FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - After becoming the first LSU Tiger to be crowned SEC champion in the 35-pound weight throw as a sophomore in 2009, junior All-American Walter Henning made history yet again Saturday at the 2010 SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships as he defended his crown in the event by shattering his own personal best and the existing meet record.
Henning became the new SEC Indoor Championships meet record holder on consecutive throws Saturday as he set back-to-back personal bests of 77 feet, 2 ½ inches on his second attempt and 78-1 on his third attempt to finish the competition nearly 11 feet farther than his closest competitor.
South Carolina junior Mike Zajac finished second with a mark of 67-3 ½, while LSU sophomoreMichael Lauro missed earning All-SEC honors by two centimeters as he took third place with a throw of 67-2 ¾.
Henning is no stranger to breaking records as he has dominated the SEC weight throw and hammer throw events in his two seasons at LSU. Not only did he shatter his own school record of 76-6 ½ entering the meet, but he also demolished the SEC Indoor meet record of 76-5 set three seasons ago by former Auburn All-American Cory Martin during the 2007 campaign.
The LSU star is now in select company as he is one of only four throwers in the history of the SEC to win at least two SEC weight throw titles in a career, joining South Carolina's Ron Willis (1993, 1994), Georgia's Andras Haklits (2000, 2001, 2002) and Martin (2005, 2006, 2007).
With his performance, Henning has cemented his position as the national title favorite in the weight throw as he extends his NCAA lead to more than three feet over Memphis standout Steffen Nerdel (74-10).
"My goal coming into the meet was to get the win and score 10 points for my team. I'm very happy about what we were able to do today in the very first event of the meet," Henning said. "Knowing that it was the SEC meet record makes it even better. I don't think it was the prettiest throw in the world or anything like that, but it was just what we needed to get off to a fast start. I'm proud of that."
"I'm also happy that we're getting some good work in this ring. That's going to be big for us when we get back here for NCAAs. We actually put down a slower ring in the (Carl Maddox) Field House in the last couple of weeks, one that grips a little more, to mimic the ring they have here. That paid off big today."
LSU also picked up nine points in the finals of the long jump to finish the day in third place overall in the men's team standings with 25 points. The Tigers follow only the 57 points scored by Arkansas and the 26 points scored by Georgia heading into Sunday's championship action.
Junior Zedric Thomas just missed earning his first career All-SEC honor with a fourth-place performance in the long jump as he posted a top jump of 25-5 ¼. Senior Will Coppage scored three points with a sixth-place finish (24-11) in the event, while freshman Damar Forbes added one point to LSU's team total with an eighth-place finish with a top jump in the competition of 24-9.
Sophomore All-American Rachel Laurent enjoyed another all-conference performance on Saturday as she set the pace for the Lady Tigers on the second day of action at the SEC Indoor Championships.
Laurent, who entered the meet as the defending SEC Indoor champion in the pole vault, cleared the bar at 14-3 ½ to set a new indoor and outdoor personal best in the event en route to a second-place finish in the competition. With her performance, Laurent became an All-SEC performer for the third time in her young career as she also finished runner-up in the pole vault at the SEC Outdoor meet as a freshman in 2009.
It took an SEC Indoor Championships meet record clearance of 14-7 ½ by Arkansas' Tina Sutej to unseat Laurent as the indoor conference champion as the Razorback sophomore is now the NCAA leader.
After Laurent's performance in the pole vault, two Lady Tigers stepped up to score eight big points in the long jump as junior Melissa Ogbourne scored six points with a third-place finish and a jump of 19-11 and freshman Brittany Porter scored two points with a seventh-place finish and a jump of 19-7.
With their effort, the Lady Tigers finished the day in fourth place in the women's standings with a total of 17.5 points. Florida currently leads the women's race with 50 points, while Arkansas sits in second place with 30 points and Tennessee follows closely behind in third place with 25 points.
Saturday was also an important day of qualifying at the Randal Tyson Track Center for LSU as 19 student athletes earned the right to compete in championship finals to be held Sunday.
For the Tigers, freshman Caleb Williams led a trio of qualifiers in the 400-meter dash with an indoor best of 46.87 seconds to improve his NCAA provisional qualifying time in the event. He will be joined in Sunday's 400-meter final by sophomore Robert Simmons (47.12) and senior Armanti Hayes(47.30). The Tigers also advanced three runners into the finals of the 800 meters as junior Richard Jones led the way in 1:50.49. Sophomore Garrek Thompson (1:51.81) and freshman Sadiki White will also run in the final.
Other Tigers to qualify for Sunday's championship finals include junior Gabriel Mvumvure in the 200-meter dash (21.20), junior Alan Sticker in the mile run (4:08.04) and sophomore Barrett Nugent in the 60-meter hurdles (7.74) for a total of nine qualifiers on the men's side.
The Lady Tigers advanced a total of 10 athletes into Sunday's finals, led by sophomore Kenyanna Wilson in both the 60-meter dash (7.32) and 200-meter dash (24.02).
Freshman Takeia Pinckney will join Wilson in the final of the 60-meter dash after winning her race with a time of 7.35. Freshman Kimberlyn Duncan (23.57), sophomore Cassandra Tate (23.64) and senior Samantha Henry (23.73) also advanced from Saturday's preliminaries into the 200-meter final.
Like the 200 meters, the Lady Tigers will also feature four runners in the finals of the 800-meter run to go off on Sunday. Senior All-American and four-time SEC champion LaTavia Thomas led the way with a qualifying time of 2:06.84. She will be joined in the 800-meter final by junior Brittany Hall(2:07.94), freshman Charlene Lipsey (2:08.24) and senior Kayann Thompson (2:08.68).
Sophomore Tenaya Jones, who earned all-conference honors with a runner-up finish in the 60 hurdles last season, will run in the SEC final again on Sunday after qualifying with a time of 8.62.
"I thought both of our teams did what they had to do in qualifying today to put themselves in a position to compete tomorrow afternoon," said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. "But it's now up to them to get back out there and give everything they've got tomorrow if we want to come away with the result we want. We look forward to the challenge and the opportunity that we have."
The 2010 SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships continue Sunday beginning at 10 a.m. CT. Fans can follow live results from the meet at www.flashresults.com.