BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The LSU Track & Field teams kicked off the 2012 indoor season Saturday afternoon with an appearance at the inaugural Crimson Tide Indoor Opener as the Tigers and Lady Tigers won seven event titles and set nine personal bests to highlight the action at the Birmingham Crossplex.
In addition, 15 athletes eclipsed their season-opening performances from a year ago in their events during Saturday's action while competing against many of the premier programs in collegiate track and field.
"This meet provided us with an opportunity to face some outstanding competition to open the season, and we feel like that paid off for us with some outstanding performances by both of our teams," said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. "It's not often you see that many personal bests set in your first meet. We also saw great improvement by many of our athletes in their performance from this time last year.
"That's a result of their preparation for this season and how hard they've trained to get to this point. It has to be rewarding for those athletes to see their hard work pay off this early in the season."
With their performance, the Lady Tigers made a clean sweep of sprint championships at the Crimson Tide Indoor Opener with victories in the 60-meter dash, 200-meter dash and 400-meter dash.
Senior Semoy Hackett became the first Lady Tiger on the afternoon to take her place atop the medal stand with her victory in the 60-meter dash as she crossed the finish line in 7.36 seconds in her first competition of the 2012 campaign. Junior Kimberlyn Duncan (7.46) followed in fourth place in the 60-meter final.
Senior Rebecca Alexander and junior Caleb Williams were also impressive in their season-opening sweep of 400-meter dash titles while adding to LSU's hardware haul at the Crimson Tide Indoor Opener.
While running out of Lane 4 in the last of six heats of the women's 400 meters, Alexander fired out of the blocks and quickly made up the stagger on her competitors to the outside while taking a commanding lead at the break. She then held her advantage through the 300-meter mark and powered through the finish line in 54.12 to outlast Ole Miss' Kristin Bridges (54.54) and Mississippi State's Jodi-Ann Muir (54.74) in the race for the title. That effort also eclipsed her season-opening time of 54.79 a year ago.
Williams followed with an impressive victory of his own in the men's 400-meter dash as he kicked off the 2012 season with a time of 47.38 to edge Mississippi State All-American Tavaris Tate (47.43) for the win at the finish line. With the duo battling stride-for-stride racing down the homestretch, Williams gained the advantage on the outside and beat a diving Tate to the tape for the victory.
Following Alexander's victory in the 400 meters, fellow senior Cassandra Tate took the 200-meter crown with her season-opening run of 23.71 to finish well ahead of Auburn's Nivea Smith (23.90). Tate is ahead of her pace a year ago when she opened the 2011 season with a time of 23.80 in her first 200 meters.
While the Lady Tigers dominated the sprints at the inaugural Crimson Tide Indoor Opener, they were also impressive in the distance events with wins by juniors Laura Carleton and Charlene Lipsey.
Carleton slashed 46 seconds off her previous indoor personal record in the 3,000 meters and put her name in the record books with a winning time of 9 minutes, 37.80 seconds that stands as the No. 2-ranked effort in the history of the Lady Tigers program. Only former Lady Tiger distance runner Lisa Reed has clocked a faster 3,000 meters in program history with her school-record run of 9:19.11 set back in 1987.
Lipsey was impressive in running away from the pack on the bell lap to claim the mile championship with a three-second personal best of 4:52.37 that stands as the No. 7-ranked performance in school history. She separated herself from Auburn's Alissa Fisher (4:55.04) down the stretch to shatter her previous best time of 4:55.81 that she set as a high school senior during the 2009 indoor season.
Senior Marcus McGehee captured the team's lone win in the field events with his victory in the pole vault as he cleared a season-opening height of 16 feet, 6 ¾ inches on Saturday afternoon.
Lady Tiger sophomore Denise Hinton kicked off the meet with a personal-best performance in the weight throw competition after uncorking a throw of 58-7 ½ on her first attempt for the preliminary round to take down her previous PR of 55-4 ¾ by more than three feet. Hinton set her previous best in her college debut as a true freshman at the Purple Tiger Invitational in the team's season opener a year ago.
Hinton's mark held up for a fifth-place finish in the 20-pound weight throw as she also moved herself into the No. 6 spot on LSU's all-time indoor performance list in the event.
But the Lady Tigers were not finished in the throws as touted freshman Tori Bliss enjoyed a personal-best performance of her own with a third-place finish in the shot put while posting a series-best mark of 49-2 ½ on her first attempt of the afternoon. Like Hinton, Bliss catapulted herself into the No. 6 position on the program's all-time indoor performance list in her event.
Also earning her spot in the school record books with her performance Saturday afternoon was junior pole vaulter Lacey Sanchez, who matched her indoor personal best with the No. 3-ranked performance indoors in program history at 12-1 ½ en route to a fifth-place finish in the women's competition.
Other Lady Tigers setting indoor PRs on Saturday afternoon were junior Dakota Goodman at 10:19.74 for 3,000 meters and sophomore Lynnika Pitts with a mark of 5-8 ¾ in the high jump.
Two Tigers who also enjoyed personal-best performances during the meet were senior Earnest Green with a mark of 24-1 ½ in the long jump and sophomore Roger Cooke with a time of 8:59.26 in the 3k.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers return to action next weekend as they make the trip to College Station, Texas, to battle future SEC rival Texas A&M in the second-annual LSU vs. Texas A&M Dual Meet to be held at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium on Jan. 21. LSU will seek revenge as Texas A&M swept the men's and women's meet titles in their inaugural dual meet held a season ago.