LEXINGTON, Ky. — The LSU men’s track and field team finished second for the third time in four years, while the Lady Tigers finished fourth for the second straight year, as the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships concluded Sunday afternoon at the Nutter Field House in Lexington, Ky.
The Tigers clinched second place with a victory in the men’s 4×400-meter relay to close out the competition. The Tigers edged Tennessee by a single point for second.
LSU had a tremendous second day of competition and posted four individual victories on the day as well.
Sa’Donna Thornton won the women’s 60-meter title, while Muna Lee gave LSU a sweep of the short sprints, taking the 200-meter title. LSU also swept the triple jumps on Sunday, as Walter Davis won the men’s title while Bianca Rockett won the women’s title.
“We had a great two days of competition,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “On both sides four of the top 10 teams in the nation were on hand so to be in that mix on both sides is great. We competed as well as we could have this weekend on both sides.”
Arkansas swept both team titles for the second consecutive year. Arkansas won the men’s title with 108 Points while LSU finished second with 81 and Tennessee third with 80 In the women’s race, Arkansas finished with 137 points to finish ahead of Florida, South Carolina and LSU who finished with 77.
On the men’s side, three events keyed a late charge to their second place finish, as the Tigers picked up 42 of their 81 total points in the mile relay, 400-meter dash and triple jump.
The Tigers trailed Tennesse by four points entering the 4×400-meter relay.
The group of Robert Parham, Lueroy Colquhoun, Pedro Tunon and Alleyne Francique won the event, however, while Tennessee finished fourth, giving the Tigers the decisive one point advantage in the overall team standings.
Francique ran a tremendous anchor leg to pull the Tigers from a distant second to Florida, to victory in a time of 3:06.73, an NCAA automatic qualifying time. Francique came up with a blazing 44.83 split to help the Tigers to victory in the event for the second straight year.
The Tigers came up with a strong showing the 400-meter dash, finishing 2-3-7, accumulating 16 valuable points. Francique finished second to defending NCAA champion Avard Moncur of Auburn in a thrilling finish, as Moncur posted a time of 45.68 to Francique’s 45.73. The mark is an NCAA automatic qualifier and is .01 off of the LSU school record.
Colquhoun finished third in an NCAA provisional time of 46.56, a season best. Tunon finished seventh in 47.50, giving the Tigers 16 points in the event.
The Tigers matched the 16-point showing in the quarter with a 1-3-6 finish in the triple jump. Davis completed his sweep of the jumps, a day after winning the long jump title, claiming the triple on Sunday despite only taking one jump.
After aggravating his hamstring in his long jump victory on Saturday, Davis came up with a mark of 53-7 3/4 on his first attempt and never took another. Marcus Thomas finished third while Traun Smith finished sixth.
In the distance events, Likhaya Dayile finished fourth in the men’s 5,000-meter run in a time of 14:33.07. The Tigers added to their point total in the distance events with a sixth place finish in the distance medley relay.
Devery Henderson placed sixth in the 60-meter dash final with a time of 6.75, while Gerald Green finished ninth.
On the women’s side, Thornton had waited in the wings for years but on Sunday afternoon, her moment of truth finally arrived. Thornton became the third Lady Tiger to win the 60-meter dash crown in the last six years, stunning the field with an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 7.29 seconds in victory. Lee finished fourth in a time of 7.38.
Thornton edged Teneeshia Jones of Ole Miss for her first career title. The two finished with identical times, but Thornton won the tiebreaker when broken down to the thousandth of a second.
“I’ve waited a long time for this moment and it finally happened,” said Thornton. “I was right there with Teneeshia (Jones) the whole way and I didn’t know if I won until I saw my name up on the board.”
After finishing fourth in the 60-meter final, Lee turned around and won the 200-meter title, LSU’s sixth consecutive in the event. Lee got out of the blocks a little slow, but turned it on around the curve to post a time of 23.11 and soundly defeat defending NCAA indoor champion Miki Barber of South Carolina who ran a time of 23.36.
Elsewhere on the track on Sunday for the Lady Tigers, Myra Combs came up with her best individual finish ever, placing third in the 400-meter dash with a personal best and high NCAA provisional time of 53.56. Ronetta Smith placed sixth and was in the hunt for a top three finish before getting tangled up with eventual runner-up Faith Rein of Florida.
Like Thornton, Rockett knew all about waiting around for her moment as well. A two-time SEC runner-up to perennial champion and former LSU All-American Keisha Spencer, Rockett claimed her first individual SEC title as well on Sunday, winning the triple jump.
Rockett posted fouls on each of her first two attempts, but nailed an indoor personal best and NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 43 feet 3 inches on her third attempt in the prelims in what would be her eventual winning mark. Rockett gave LSU its fifth champion in the event in the last six years joining two-time champion Spencer and two-time champion Suzette Lee.
A pair of LSU freshmen concluded strong weekends in their first ever SEC competition, as Lolo Jones finished third in the 60-meter hurdles in a high provisional qualifying and personal best time of 8.25, while Zamyal Jackson finished fifth in 8.51.
The Lady Tigers capped a strong weekend with a second place showing in the distance medley relay with a time of 11:43.00.
Elsewhere in the field, Claston Bernard finished fourth in the high jump with a jump of 6-9 3/4.
A majority of both LSU teams will rest next weekend while those who are close to the NCAA qualifying standard but have yet to automatically qualify will compete at the LSU Last Ditch on Friday evening at the Carl Maddox Field House.