BATON ROUGE- The LSU track and field team resolved a number of question marks for the 2001 season Thursday afternoon by signing seven top prospects, including four from Louisiana, LSU head coach Pat henry announced.
Three women and four men comprise one of Henry’s finest early signing classes in years.
“This is a really good group to bring in during the early signing period,” said Henry. “We have a number of areas that we will still try to fill, we’re not done, but we definitely fill some holes with this class that will be joining us next Fall.”
Both the men’s and women’s teams dipped into the junior college talent pool, landing a pair of quarter milers from Essex County Community College (N.J.) that were among the most sought after prospects in the nation.
Ronetta Smith will hope to add to the Lady Tigers’ great tradition of quarter milers. Smith was the 1999 Junior College national champion in the 400-meter dash while at Essex and possesses range from 200 meters to 800 meters.
Also joining LSU from Essex will be Alleyne Francique who was the men’s Junior College runner-up in the 400-meter dash in 1999.
Essex County Community College has produced numerous All-Americans for LSU in the past such as Celena Clarke, Selena Lewis and Joyce Bates. Bates was the 1999 NCAA 60-meter hurdles champion.
Duriel Laird of Bossier City, Daniel Trosclair of Gray, Neely Falgout of Delcambre and Maria Romero of Abbeville all chose to stay instate and attend LSU in the Fall.
Laird was the 1999 4-A state champion in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, while also anchoring a state champion 4×100-meter relay team, helping Bossier High School to the team title. He was the state 55-meter champion indoors as well.
This past summer Laird was on the American squad at the first-ever IAAF World Youth Championships in Bydgoscz, Poland.
Trosclair comes to the Tigers with the versatility of another former Louisiana standout who chose to attend LSU, All-American pole vaulter Russ Buller. Trosclair was the state champion indoors and outdoors in the pole vault with a personal best effort of 16 feet 2 inches. He also possesses 100/200 meter range and competes in both for H.L. Bourgeois High School.
The Lady Tigers improve their strength in the throws with the addition of Falgout and Romero, two of the best javelin throwers Louisiana has produced in some time.
Falgout is a three-time 1-A state champion in the javelin heading into her senior season and owns the state record for her classification. She was the 1998-99 Vermillion Parish Female Athlete of the Year and was selected as the 1999 Wendy’s Heisman Award winner for the state of Louisiana.
Falgout is one of six females across the nation who will go to the Downtown Athletic Club in New York on December 10 for the National Wendy’s Heisman Award ceremonies, which will be presented in conjuction with the Heisman Trophy Award in college football.
Romero won the 1997 4-A state title in the javelin, then the 1999 3-A state title for Abbeville High School. Romero was a member of the 1999 LSWA All-State track and field team.
“It’s very important for us to go out and get the best talent Louisiana has to offer,” said Henry. “We’re glad anytime we can get such high quality signees and not have to leave our own state.”
Finishing out the Tigers’ signing class is Texas sprint standout Robert Parham who comes to LSU from Randolph Field High School in San Antonio.
With range from 100 to 400 meters, Parham will bolster a Tiger sprint corps that will lose All-American quarter miler and fellow Texan Derrick Brew after the 2000 season. Parham has personal bests of 10.4 in the 100-meter dash, 21.4 in the 200 and 47.4 in the 400.
All of Thursday’s signees will join LSU in the Fall of 2000, although Henry indicated he might possibly have signees on the way that could join LSU at midterm in time for the 2000 season.