BEAUMONT, Texas - The track and field teams of Lamar University got off to a decent start to their outdoor season with co-championships and personal bests in their previous event. LU will look to have a repeat and more in their next event at the Victor Lopez Invitational on the campus of Rice University in Houston. 

In their last meet at the Louisiana Classic, the Cardinals recorded nine top-five finishes and six personal bests. Miles Jones and Trent Guidry shared the co-championship in the long jump at 1.95m (6'4.75") just in front of Elijah Jackson at 1.90m (6'2.75") for third. Jacarrius Demmerritte recorded two personal bests in his top five finishes in the long jump (5th; 6.95m-22'9.75) and triple jump (4th; 6.98m-22'10.75"). Also in the long jump event, Patrick Wolf recorded a fourth place finish (6.98m-22'10.75"). 

The 4x100m men's relay team (Troy Dixon, Steven Jones, Jaylon Roberts, and Kenson Tate) took fifth at 42.21 seconds while Guidry ran second in the 4x400m with the latter three at 3:20.00 seconds right before the other squad of Dixon, Christian Johnson, RJ Lane, and Allen Tabb (3rd; 3:35.70). 

Meanwhile, Sydne Porter notched three top five finishes including fifth in the 100m (12.22), third in the 4x100m (47.38) along with teammates Brianna Howard, Kayli Johnson, and Jakenzie Thymes, and second in the 4x400m alongside Faith Outing, Adebola Odunlami, and Janell Harvell. Arajanee Jackson earned a top five finish placing fifth in the triple jump at 11.51m (37'9.25).

In last year's Victor Lopez Classic, the Cardinals recorded four first-place finishes with Porter in the 200m (24.17), Yasmin Austridge in the 1500m (4:26.09) and the men's (3:15.05) and women's (3:49.28) 4x400 relay teams. Johnson placed third in the 100m hurdles at 14.61 seconds while Roberts earned second in the 400m dash clocking in at 47.33 seconds. 

Big Red will began their meet this Friday and will continue into Saturday. 
 

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