EUGENE, Ore. - LSU sophomore Barrett Nugent has had his sights set squarely on the school record in the 110-meter hurdles all season long, and during Saturday's finale at the 2010 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, he set the mark as he earned All-America honors as the national runner-up to lead the Tigers and Lady Tigers to a pair of sixth-place finishes.
Nugent's performance helped fuel the Tigers to a sixth-place finish in the final team standings as they put 34 points on the board over the course of three days of competition at Oregon's Hayward Field. The Lady Tigers earned a sixth-place finish of their own after scoring 31 points in the meet.
Texas A&M swept NCAA Outdoor team titles for the second-straight year as the women scored 72 points and the men scored 55 points in four days of action in Eugene.
Florida finished one point back in second place with 54 points in the men's team standings, while Oregon took third place with 45 points, Arizona State finished in fourth place with 37 points and USC was behind in fifth place overall with 35.5 points in the final team standings.
Oregon finished well behind Texas A&M in the women's team race as the Ducks totaled 57 points in four days of competition. Florida took third place overall in the women's team standings with 40 points, while Penn State finished in fourth place with 34 points and Virginia Tech finished in fifth place with 33 points.
Nugent provided a spark for the Tigers while earning a pair of All-America honors on the afternoon in the 4x100-meter relay and 110-meter hurdles as he is now a four-time All-American for his career.
He helped set the tone for the Tigers while running the leadoff leg on LSU's 4x100-meter relay squad that scored six points with a third-place finish in this year's final. Nugent teamed with senior Will Coppage, seniorArmanti Hayes and junior Gabriel Mvumvure for a time of 39.27 seconds to finish behind teams of Florida (39.04) and Florida State (39.07) in the race for the relay title.
Nugent wasted no time as he returned to the track just over an hour later for the final of the 110 hurdles as he entered the race with a personal best of 13.52 that he set during the semifinal round on Thursday.
He made history with his performance Saturday as he finished as the NCAA runner-up with a new best of 13.49 that was run with a legal tailwind of 0.7 meters per second. His time breaks the 23-year-old school record of 13.50 previously set by former LSU national champion Eric Reid during his senior year in 1987.
Nugent missed winning the national crown by a split second as he followed only Andrew Riley of Illinois (13.45). Defending NCAA champion Ronnie Ash of Oklahoma took third place in 13.51.
A native of Maurice, La., Nugent became an All-American for the third time this season as he also placed fourth in the final of the 60-meter hurdles at the NCAA Indoor Championships back in March. In addition to that, he improved upon the ninth-place finish he earned in the final of the 110-meter hurdles at the 2009 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships during his freshman campaign.
"It just blows my mind to do what I did today. I'm so happy right now," Nugent said. "I didn't want to do what I did last year at this meet. I made sure to focus more on the process of running the hurdles and what I had to do instead of running for a time or trying to break a record or anything like that. That is when you get yourself in trouble in this event. You have to focus on the race and nothing else.
"He (Eric Reid) actually dropped me a note about halfway through the season. He just said I was doing an outstanding job this year and that he thought I had the potential to break his record. I'm very honored that I broke a record that has held up for so long. That says a lot about how great he was."
The Lady Tigers wasted no time in putting eight points on the board in the very first event on the track on the final day of competition at this year's NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships with a national runner-up performance in the final of the 4x100-meter relay.
Earning All-America honors with their NCAA runner-up finish were senior Samantha Henry, freshmanKimberlyn Duncan, freshman Takeia Pinckney and junior Kenyanna Wilson as they combined for a 43.72 clocking to finish second only to the foursome from Texas A&M (42.82).
While running the third leg, Pinckney earned her second All-America honor of the weekend and her third of the 2010 season as she was the fourth-place finisher in the NCAA 100-meter final on Friday night.
Henry returned to the track for two more races on the afternoon as she earned All-America honors with an eighth-place finish in the final of the 200-meter dash (23.80) before running the second leg on LSU's 4x400-meter relay team that scored six points with a third-place finish in the final event of the day. Henry teamed with sophomore Cassandra Tate, senior Kayann Thompson and senior LaTavia Thomas to clock a seasonal-best time of 3 minutes, 30.61 seconds in her final appearance in an LSU uniform.
Henry leaves LSU among the all-time leaders with 15 All-America honors for her career. Thomas also set the bar high during her collegiate career with a total of 12 All-America honors to her credit.
"The people on our team who have consistently performed all year long did very well this weekend," said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. "They prepared themselves to perform and got themselves ready to compete from the time we arrived in Eugene on Sunday night. I'm very proud of the way they represented our program and represented LSU, particularly our seniors.
"We always want to come here to win. That's the standard we have set here at LSU. Texas A&M, Oregon and Florida have outstanding teams on both the men's and women's sides. While we came up a little short this week, I thought our kids competed very well this week."
With their performance this weekend, the Tigers and Lady Tigers put the finishing touches on yet another successful campaign that saw the women finish in third place and the men finish in fourth place at the NCAA Indoor Championships earlier this season. The Lady Tigers were also crowned the team champion with the men finishing runner-up at the SEC Outdoor Championships last month.
Not only that, but 23 LSU student-athletes earned All-America honors in track and field this year, led by a NCAA title sweep by junior Walter Henning in the weight throw indoors and the hammer throw outdoors. LSU athletes also captured nine SEC individual championships this season with 30 All-SEC selections as a team with either first-place or second-place finishes at the SEC Championships.
