NEW ORLEANS - The New Orleans men's and women's track and field squads captured three top-10 finishes and had athletes qualify for four more finals events on Saturday on day two of the 2025 Southland Conference Outdoor Championships in Houston.
The Privateer men got six points thanks to a third-place finish in the long jump by
Christopher Murphy, while pulling in three points on the women's side after
Oxana Bonjorn-Giros finished 7th in the women's 3000m Steeplechase and
Helen Baumgarten's 8th-place finish in the Heptathlon.
Madonna Favour,
Taj Morris, Baumgarten and
Annika Metzger all advanced to finals races on Saturday with standout qualifying performances. Favour will race in the men's 100m final to go with his 200m qualification from Thursday. Metzger will compete in the women's 1500m and 800m races, while Morris qualified for the men's 110m hurdles and Baumgarten in the women's 100m hurdles.
Murphy cleared 7.51m in the finals of the long jump competition, taking third place even though he and Northwestern State's Roy Morris had identical marks. The tiebreaker came on Murphy's second-best jump, where he cleared 7.48m earlier, besting Morris' 7.45m in the first round.
Bonjorn-Giros capped New Orleans' night with a strong run in the Steeplechase, clocking in with a time of 11:26.09 to earn two points for the Privateers.
Baumgarten set a new personal record in the women's heptathlon, finishing 8th with 4,657 points, a mark that places her ninth all-time in Privateers history.
Baumgarten finished 3rd in the long jump with a mark of 5.62m. She hit her best mark on her first try in the javelin, clearing 34.17m and claiming 4th place. After closing the Heptathlon 13th in the 800m at 2:54.95, Baumgarten hit the track again and finished 2nd in her heat and 4th overall in 14.04 seconds to qualify for the women's 100m hurdles finals, while
Olga Skolasinska finished 11th in 14.46 seconds.
Favour topped the charts in the second heat of the men's 100m prelims, with his time of 10.40 seconds 2nd-fastest overall in the prelims. Murphy finished 12th in 10.66 seconds,
Daryl Bachmann 23rd in 10.86 seconds and
Tshilidzi Netshiombo 29th in 11.18 seconds.
Metzger qualified for Saturday's women's 800m finals after finishing second in the race's opening heat, crossing the line in a time of 2:13.61 which was 5th best overall.
Morris had the 3rd best time in the opening heat of the men's 110m and 7th best time overall with a time of 14.53 seconds to advance to Saturday's final.
Layden Jack finished 10th in the women's 400m prelims with a time of 55.67 seconds.
Darryl George Jr. finished 10th in the men's 400m with a time of 47.44 seconds, followed by
Travian Johnson in 16th in 48.16 seconds and
Jameel Williamson in 18th in 48.42 seconds.
In the field,
Christina Davis finished 21st in the women's shot put with a toss of 10.02m, while
Raven Murphy was 25th in the women's long jump, clearing 5.04m.
NEXT UP
The Privateers will wrap up the 2025 Southland Conference Championships on Saturday at Wendel D. Ley Track & Holloway Field in Houston.
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