Track & Field: Whitehall Claims Shot Put Title In Cajuns Debut At Purple Tiger

BATON ROUGE – Junior college transfer Tristan Whitehall recorded a solid debut for the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns indoor track and field team as he claimed first-place honors in the men’s shot put on Friday at the Purple Tiger Invitational at Carl Maddox Field House.
 
Whitehall, the Barbados national record-holder, posted a throw of 59 feet, 4 inches to claim the Ragin’ Cajuns lone first-place finish in the season-opening meet. Kyle Baudoin (16-5 ½, pole vault), Christian Bergeron (1:59.42, 800-meters) and Beau Robinson (9:02.20, 3,000-meters) each posted third-place finishes for Louisiana.
 
"As expected, we had a lot of rust coming back from the holidays," said head coach Lon Badeaux, "but in the end we came through with some outstanding performances from both a few new athletes as well as some of the veterans.
 
"Tristan Whitehall won the shot put with a new Barbados national record, freshman Kyle Baudoin got third in the pole vault and took over the conference lead. Both Tyler Hughes and Dionte Heath jumped out to early conference leads in the hurdles and high jump. I thought Jasmine Fusilier, Kaitlyn Moreau and Lindsey Harmon had a good opening outing for the women as well as the shot and hammer throwers."
 
Heath finished fifth overall in the men’s high jump (6-8) while Hughes, the school-record holder in the 60-meter hurdles, finished sixth overall with a time of 8.30. Sean Bezdek (9:04.22) and Corbett Ourso (9:04.45) finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 3,000-meter run.
 
Courtney Musgrove earned a fifth-place finish in the women’s 3,000-meters with a time of 10:51.74, Alexandra Harrell was fifth in the high jump (5-4 ½) and Tamela Young (44-1 ¼) was sixth in the shot put. Claire Hodges added a sixth-place finish in the 1-mile run (5:24.20) while Lindsey Harmon (5-4 ¼) was eighth in the high jump and Kayla Thompson eighth (25.71) in the 200-meter dash.
 
"Overall I thought it was a successful day but I know we still have a long way to go, we look forward to getting the rest of our team back on the track in the upcoming weeks."
 
Louisiana will return to action on Friday (Jan. 18) when it competes in the Texas A&M Team Invitational in College Station, Texas.