LEXINGTON, Ky. — LSU’s Walter Davis continued his assault on the LSU record books, adding the school record in the long jump to his resume` Saturday afternoon, highlighting a strong opening day for LSU at the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Nutter Field House in Lexington, Ky.
With Davis’ victory, the Tigers find themselves in third place in the men’s competition while the Lady Tigers sit in eighth after a day. Both teams, however, have more scoring opportunities tomorrow and advanced extremely well on Saturday.
“We had an outstanding day today with very few exceptions,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “Walter broke one of the older marks in school history which is a tremendous accomplishment. We got some great performances in many other areas two. We advanced extremely well in the sprints today and set the stage for tomorrow.”
Davis wasted little time making his mark, hitting his winning mark of 26 feet 8 inches on his first attempt. His jump broke the 11-year-old record of 27-7 by Llewellyn Starks.
The Tigers also got a fifth place finish from defending champion Marcus Thomas in the long jump with a mark of 24-8 , while Javier Nieto gave LSU quality points in the throws with a third place finish in the weight throw with a mark of 61-6 . The Tigers finished with 20 points on the first day of competition.
The women’s points came from a fourth place finish in the long jump by Myra Combs, who came up with a jump of 20-3, while Susanne Strunz gave the Lady Tigers four critical points in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 9 minutes 56.18 seconds.
The Tigers advanced two athletes to the 60 and 400-meter dash finals and also have the 4×400-meter relay tomorrow, while the Lady Tigers advanced two in the 60, two in the 200, two in the 400 and two in the 60-meter hurdles.
Despite running for only the third time in an LSU uniform, Devery Henderson won his heat of the 60-meter dash and advanced with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 6.72, just .01 off of Chris Cummings’ school record in the event. Henderson will be joined by Gerald Green in the final, who grabbed the final qualifying spot in the final with a personal best time of 6.78.
The Tigers put three athletes in tomorrow’s 400-meter dash final, as Alleyne Francique, Lueroy Colqhoun and Pedro Tunon all came up with season best times. Francique posted the third fastest qualifying time with a time of 46.61, while Colquhoun was a spot back at 46.91. Tunon posted the eighth fastest qualifying mark with a time of 47.25.
In the women’s sprints, Muna Lee once again proved to be a force. Lee qualified for the 60-meter dash in an NCAA automatic time of 7.30 and then shattered former Lady Tiger great D’Andre Hill’s Nutter Field House record in the 200-meter prelims, posting the fastest qualifying time, a blazing 23.04.
Lee will be joined in the 60-meter final by Sa’Donna Thornton, who won her heat with a time of 7.40, and in the 200-meter dash final by Stephanie Durst, who clocked a season best time of 24.00.
Ronetta Smith recorded the second fastest qualifying time of the day in the 400-meter dash, picking up an indoor personal best time of 53.28, just off the NCAA automatic standard. Combs competed in the quarter as well and advanced with an indoor personal best of 54.09, also a provisional qualifying mark.
The Lady Tigers posted the third and fourth fastest times in the 60-meter hurdles, as Lolo Jones won her heat with a time of 8.38 while Zamyal Jackson advanced to the finals as well with a time of 8.47.
LSU had a number of solid performances on Saturday that just missed qualifying for the finals. Brent Martin ran a huge personal best time of 1:51.69 in the 800-meter run and just missed making the final. Greg Scott missed out on a spot in the 60-meter hurdles final on a tiebreaker broken down to the thousandth of a second, while April Sams finished one spot out of the women’s hurdles final.
The SEC Indoor Championships continue tomorrow afternoon with all sprint finals, as well as finals in numerous field events, including the men’s triple jump where Davis will go for the sweep of the jumps.
Day One Team Scoring
Men
1, Georgia, 31. 2, Arkansas, 29. 3, LSU, 20. 4 (tie), Florida, Ole Miss, 17. 6, Alabama, 16. 7, Tennessee, 9. 8, South Carolina, 7. 9, Kentucky, 5. 10, Auburn, 4. 1, Mississippi State, 1.
Women
1, Arkansas, 36. 2, Georgia, South Carolina, 18. 4, Florida, 17. 5 (tie), Auburn, Mississippi State, 10. 7, Kentucky, 9 . 8, LSU, 9. 9, Ole Miss, 8. 10 (tie), Tennessee, Alabama, 5.