AUBURN, Ala. - Auburn track and field travels to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to compete at the LSU Invitational Saturday, April 27 for the final meet of the regular season. The meet will be held at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium with the women's hammer throw kicking off the action at 10:00 a.m. CT.
The team put up eight event wins this past weekend hosting the Tiger Track Classic.
"We had a solid performance in front of our home crowd," Auburn track & field head coach Leroy Burrell said. "The things that we were able to accomplish were good for us and put in a good position moving forward."
The highlight of the weekend was freshman Shonedra Richardson's first place finish in women's long jump. With a mark of 6.22m, she surpassed her previous PR of 5.42m. Richardson is currently ranked No. 8 in the SEC.
Graduate student Amy Warren finished second in the event with a jump of 6.20m while sophomore Paula Grauvogel was fourth (6.09m) and senior Janaya Jones finished fifth (6.01m).
Entering the weekend, the women's long jump squad is ranked fifth in the most recent USTFCCCA poll.
"We got our women jumps back on track," Burrell said. "There were some good things in the field with our pole vaulters as well."
Graduate student James Courson, junior Rhiannon Held and sophomore Alyssa Quinones-Mixon all finished in the top three for both the men and women in the pole vault competition. With a mark of 5.16m, Courson secured gold. Clearing 4.08m on her first attempt, Quinones-Mixon took silver on the women's side. Held earned bronze after getting over the bar at 4.08m on her third and final attempt.
In the men's sprints, the quartet of juniors Favour Ashe and Dario Matau, freshman Kanyinsola Ajayi and sophomore Azeem Fahmi dominated the 100m dash. Ashe equaled his own school record set at the 2023 NCAA Outdoor Championships, winning in a time of 9.96. Ajayi took silver with a time of 10.14 and Fahmi claimed bronze (10.31). Matau rounded out the sweep coming in fourth crossing the line in 10.33.
"The men conquered the 100m," Coach Burrell said. "We feel good about our men's sprint program. We have gotten everybody back healthy."
The men's 100m sprint group is ranked second in the most recent USTFCCCA poll.
Leading the distance crew this past weekend was sophomore Joseph Perry. Perry clocked a time of 14:44.07 in the 5000m to finish first. Junior Fuji Anday and freshman Evan Hill finished fourth and fifth, respectively with times of 15:02.95 and 15:20.09.
On the women's side, sophomore Hailey Marston was the first to cross the 1500m finish line in 4:44.12.
The Auburn throwers put up solid performances for the Tigers as well. In shot put, sophomores Matthew Rueff and Grant Griffin took silver and bronze, respectively. Rueff's best throw of the competition was 19.69m. Grant delivered a season's best throw of 17.07m.
In the same event for the women, sophomore Megan Hague placed second with a mark of 16.06m. Freshman Marley Raikiwasa earned third with her best toss of the competition coming in at 15.58m.
"LSU has a long and historic history with their track and field program," Coach Burrell said. "It will be a great competition and a real test for us. All eyes will be on the men's 4x100m. The two best teams in the country will be running against each other."
The men's 4x100m relay team made up of Fahmi, Ashe, Matau and Ajayi holds the second fastest time (38.64).
While in Baton Rouge, the men and women will face off against 9/2 Arkansas, 4/7 Florida, NR/21 Florida State, 13/8 Georgia, Georgia Tech, Indian Hills CC, 3/1 LSU, McNeese State and NR/11 Ole Miss.
Live results from the meet can be found at deltatiming.com.
Up Next: The Auburn track & field team will travel back to Gainesville, Florida for the SEC Outdoor Championships May 9-11 at the Percy Beard Track.