BATON ROUGE – A couple of McNeese freshmen made a strong collegiate debut on Friday at the 2021 LSU Louisiana Indoor Invite in the only indoor meet the Cowboys and Cowgirls will compete before the Southland Conference Indoor Championships.
 
Freshman Kayla Warner won the women's 800-meters with a time of 2:23.91. The Houston native and product of Klein Forest High School ran the second-fastest 800 by a freshman in the Southland Conference this season and the 5^th-fastest overall.
 
Cowboy freshman sprinter Kameron Quinn qualified to the 60-meter dash finals after a blistering preliminary time of 6.86, the fourth-fastest in the conference this and the fastest by a freshman. The Sachse HS sprinter ran the fastest 60-meters by a Cowboy freshman making his collegiate debut. He followed up with a 6.88 in the finals to place third.
 
"This was a great meet for our young ones," said head coach Brendon Gilroy. "They came to run today."
 
Kinnady Hawkins, a freshman from Allen High School, placed fifth in the women's 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.06.
 
Cowgirl jumper Malaiya Jedkins posted two top six finishes after finishing fourth in the triple jump (38-7) and sixth in the long jump (17-5.25). Shania Anthony finished third in the 800-meters with a time of 2:24.32 to join Warner in the top three and Dreunna Washington ran a 7.69 for a sixth place finish in the 60-meters.
 
For the men, Josh Raphael finished fifth in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.89, that coming after a 6.87 in the preliminaries. Newcomer Rodney Tookes placed fourth in the 400-meters at 52.30 while freshman Olu Ogunyemi ran an 8.31 in the 60-meter hurdles to finish fifth. Teammate Ronnie Jackson followed with an 8.33 and a seventh place finish.
 
Marcellus Boykins recorded a personal best in the triple jump after measuring a 45-7 jump and a second place finish.