BATON ROUGE -- An LSU track and field athlete has been honored by the Southeastern Conference for the third straight week as sophomore pole vaulter Katelyn Rodrigue was named the SEC Female Field Event Athlete of the Week on Tuesday.
This marks the first time in her collegiate career that Rodrigue has been recognized by the league office after making history at the Bayou Bengal Invitational on Friday.
The New Orleans native became the first Lady Tiger in the program’s storied history to clear the 13-foot barrier in the pole vault indoors, breaking her own indoor school record with a mark of 13 feet, 1 ½ inches to improve her NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the event.
Rodrigue set the previous indoor school record in the 2008 season opener when she cleared 12-11 ½ to become the first Lady Tiger in program history to post an NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the event. This marks the fifth time in the last two seasons that Rodrigue has broken her own indoor school record in the pole vault.
She joins senior Richard Thompson and fellow sophomore Samantha Henry as LSU athletes who have earned SEC Athlete of the Week honors through three weeks of the indoor season.
Thompson was named the SEC Male Runner of the Week on Jan. 29 following a record-setting performance of his own at the Razorback Invitational as he set a new school record in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.62 seconds to automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Henry earned back-to-back SEC Female Runner of the Week honors in each of the last two weeks after clocking NCAA automatic qualifying times in both the 60 and 200 meters. After opening the season with a new personal best of 7.26 in the 60 meters at the Purple Tiger Invitational, Henry clocked the fastest 200-meter time in the world this season at 23.09 at the Razorback Invitational.
The LSU track and field teams will be back in action this weekend as they travel to New York to compete against more than 100 universities from across the country in the prestigious New Balance Collegiate Invitational at The Armory Track and Field Center.