March 28, 2010

BATON ROUGE, La. - The Lamar University track teams turned in a pair of record-breaking performances at the LSU Tiger Relays over the weekend.

In the men's competition, Lamar's Francis Kasagule set a meet record in the 1,500 meters with a time of 3 minutes, 48.07 seconds, breaking the previous mark of 3:$8.78 set by Michael Hendry of LSU in 2008.

The Lamar women's sprint medley relay team of Ashley Smith, Ashley Idunoba, Carmen Gedling and Hanna Nilsson Palmgren set a school mark of 4:03.08 en route to a fourth-place finish.

Other top finishes for the Lamar men included Alex De La Garza with a seventh-place finish in the 5,000 meters with a time of 15:27.81, the 4x400 meter relay unit of Jerrel Massenburge, Jamal Nash, Josh Raglon and Greg Williams, which was sixth in 3:16.60, the Lamar 4x800 relay quartet of Aaron Malek, Austin Malek, Jared Rodriguez and Raglon, which was eighth in 7:59.29, the Lamar distance medley foursome of Bob Ahimbisibwe, Austin Malek, Cedric Coppens and Matt Johnsen, which was sixth in 10:27.26.

Other top finishes by the Lamar women included Nora-Beth Saunders, who was fifth in the 5,000 meters in a time of 19:00.39, Marlou Biljsma, who placed seventh in the 1,500 meters in 4:58.96, Alicia Thevis, who regisrtered a sixth-place finish in the javelin with a throw of 96 feet, 1 inch, the 4x400relay team of Gedling, Idunoba, Alisha Cofer and Nilsson Palmgren, which finished fifth in 3:53.83 and the distance medley foursome of Joyce Cheruiyot, Cofer, Sharon Sason and Taylor Cloy, which posted a second-place finish in 12:41.75.