BATON ROUGE, La. – In a meet which featured numerous pros and Olympic hopefuls for this summer's Paris Games, the Southeastern Louisiana University track and field team earned six top-10 finishes at the LSU Alumni Gold meet on Saturday at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium.
 
Southeastern's top moment on the day came from the Lady Lions of the track as Esther Nwanze continued to close in on the SLU school record in the 400-meter hurdles as she broke 59 seconds for the first time, finishing in 58.56 seconds for a fourth-place finish on the day. That time put her just 0.49 seconds off of the 10-year-old program record of 58.07 seconds set by Alicia Noel, which Noel set at the 2014 Southland Conference Outdoor Championships.
 
Three Lions field athletes all had fifth-place finishes in their respective disciplines. Terrell Webb hit that mark in the hammer throw with his best toss of the day going 62.12 meters (203'9"). Donroy Brown got a top-five finish in the shot put with a toss of 16.81 meters (55'2"). Stan Hamilton was the final top-five finish of the day, getting a season best in the LeJuan Simon triple jump competition with a leap of 14.35 meters (47'1").
 
Other SLU athletes who put up top-10 finishes on the day include Tim Anstett in the 800-meter run as he crossed the line in a personal best time of 1:51.83, just 3.19 seconds off of the program record time of 1:48.64 set by teammate Javon-Taye Williams as last year's Pelican Relays, to finish in seventh place in the race. Coming off of a win in the 1,500-meter run at last week's Strawberry Relays, Euan Lagan came home seventh in the 3,000-meter run on Saturday, stopping the clock with a season best time of 8:47.04.
 
There were five personal bests set by Southeastern athletes at the LSU Alumni Gold. Joining Nwanze and Anstett with PBs on the day were Josh Anding in the 400-meter dash with a time of 48.72 seconds for a 31^st-place finish while Joel Boerkey and Courtlin Baunchand joined Anstatt with personal bests in the 800-meter run. Boerkey stopped the clock in 1:54.55 for a 16^th-place finish and Baunchand finished in 25^th place with a time of 1:56.41.
 
Six total season best marks were also set by Lions athletes on the day. Joining Hamilton, Brown, and Lagan with setting SBs on Saturday were Dedrick Gant in the 400-meter dash as he crossed the line in 52.15 seconds for a 43^rd-place finish while the other two season bests also came in the 800-meter run with Darian Chestnut stopping the clock in 1:54.95 to finish 20^th and Noah Kiprotich crossing the line in 1:55.83 for a 24^th-place finish.
 
Five Lions will make the trip to the northeast next week after they were invited to compete for gold watches in the prestigious Penn Relays. Brown (shot put), Webb (hammer throw), Slavko Stevic (high jump), Lance Hamilton (triple jump), and Gabriel Lim (javelin throw) will all compete with Webb set to go on Thursday, Lim and Brown on Friday, and Stevic and Hamilton on Saturday. The Penn Relays run from Thursday, April 25^th to Saturday, April 27^th at Franklin Field on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania and the event will be live streamed on FloTrack with live results also available through the host institution.
 
PODIUM CLUB/S CLUB
Fans interested in becoming active supporters of the track and field program are encouraged to join the Podium Club. Lion alums are encouraged to join the exclusive S Club, which is restricted to Southeastern athletic letter winners. All membership fees and donations to Podium Club are available for the exclusive use of the Southeastern track and field program. Membership information is available by contacting the Lion Athletics Association at laa@southeastern.edu or (985) 549-5091 or visiting www.LionUp.com.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
For more information on Southeastern Track and Field, follow @LionUpTrack on Twitter, like /SLUathletics on Facebook and subscribe to the SLUathletics YouTube. channel.