Tigers made the trip to Tennessee's Tom Black Track at LaPorte Stadium this weekend for the 2010 SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships with one goal in mind to reclaim their rightful place as the league's most dominant program with their third SEC Outdoor crown in four seasons and their 22nd conference title all-time.
And the Lady Tigers staked their claim Sunday by scoring 93 points on the final day of competition and a total of 132 points for the meet to run away with this year's team championship. The Lady Tigers unseated defending champion Florida to take home the title as the Gators took second in the final team standings with 107.5 points. Arkansas followed in third place with 98.5 points. With the win, LSU added its 11th SEC Outdoor title to go along with its 11 SEC Indoor championships on the women's side. The Lady Tigers have captured a total of 22 SEC championships in program history between the indoor and outdoor seasons. Florida follows in a distant second with 10 conference titles won by its women's program. LSU now owns 47 conference titles between the men's and women's programs. The Lady Tigers have also been crowned SEC Outdoor champions in three of the last four seasons, which includes championship wins in 2007 and 2008. It also marks the first time that a women's team has won a total of three outdoor titles in a four-year span since 1993 when LSU won six in seven seasons. The Tigers just missed winning an SEC Outdoor crown of their own as they scored 100 points in the meet to finish runner-up in the men's standings to the champions from Florida (124). "I'm just so proud of both of our teams for the way they competed today. They put themselves in position to compete for the team title on both sides with the way in which they competed from the very first event," said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. "Our women deserve this kind of result for the way in which they competed and fought through adversity all weekend long. I'm proud for them. "I'm also very proud for our seniors who have now won this meet three times in four years. That's a great accomplishment with the depth and talent that we have in this league. They definitely earned it today." The Lady Tigers' run to the title got off to an inauspicious start in the very first final on the track on Sunday afternoon after freshmen Kimberlyn Duncan and Takeia Pinckney missed the second exchange on the 4x100-meter relay and the team was unable to finish the race. But the team bounced back in a big way thanks to the efforts of junior Tenaya Jones, who became the first Lady Tiger to win All-SEC honors on the afternoon with her runner-up finish in the 100-meter hurdles. Jones became an all-conference recipient for the second time in her career after running 13.42 in the final. The Lady Tigers then turned up the heat following a 1 hour, 15 minute rain delay that suspended the meet after the conclusion of the hurdles. The meet was delayed for the third day in a row due to weather. In a span of 70 minutes, LSU put 67 points on the board between four events in the finals of the women's 100 meters, 200 meters, 800 meters and 400-meter hurdles to take a lead they would not relinquish. The Lady Tigers caught fire by scoring 19 points in the 100-meter final, led by an all-conference finish by Pinckney who shattered her PR with a wind-legal time of 11.26 en route to a runner-up finish. SeniorSamantha Henry followed closely behind in third place with a time of 11.28, and junior Kenyanna Wilsonscored five points in fourth place with a time of 11.41. They followed with 21 points and another 2-3-4 finish in the following event as four Lady Tigers lined up in the 800-meter final. Senior LaTavia Thomas led the group as she earned an All-SEC honor in the event for the eighth time in her career by finishing runner-up with a time of 2 minutes, 3.35 seconds. Fellow senior Kayann Thompson added six points with a third-place finish (2:04.65) while junior Brittany Hallscored five points with a fourth-place finish (2:04.97) and freshman Charlene Lipsey added two with a seventh-place finish (2:08.61) in her first career SEC Outdoor appearance. In perhaps the most impressive performance of the night, sophomore Cassandra Tate built the momentum in the 400-meter hurdles while becoming the only Lady Tiger to win an SEC event title on the day. Tate, who had never competed in the 400-meter hurdles before April 10 when lining up at the Miami Elite Invitational and has only run four races in the event during her career, shattered her