, finished first overall after posting a time of 14:54.30 with Sean Bezdek finishing eighth (15:53.90).

In the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, Louisiana’s Jacob Chicola finished fifth overall (9:48.60) with Heck finishing seventh in a personal-best time of 9:54.38. Matt Rice recorded a fifth-place finish in the 1,500-meter run (4:02.36) with Christian Bergeron finishing sixth (4:03.27).

LaGarde posted a personal-best time of 4:51.37 to finish second overall in the women’s 1,500-meters section "B" with freshman Hesterman finishing fourth in 4:55.73. Claire Hodges, competing in the 1,500-meter run "A" section for the Ragin’ Cajuns, finished 10^th overall with a time of 4:51.73.

Courtney Musgrove recorded a fourth-place finish for Louisiana in the women’s 5,000-meter run (19:13.62), Danielle Castaldi finished sixth in the 800-meter run (2:17.77), Kayla Thompson was 10^th in the 100-meter dash (12.15) and freshman Hannah Siegmund was 10^th in the 400-meter dash "B" section (57.43).

Senior Jasmine Fusilier finished eighth overall in the women’s long jump (18-5 ¾) for the Ragin’ Cajuns with Tamela Young earning a ninth-place finish in the shot put (44-9 ¾).

Louisiana will return to action on Saturday (April 30) when it travels to Starkville, Miss., to compete in the MSU Invitational. The meet, hosted by Mississippi State, will be the final tuneup for the Ragin’ Cajuns before hosting the Sun Belt Conference Championships, May 13-15.