The Book: TrackFieldXC 2005-06

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LAFAYETTE- Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns track and field teams competed in the Bayou Bengal Invitational Friday, in Baton Rouge. For the Ragin Cajuns, freshman Michael Istre finished second in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.54. He also finished fourteenth in the 60-meter dash, at 7.02. Luke Moody ran a personal best in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.28. In the field events sophomore Ben Leonards placed eleventh in the shot put with a throw of 44-06.75. For the Lady Cajuns, freshman Toni Lee placed fourth in the triple jump with a mark of 37-11.25. Lee also finished eleventh in the long jump, at 17-10.75. Sophomore Latoya Celestine finished two slots behind Lee in the triple jump with a mark of 37-06.00, earning her sixth place. Michelle Sonnier placed eleventh in the shot put with a throw of 37-09.50. Freshman Kelli Hebert finished seventh in the pole vault with a mark of 10-04.00. In the running events Jasmine Collins and Leah Legere finished eleventh and twelth, respectively in the 800-meter run. Collins ran a tie of 2:26.89 and Legere finished at 2:29.51. The Cajuns’ will return to action Saturday, Feb. 4, when they travel to Houston, Texas to compete in the Houston Invitational. LOUISIANA SI

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The Louisiana Ragin' Cajun men and women recorded nine top 10 finishes at the Bayou Bengal Invitational late Friday night at LSU's Carl Maddox Field House. In UL's second visit of the indoor track and field season to LSU, Michael Istre posted the best performance with his runner-up showing in the 200-meter dash. Istre's time of 22.54 was bested only by the 22.50 of Stephen F. Austin's Johnny Thacker. The next best effort for the Cajun men was Luke Moody's fourth-place 8.28 time in the 60-meter hurdles. Teammate Kyle Ward false started in that race. Also for the men, Justin Lemaire placed eighth in the 3,000-meter run in a time of 9:17.76. The rest of the story Bruce Brown bbrown@theadvertiser.com

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LOUISIANA La. - Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns track and field teams will compete in their final indoor meet of the regular season Friday, at the LSU Twilight Invitational, in Baton Rouge. Events will begin at 3 p.m. at the Maddox Field House. UL will try to get back into the swing of things, after a 13-day layoff. “We just want to prepare for the Sun Belt Conference Championships next week,” said Head Coach Lance Veazey. “Hopefully this meet will get us ready for that and I am also trying to keep everyone healthy for next week.” In their last meet at the Houston Invitational, Cajuns sprinter Kyle Ward ran a personal best time in the 60-meter hurdles. Ward finished third in the event with a time of 7.96. “We are hoping that Kyle can reach a qualifying time in the 60-meter hurdles,” Veazey added. “He has been really close this year and it would be good to see him reach that goal.” Suzanne Boudreaux placed fourth in the 5000-meter run in Houston, with a time of 20:04.72, which represents her best time this season in that event. Up next for the Ragin’ Cajuns is the Sun Belt Conference Championships, which will be in Murfreesboro, Tenn., February 25-26. LOUISIANA SI

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Luke Moody provides a good indication of how young the University of Louisiana's delegation will be at this weekend's Sun Belt Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships. UL coach Lance Veazey points to Rayne product Moody, just a sophomore, as one of the team leaders. "It just kind of worked out that way," said Moody, who will run the hurdles and high jump at the league meet Saturday and Sunday in Murfreesboro, Tenn. "We needed someone to lead drills and nobody really stepped forward to take charge of stretching." The women's team had an experienced leader, with Andree Bonvillain back for her fourth year as the top pole vaulter in the Cajun program's history. "It's different this year," Bonvillain said. "I'm kind of one of the older ones out here now." Graduation hit the UL track program heavily last year. That's a good thing for graduation rates and for fulfilling the ultimate goal of the university and the athletic program, but it also left the Cajuns with its youngest track team in years. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

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The track and field coaches in the Sun Belt Conference don't expect the Louisiana Ragin' Cajun men's and women's squads to accomplish much in this weekend's league indoor track and field championships. UL was picked to finish ninth of nine teams in the men's competition and 10th of the ten teams in the women's division by the league coaches. "We're probably as young as we've ever been," said UL coach Lance Veazey, "and it's probably the smallest group we've ever taken to the indoor meet. We've got a lot of guys that never ran indoors until this year. But the biggest difference is we don't have that one guy on either side that can score 20 points." The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

