Seminoles finish strong at invitational meet
Seminoles.com
The Florida state track and field team finished the final day of the Bob Pollock Invitational in Clemson, S.C., with two wins and multiple personal bests.
In field competition, triple jumper Ruta Lasmane showed her prestige by once again jumping a huge distance of 13.79m to take first place in the women’s event. Not only was this jump a massive personal record, it also makes her No. 2 in the nation.
Lasmane’s teammate Alonie Sutton jumped a distance of 13.31 to take second position.
On the men’s side, Jacore Irving finished in sixth position with a jump of 15.49m.
“Fantastic Triple Jump meet for both ladies,” said Florida State head coach Bob Braman. “Ruta (Lasmane) gets a huge win and in a lifetime best jump that’s No. 2 in the NCAA. Jacore (Irving) had another solid performance in the Triple Jump. He improved from the opening meet and his jump is his third best ever indoors.”
The Seminoles also impressed in the women’s 3,000-meter run, as Maudie Skyring ran a huge 15-second personal record to take the win in a facility record-breaking time. Her time of 9:13.56 also makes her No. 5 all time for FSU.
Freshman Alyson Churchill built upon her mile success by taking third position, in her first ever 3K, with an outstanding time of 9:20.66.
Yasmine Abbes took fourth in a time of 9:23.20 which is a seven second PR and an indoor Dutch U20 3K record. Rebecca Clark (9:25.34), Jodie Judd (9:26.38), Kayla Easterly (9:26.66) and Jennifer Lima (9:35.57) also all clocked PRs taking the grand total of personal bests to seven. Easterly made the biggest improvement by taking a massive 29 seconds off of her previous time.
In the men’s 800-meter race, Jaob Francois and Amari Douglas got their Seminole careers off to a good start. Francois took eighth in the 800m with a time of 1:54.68. Douglas finished in ninth with a time of 1:55.91.
“The women’s 3000-meter crew ran fantastic,” said Braman. “All seven of them ran lifetime bests and four of them ran the mile yesterday. Very impressive statement for our women’s distance team.”
In the final event of the meet, the FSU men’s 4x400m team finished in third position with a time of 3:09.14.
“The men’s 4×4 relay ran the ninth fastest time in the country in their first race with that foursome,” said Braman. “The two veterans, DaeQwan Butler and Kasaun James ran fantastic legs to give the Noles that time.”
The Noles will step back onto the track on Feb. 12 to compete in the Arkansas indoor meet.
