BATON ROUGE -- While the top-ranked LSU track and field team is among the favorites to compete for a national championship this season, the squad received a boost to its title hopes for 2009 with the addition of All-American transfer Walter Henning on Thursday.
Henning has decided to join the Tigers following a record-setting freshman season at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill where he established himself as the premier young thrower in all of men’s collegiate track and field.
The native of Kings Park, N.Y., will bolster LSU’s talent-rich throws group as he will be eligible to compete for the Tigers as a sophomore beginning with the 2009 indoor season.
“We’re extremely excited that Walter Henning has decided to join our program,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “He’s already proven to be one of the top throwers in the country with what he’s accomplished as a freshman, and we expect that he can be an immediate scorer for our team at the NCAA level. He’s a special young man who I believe has unlimited potential here at LSU.
“It’s important to have depth across all event areas in order to be a complete track and field team, and I don’t think there’s any doubt that Walter gives our team that kind of depth in the throws.”
Henning earned All-America honors during the 2008 indoor season after finishing in third place in the weight throw at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in March with a UNC school-record mark of 72 feet, 3 inches, which is also a world junior record in the event. He was the highest non-senior finisher in the weight throw at the NCAA meet.
Prior to his record-setting performance at the NCAA Indoor Championships, Henning was crowned the Atlantic Coast Conference champion in the weight throw after recording a mark of 71-0 ¾ at the ACC Indoor Championships hosted by North Carolina.
Henning continued that success into the outdoor season as he was crowned the ACC champion in the 16-lb. hammer throw with a seasonal best and personal best mark of 225-5, which ranks No. 2 all-time at North Carolina and is the national junior record in the event.
His winning mark in the hammer throw at the ACC Outdoor Championships was also the fourth-ranked mark in the NCAA at the time of his transfer to LSU.
“Walter is going to be a tremendous fit to our program,” said LSU throws coach Derek Yush. “I truly believe that he not only has the ability to be one of our nation’s greatest hammer throwers, but he has the character to match. He’s a confident young man and he’s a student of the event. In my mind, that is a recipe for a champion.”
A graduate of St. Anthony’s High School in South Huntington, N.Y., Henning joined the collegiate ranks as the nation’s top throws recruit for the Class of 2007. He earned distinction as a two-time Track and Field News Athlete of the Year and a two-time New York State Gatorade Athlete of the Year during his illustrious career at St. Anthony’s.
Henning has had the opportunity to represent the United States in international competition as he competed in the hammer throw at the 2005 IAAF World Youth Championships in Marrakech, Morocco, and at the 2006 IAAF World Junior Championships in Beijing, China.
He turned that experience into gold this past summer as he won a gold medal in the hammer throw for the United States at the 2007 Pan American Junior Championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Henning is among the favorites to win a world championship in the 6-kg. hammer this summer as he is currently training in preparation for the 2008 IAAF World Junior Championships in Poland.
He joins a diverse group of incoming Tigers for the Class of 2008 as sprinter Ade Alleyne-Forte of Trinidad and Tobago and hurdler Barrett Nugent of Maurice, La., signed their National Letters of Intent to compete for LSU early in the signing period in February. Alleyne-Forte will compete primarily in the 400 meters, while Nugent will line up in the 110 hurdles and 400 hurdles at LSU.