previous personal best by nearly one full second as she dominated the competition with a winning time of 57.12. She has quickly moved into the No. 5 spot on LSU's all-time list and all the way to No. 11 in the NCAA this season. "The race went the way I wanted it to go. I wanted to set a good pace from the start so I would finish it up strong and get the best time," Tate said. "All of my hard work in practice is paying off for me. I'm still in the learning stages in this event, but I've very happy with how far I've come in such a short time." After Tate's victory, the Lady Tigers put the championship out of reach while scoring 17 points in the 200 meters. Henry returned to the track to earn her first all-conference honor of the day as she finished second in the event with a time of 23.24. Pinckney was fourth (23.59), while Duncan was fifth (23.76). Freshman Latoya McDermott, Tate, Thompson and Thomas then wrapped up the meet in the last event by earning All-SEC honors with a second-place finish in the 4x400-meter relay (3:32.84). "We needed each and every one of our athletes to step up today for us, and they did that," Shaver said. "It was a lot of fun to watch our kids compete today. They did what they had to do on Friday and Saturday to put themselves in this kind of scoring position today. They took full advantage of their opportunity to win this title. I'm very proud of this team with the way they have competed all season long." Sophomore Barrett Nugent kick started the Tigers' run to a second-place finish as he completed the sweep by adding an SEC Outdoor title in the 110-meter hurdles to his SEC Indoor crown in the 60-meter hurdles after running a personal-best time of 13.56 in the conference final. After trailing South Carolina's Booker Nunley for much of the race, Nugent surged to the front passed the seventh and eighth hurdles and crossed the finish line with the third-fastest time in program history at 13.56. The race proved to be déjà vu for Nugent as he edged Nunley (13.64) for the outdoor crown just as he did in the 60-meter hurdles at the SEC Indoor meet in February. Nugent snapped a 25-year drought by becoming the first LSU hurdler to win the event at the SEC meet in since former Tiger All-American Bernard Williams was crowned the SEC champion in 1985. "I hit one hurdle pretty good, and both Booker Nunley and Johnny Dutch were right on the side of me," Nugent said. "I knew I had to quicken it up and start running. I was able to do that really well. Getting the 10 points out of this event was a big deal for us. These championships always come down to just a few, so it felt great to get all 10 points out of that event. That was my goal." Like Nugent, senior Richard Jones enjoyed a personal-best performance on Sunday to sweep SEC titles in 2010 as the SEC Indoor champion added the outdoor crown in the 800-meter run to his resume. Jones took control of the race early and led from the break as he held off the rest of the field for the win in record-setting fashion. He crossed the finish line with a new personal record of 1:46.81 to take first over a hard-charging Aaron Evans of Georgia (1:47.00) and Fred Samoei of Alabama (1:47.15). Juniors Josh Dominguez and Zedric Thomas also added six points apiece toward the final team total with a pair of third-place finishes in the jumps. In LSU's first event of the afternoon, Dominguez cleared a height of 16 feet, 8 ¾ inches to take third place in the pole vault. Thomas followed Dominguez's effort by earning a third-place finish of his own in the triple jump with a top mark of 51-11 ¼. The Tigers and Lady Tigers will begin their march toward a national championship in two weeks as they make the trip to Irwin Belk Track at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro to compete at the East site of the preliminary rounds of the NCAA Championships scheduled for May 27-29. The semifinal and final rounds of the 2010 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships will be held June 9-12 at historic Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon in Eugene. Final Team Standings Women - Team Rankings - 21 Events Scored Men - Team Rankings - 21 Events Scored
1) LSU, 132
2) Florida, 107.50
3) Arkansas, 98.50
4) Auburn, 97
5) Georgia, 74.50
6) Alabama, 64
7) Tennessee, 62
8) South Carolina, 48.50
9) Mississippi, 48
10) Kentucky, 44
11) Miss State, 36
12) Vanderbilt, 5
1) Florida, 124
2) LSU, 100
3) South Carolina, 89
4) Auburn, 88
5) Georgia, 83
6) Mississippi, 74
t7) Arkansas, 64
t7) Miss State, 64
9) Tennessee, 46
10) Kentucky, 44
11) Alabama, 41