The LSU women’s track and field team came up just a little short in the race for the team title Saturday night at the Southeastern Conference outdoor championships.
But if coach Dennis Shaver could have somehow squeezed just one more race out of sprint sensation Favour Ofili, the Tigers probably would have come away with the biggest trophy from the meet held in Oxford, Mississippi.
Ofili scorched the Ole Miss track in winning the 100 and 200 meters and ran second leg on the Tigers’ winning 4×100-meter relay.
The sophomore’s gallant effort came up just short, however, when Florida came from just off the pace in the final two events to take the women’s title with 107 points.
Arkansas was third with 103 points and LSU was third with 96½, while Kentucky (85) and Texas A&M (84) rounded out the top five.
Arkansas won the men’s title with 121 points and Alabama was second with 116. Tennessee (84), Florida (78) and Georgia (75) completed the top five. LSU finished seventh with 70.
With Ofili scoring 22½ points by herself, LSU held a scant 1½-point lead over Florida with 19 of 21 events in the books.
But the Gators got a second-place finish from Parker Valby in the 5,000 meters and clinched the title with a fifth-place effort from its 4×400 relay team to hold off Arkansas.
Ofili was one of the big stars when she outdueled Kentucky’s Abby Steiner in the two short sprints and teamed with Alia Armstrong, Tionna Beard-Brown and Thelma Davies to win the 4×100 relay over Kentucky.
After running the second leg on the relay that got the baton around in a season’s-best time of 42.59 seconds, while Kentucky ran a 42.63.
It was the sixth consecutive win for LSU in the event at the SEC meet.
Ofili later came back to win the 100 in 10.93 seconds while running into a slight headwind. That tied her personal record she set in the LSU Invitational on April 30.
It was the 21st title in the event for the LSU women in 41 SEC championship meets. Steiner was second in 11.02 seconds.
Later, Ofili got the best of Steiner once again in the 200. Ofili, the collegiate record holder at 21.96 seconds, won with a 22.04 while Steiner nearly caught Ofili at the finish line in running a 22.07.
Armstrong provided the fourth win of the day for LSU in the 100-meter hurdles when she won with a slightly wind-aided time of 12.46 seconds.
Rival Grace Stark of Florida, who won the NCAA indoor 60-meter hurdles, fell going over the sixth of 10 hurdles, but Armstrong had a clear lead by then and coasted to the victory.
The men’s team had two wins Saturday as Eric Edwards Jr. made it a sweep for the Tigers in the hurdles and Sean Bodie-Dixon took the triple jump crown.
Edwards won the 110 hurdles with a PR of 13.28 seconds and Bodie-Dixon took the triple jump crown with a best of 53 feet, 8¼ inches.
Teammate Apalos Edwards gave LSU a 1-2 finish in the triple jump when he popped a personal-best 53-3½ on his final attempt to better his old PR by nearly 2½ feet.
