FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The LSU men’s track and field team needed a miracle heading into the final event of the NCAA Indoor Championships and got it, as the Tigers won their first ever national indoor title in dramatic and unprobable fashion Saturday night.
Trailing TCU by nine points entering the 4×400-meter relay, the Tigers needed to win the event and hope that TCU’s relay squad, which entered the meet ranked second in the nation, failed to score.
At the first exchange, the opening leg of the TCU relay ran into the back of another runner, dropping them out of contention and the Tigers got a 44.98 anchor split from Alleyne Francique to move from second to first and win the event and ultimately the team title.
The group of Francique, Robert Parham, Lueroy Colquhoun and Pedro Tunon broke the LSU record in the event by nearly two seconds, running a time of 3:04.44 to win the event.
When the point totals were added up, LSU finished with 34 to TCU’s 33. The Tigers dethroned four-time defending champion Arkansas, who finished third with 32 points, while Alabama finished fourth with 31 in a tightly contested affair.
“This is just unbelievable,” said a teary-eyed LSU head coach Pat Henry. “I can’t put into words what we’re feeling right now. We just wanted to win the event and destiny dealt us an unbelievable hand. I’m proud of how we competed this weekend. The emotion that our guys showed on that relay showed how much they wanted this.”
The Tigers had never finished higher than fourth at the NCAA Indoor Championships and added the fourth title in men’s history. The Tigers have won the NCAA Outdoor title on three occasions, most recently in 1990.
For Pat Henry, it was his 21st national title, the second highest in NCAA history.
The Lady Tigers finished 14th in the women’s competition with 14 points. UCLA defended its crown and upset the heavily favored South Carolina squad.
The victory by the Tigers in the mile relay was their second national championship performance of the day as Walter Davis got the Tigers kick started with a victory in the triple to start the day off.
Much like Friday’s performance when Davis moved from ninth to second in the long jump final, he entered his final attempt in fourth place before blasting out his winning mark of 55-5.
Teammate Marcus Thomas returned to form after fouling on all three attempts in the long jump on Friday with an eighth place finishing, coming up with a jump of 52-4. For Thomas it was the seventh All-American honor of his career, leaving him one shy of matching the LSU record of eight.
Francique finished fourth in the men’s 400-meter dash, running a time of 46.31. Francique was poised to pass eventual champion Ricky Harris of Florida and runner-up Andrew Pierce of Ohio State, but got tied up with Harris, pushing him to the outside of the pack on the final turn, an obstacle he could not overcome.
On the women’s side, Ronetta Smith earned the first All-American honor of her LSU career, finishing fourth In the 400-meter dash in a time of 53.04, the third fastest quarter in LSU history.
Smith then helped the Lady Tigers close out the competition with a sixth place finish in the mile relay, as she joined with Stephanie Durst, Xyllena Lynch and Myra Combs to run a time of 3:36.41, their fastest time of the season.
The only other Lady Tiger to compete on Saturday was Bianca Rockett who finished 13th in the triple jump with a mark of 41-6 1/2.
LSU wastes no time jumping into the outdoor season, as both the men’s and women’s teams will be in action next weekend, as Ole Miss and Florida come to Bernie Moore Track Stadium Saturday afternoon for the SEC Triangular.
Both the LSU men’s and women’s track and field teams return to Baton Rouge Airport at 2:20 p.m. on Sunday morning.