Alabama Women’s 4×400 Relay Breaks School Record at Tiger Paw Invitational

The Alabama women’s 4x400-meter relay team blazed to a school-record time as the Crimson Tide wrapped up a productive weekend at the Tiger Paw Invitational at Clemson University on Saturday afternoon.

The quartet of Takyera Roberson, Alex Gholston, Diamond Gause and Domonique Williams rolled to a time of 3:30.10, to break the previous UA record of 3:35.37 that had stood since 2007. The time is currently the second-fastest in the country behind Texas A&M, which won today’s relay in a time of 3:29.74.

“I’m very happy for our 4x400 relay,” head coach Dan Waters said following the meet. “They lowered the school record by five seconds and put themselves in position for a spot at nationals. Overall, we had a number of good performances this weekend. We’re starting to come together, now we have to maintain that momentum as we turn our attention to SECs.”

The women’s team won three events on Saturday and Haley Teel won the shot put, Kaitlin Walker finished first in the 600 meters and Lakan Taylor won the pole vault. Teel won her second shot put competition of the season with a personal-best mark of 54-4 ½ (16.57m). The effort is the third-best in Alabama history. Teel also had two other marks today that rank among UA’s all-time top-10 and she now owns six of the 10 best throws in school history. Walker won the women’s 600 meters in a personal- and Alabama-best 1:32.68. The time surpasses the previous UA record of 1:32.97 set by Kristyn Williams in 2016. Taylor won the women’s pole vault with a season-best clearance of 13-5 1/4 (4.10m), for her second victory this season.

The women also turned in a strong 200-meter performance as freshman Takyera Roberson finished fifth in a personal- and UA season-best 23.42. Fellow freshman Symone Darius also posted a personal best of 23.71 to finish 10th. Senior Diamond Gause finished 14th in an individual season-best 23.86.

The shot put squad produced the lone winner on the men’s side for Alabama as Kyle Felpel won for the fifth time in as many meets with a mark of 60-10 1/2 (18.55m). Kord Ferguson finished fourth at 58-11 1/4 (17.96m) while Hayden Reed finished sixth with a mark of 57-5 (17.50m) and Nathan Karr was 11th at 53-4 1/2 (16.27m).

Alabama was in action at the Iowa State Classic again today as well with Payton Ballard competing in the mile and Jacopo Lahbi running in the invitational 800 meters. Ballard finished 14th in the mile in a personal-best 4:10.80, the fourth-fastest time for Alabama this season. Lahbi finished 45th in the 800 in a time of 1:54.94.

Alabama will take next weekend off in preparation for the 2017 Southeastern Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships which will take place Feb. 24-25 at Vanderbilt University.