COLLEGE STATION, Texas - It came as no surprise to the 4,487 fans packing the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium for Saturday's finale at the 2011 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships that LSU senior Walter Henning defended his national title in the men's 35-pound weight throw in dominating fashion in his final indoor appearance in the purple and gold.
After all, Henning entered the meet riding an impressive streak of 16-straight victories against his peers at the collegiate level, a streak that includes 10-straight victories in the weight throw indoors and six-straight victories in the hammer throw outdoors dating back to the start of his 2010 junior season. Henning's victory helped fuel an LSU team trophy sweep at this year's NCAA Indoor Championships, as the Lady Tigers scored 37 points en route to a third-place finish and the Tigers scored 31 points to pick up a fourth-place finish in the final team standings on both sides. With its performance this weekend, LSU holds the distinction of being the only program nationally to win two team trophies at this year's meet signifying a top-four finish in the final team standings. The Florida men and Oregon women retained the NCAA Indoor team championships they won a year ago as the Gators scored 52 points and the Ducks scored 67 points in two days of competition. The Lady Tigers finished behind only Oregon and Texas (38) in the final women's group standings, while Arkansas (35) and Texas A&M (32) round out the top five. For the final men's team standings, the Tigers trailed Florida, Texas A&M (40) and BYU (34) in the race for this year's NCAA Indoor title, while it was Florida State (30) rounding out the top five of the final meet of the 2011 indoor season. In fact, this marks the second-straight indoor season in which the Lady Tigers have finished in third place and the Tigers have finished in fourth place overall at the NCAA Indoor Championships. "We came here to College Station and had a good championship on both the men's and women's teams," said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. "I'm proud of the way our athletes competed and pulled through for the times when things didn't really go our way. There is still so much room for improvement as we get to the outdoor season. We're very excited to build upon our performance here this weekend. "We had a number of athletes who turned in tremendous individual performances at this meet. Walter did a great job again today to get us 10 points. We also saw Barrett Nugent and Kenyanna Wilson step it up in some of the finals that were run today. Those are the kinds of performances you need in a meet like this." Henning became a national champion for the third time in his LSU career with his victory Saturday with a series-best mark of 72 feet, 8 ½ inches on his sixth and final attempt of the competition. Henning actually took control of the competition with a throw of 72-2 ¼ on his second attempt during the preliminary round and never looked back as he finished nearly three feet ahead of his nearest rival in Virginia Tech standout Alexander Ziegler, who finished runner-up with a top throw of 69-9 ½ for the day. A native of Kings Park, N.Y., Henning solidified his Bowerman Award candidacy by capturing the crown as he finished his indoor career undefeated over the past two seasons. After winning back-to-back NCAA Indoor titles in the weight throw in 2010 and 2011, he will now turn his attention to the outdoor campaign in which he will look to defend the NCAA hammer throw crown he won a year ago. "I really didn't have it today," said Henning, who was unable to surpass his seasonal-best performance of 76-6 ¼ entering the meet. "Luckily for me, no one else seemed to have it today either. There were several guys in this field that could have beaten me today. But that's just the way it goes sometimes. I just wanted to do everything I could to score the 10 points for the team. That's always my main goal." Junior All-American Barrett Nugent nearly matched Henning's performance as he finished as the national runner-up for the second time in his career with his performance in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles. Nugent, who finished runner-up in the 110-meter hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor Championships during an outstanding sophomore season a year ago, shattered his 2011 seasonal-best performance entering the meet with a time of 7.61 seconds to finish in second place and score eight points for the Tigers. Nugent received his fifth career All-American honor with his performance, including his fourth certificate in the sprint hurdles. Like he did at last season's NCAA Outdoor Championships, Nugent finished runner-up to Illinois' Andrew Riley (7.58) in Saturday's NCAA Indoor final while dropping his season best from his time of 7.73 entering this year's national competition. Two other Tigers earned individual All-America honors during Saturday's competition as juniorHoratio Williams clocked 6.71 to place sixth in the finals of the 60-meter dash and senior Zedric Thomas posted a mark of 52-11 ½ on his fifth attempt to place seventh in the finals of the triple jump. The Tigers then added an eighth-place finish in the final event of the meet in the 4x400-meter relay as the relay team of junior Riker Hylton, junior Horatio Williams, junior Robert Simmons and sophomore Caleb Williams combined to run 3 minutes, 8.01 seconds and earn All-America honors. The Lady Tigers were led to a third-place finish in the final team standings with third-place finishes from senior Kenyanna Wilson in the 60-meter dash and their 4x400-meter relay team. Wilson, who set a personal best of 7.22 to qualify for Saturday's 60-meter final, dropped her performance yet again with a new personal best of 7.18 en route to a bronze-medal winning third-place finish Saturday evening. She finished behind only South Carolina's LaKya Brookins, who equaled the collegiate record in a winning time of 7.09, and TCU's Jessica Young (7.17) to earn her sixth career All-America honor. Wilson has now earned All-America honors in the 60-meter dash at the NCAA Indoor meet in each of the last three seasons after finishing in third place in 2009 and in fifth place in 2010. The Lady Tigers actually scored seven points in the event at junior Semoy Hackett (7.29) added an eighth-place finish. "I just wanted to get in there and compete and help my teammates as best I could," Wilson said. "I'm very excited about my performance today. You don't really worry about time so much in a meet like this, since it's all about place and scoring points. I've been in this position before and knew what I had to do before I got down in the blocks today. I think that experience really paid off." The Lady Tigers wrapped up their scoring with an impressive third-place performance in the 4x400-meter relay as the group of junior Rebecca Alexander (53.24), junior Cassandra Tate (51.50), sophomore Latoya McDermott (53.35) and junior Jonique Day (52.29) posted a season-best time of 3 minutes, 30.37 seconds for the sixth-fastest indoor performance in the program's storied history. In one of the most exciting races of this year's event, LSU finished just a split-second behind Texas A&M (3:29.72) and Arkansas (3:30.08) for the relay championship. The Lady Tigers also received All-America performances on Saturday from senior Melissa Ogbourneand freshman Jasmin Stowers to help give them a total of 37 points for the meet. Stowers matched her seasonal best and personal best with a clocking of 8.12 for a sixth-place finish in her first career NCAA finals appearance in the 60-meter hurdles, while Ogbourne picked up her second career All-America honor in the triple jump after earning a seventh-place finish with a mark of 43-1. "Our athletes can be proud of what they did here this weekend and use this meet as a way to get ready yet again for the start of the outdoor season," Shaver said. "There's a lot to be proud of in the fact that LSU is the only school heading home with two team trophies from this championship. I'm proud of the effort and competitiveness we showed throughout the meet and look forward to more of the same this season." In addition to those scoring points for the team total on Saturday, junior Kyron Blaise (52-10) picked up a ninth-place finish in the triple jump and junior Michael Lauro (66-4 ¼) placed 11th in the weight throw. With the 2011 indoor season now in the books, the Tigers and Lady Tigers will open the outdoor season next weekend as they travel to Lafayette, La, on March 19 to compete in the Louisiana Classics set to run at the Ragin' Cajun Track Stadium on the campus of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.