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MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The University of Louisiana track team grabbed three places on both the men's and women's sides, but was dealt a major blow Saturday on the first day of action in the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships. Sophomore hurdler/high jumper Luke Moody of Rayne suffered a fall during the men's high jump competition, one which resulted in a broken leg. Moody underwent successful surgery Saturday evening at a Murfreesboro hospital. Moody was expected to be one of UL's best bets for league honors, ranking third in the league in the 55-meter hurdles entering the two-day conference meet being hosted by Middle Tennessee at the Murphy Center. The Cajun men stand ninth of nine teams after Saturday's first four completed events with three points, while the women's squad is ninth of 10 teams with eight points after Saturday's six women's events. Much of Saturday's schedule was made up of running event preliminaries, with finals in five field events and 16 running events set for today's final session. Host Middle Tennessee leads the men's race after four events with 38 points, with Arkansas State, North Texas and South Alabama all close behind with 29, 27 and 25 respectively. Favored North Texas has a narrow 47-45 1/2 lead over South Alabama in the women's meet heading into today. The rest of the story

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MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The few high points that the University of Louisiana track and field team had at the Sun Belt Conference Indoor Championships Sunday came in the shortest races. A runner-up finish by Kyle Ward in the men's 55-meter hurdles and two of the top six places in the men's 55-meter dash highlighted UL's performance in the two-day meet that wrapped up Sunday at Middle Tennessee's Murphy Center. Ward had a personal-best 7.41 clocking in the hurdles, finishing behind only Middle Tennessee's Linnie Yarbrough (7.34) to earn all-conference honors. In the 55-meter, Mikey Istre finished fourth at 6.41 and football wide receiver Jason Chery was sixth in 6.42. The rest of the story

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For the first time since its inauguration almost two decades ago, the Louisiana Classics Track and Field Meet will also serve as the outdoor season opener for the University of Louisiana squad. That's not how Ragin' Cajun coach Lance Veazey wanted things to be, but it's a fact of life after the hurricane-related cancellation of last weekend's UNO Invitational. "It sets us back a week," Veazey said of losing the UNO meet. "But what it did do was give us a week to regroup after the indoor season and after Mardi Gras, and give us the week to really get back into it and get ready to go outdoors." UL's men's and women's squads will face a 12-school field in the 21st annual event, which begins tonight with competition in the women's and men's 10,000-meter runs at 7 and 8 p.m. respectively at the Cajun Track/Soccer Complex. Saturday's full day of competition begins at 11 a.m. with the men's javelin and the women's long jump. Running events kick off with the 3,000-meter steeplechase at 11:30 a.m. The rest of the story Dan McDonald dmcdonald@theadvertiser.com

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Joshua Falgout and Amanda Bartlett claimed the first championships of the 21st annual Louisiana Classics Track and Field Meet Friday evening at the University of Louisiana Track/Soccer Complex. UL's Falgout won the men's 10,000-meter title with a personal-best 33:21.44 time, while UL Monroe's Bartlett captured the women's crown with a 40:53.44 clocking. UL's Suzanne Boudreaux finished third in the women's 10K, topping her previous career best by over a minute with a 41:24.24 time. The rest of the story

[old track guy]

The State of UL Track has fallen off the high horse that Charles Lancon put it on. It is my belief that the only reason Lance Veazey (who is a great person) is still the head track coach at UL is because he never will rock the boat and the administration can tell him whatever they want for him to do and he will do it.

The program has gone from conference champs every year, to the bottom of the barrel as of the last indoor conference championship.

Local kids are not recruited...and if you know anything aboout track, Acadiana alone, much less New Orleans and Lake Charles have enough kids to bring UL back to the top third of the Sunbelt.

Tim Lemaire does a good job with the distance kids.

But...what happened to the throwers??? There are no javelin throwers, no shot or discus people and on top of that, the school is paying a guy to coach the throws that never even goes to practice, who shunned UL to go to college out of state and has been busted for using steroids.

The LA Classics meet today was nothing like those under Charles Lancon. Veazey does not get out and promote his program like Lancon. THERE IS NO DISCIPLINE ALSO...listen to this story: Two high school students witnessed a fist fight Thursday on the track between two UL runners. One girl just punched the other and dropped her to the ground and Veazey was no where even around...I was told that last year a male sprinter slapped a female sprinter on the track...What is happening?

I am making a call for action! Something needs to be done!

Bring back Boo Shexnayder as head coach, hire Charlie Mafouz, there are a bunch of X track guys that coach high school now that can take UL back to domination in track. SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!