Three Track & Field Athletes Earn SEC Weekly Honors

BATON ROUGE -- For their performance at the 82nd Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays this past weekend, senior Trindon Holliday, junior LaTavia Thomas and freshman Rachel Laurent earned Southeastern Conference Athlete of the Week honors as announced by the league office Tuesday.

Holliday has been named the SEC Male Runner of the Week for the second time during the 2009 season by opening his outdoor season by running the NCAA's fastest time in the 100-meter dash.

The Zachary, La., native sprinted to the finish line in 10.12 seconds in the men's invitational 100-meter dash to finish runner-up to professional sprinter Rae Edwards (10.10) in the same heat. Following his first 100-meter race of the season, Holliday is the No. 1-ranked sprinter in both the NCAA and SEC through the first three weeks of the outdoor season.

Not only that, but Holliday's wind-legal clocking of 10.12 seconds also ranks No. 3 worldwide in 2009 as he trails only Jamaican Yohan Blake (10.08) and Edwards (10.10).

The Tigers also ran a seasonal-best time of 39.10 in the 4x100-meter relay with Holliday running the anchor leg as the team took third place in the final of the Clyde Littlefield 4x100-Meter Relay on Saturday at Mike A. Myers Stadium. Their time ranks No. 3 in the NCAA this season.

While Holliday earned SEC Male Runner of the Week honors, Thomas received the SEC Female Runner of the Week award for the second time this year after anchoring the Lady Tigers to a win in both the 4x400 and 4x800-meter relays at the Texas Relays.

Thomas kicked off the meet for the Lady Tigers on Thursday night by running the anchor leg on LSU's 4x800-meter relay that won the event title at Texas for the second-straight year. She joined freshman Laura Carleton, sophomore Brittany Hall and senior Kayann Thompson to run a time of 8 minutes, 46.23 seconds to win the race by more than six seconds over Texas Tech (8:52.46).

Thomas then wrapped up the meet Saturday by anchoring LSU to a stunning victory in the 4x400 relay with an NCAA-leading and SEC-leading time of 3:31.81.

She ran a 51.96-second split on the anchor to defeat fan favorite Texas (3:32.57) and lead LSU to a defense of their 4x400-meter relay crown at the Texas Relays. The Lady Tigers' time of 3:31.81 is an NCAA regional qualifying time and an overall seasonal best by more than four seconds after not running faster than 3:36.06 either indoor or outdoor in 2009.

Laurent was named the SEC Female Field Event Athlete of the Week this week after establishing herself as an NCAA title contender with her performance in winning the university women's pole vault at the Texas Relays during Saturday's competition.

In fact, Laurent is the first ever Lady Tiger to win the pole vault crown at the Texas Relays with a winning clearance of 14 feet, 1 ¼ inches for a new overall personal best in the event.

Not only does Laurent's performance rank her in a tie for the No. 1 spot on the NCAA list, it also shatters the previous LSU school record by nearly six inches as she eclipses the mark of 13-7 ½ set by junior Katelyn Rodrigue a year ago. Laurent now owns both the indoor school record (14-0 ½) and outdoor school record (14-1 ¼) in just her first season with the Lady Tigers.