EUGENE, Ore. — LSU All-American Walter Davis won the men’s triple jump title, while Muna Lee paced the Lady Tigers with a pair of top five finishes as the NCAA Outdoor Championships concluded at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
The Tigers finished fifth for the second straight year, while the Lady Tigers finished sixth.
“We had a good weekend overall,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “With one or two exceptions, we did pretty much what we expected to. There is very little margin for error at this meet. One mistake can take you out of the pack.
“Walter wrapped up a great weekend by winning the triple jump and for Muna to do what she did as a freshman, that’s as good as we’ve had a freshman do here.”
The Tigers finished with 32 Points, Tennessee won its first men’s NCAA team title in 10 years with 50 points, edging TCU by a single point as the Horned Frogs suffered another one-point heartbreak.
The Lady Tigers finished with 30 points in the women’s competition while Southern California won its first team title on the women’s side with 62 points.
Davis became the second Tiger in three years to win the triple jump, edging Chris Hercules of Texas despite suffering the effects of a sore hamstring.
Davis took the lead through the prelims with a jump of 53 feet 7 inches. Hercules then passed Davis on his fifth attempt, jumping 54-2 3/4. Davis responded moments later with his eventual winning mark of 54-4. Davis passed on his fourth and sixth attempts due to tightness in his left hamstring, his jumping leg.
“Once I got to the finals with the lead I was only going to jump if someone passed me, my hamstring was very tight,” said Davis. “Hercules passed me up and put the pressure on me to come up with something big. I knew when I saw that it was a fair jump that it moved me into the lead.”
A day after anchoring the Lady Tigers to a victory in the 4×100-meter relay on Friday, Muna Lee added a pair of top five finishes in individual competition.
Lee finished fourth in the 100-meter dash in a time of 11.22, then added a second place finish in the 200-meter dash in a time of 23.05. The second place finish by Lee was the highest ever by an LSU freshman in the 200 meter dash.
Teammate Myra Combs finished seventh in a time of 23.52, earning the first individual All-American honor for her outdoors.
The Tigers closed out the competition in slightly surprising fashion, as their No. 1-Ranked 4×400-meter relay finished third in a time of 3:04.37.
Robert Parham opened with a 46.0 opening leg, while Lueroy Colquhoun and Pete Coley put the Tigers in fourth heading into the anchor leg. Alleyne Francique ran a blazing 44.2 split to pull the Tigers with the leaders. The deficit he inherited, however, was simply too large as the Tigers finished behind Baylor and Auburn.
Francique started his day with a second place finish in the 400-meter dash, clocking a time of 45.36. Avard Moncur of Auburn defended his title with a winning time of 44.84. Moncur took the race out quickly, taking the lead before the stagger distance and widening it down the stretch.
Francique improved upon his fourth place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships and became the second Tiger in the last three years to finish as the NCAA runner-up, joining Derrick Brew who finished second in 1999.
Ronetta Smith scraped her way to a seventh place finish in the women’s 400-meter final in a time of 53.91.
It looked as if the Lady Tigers had wrapped up fifth place in the team competition with a fifth place finish in the 4×400-meter relay. A disqualification dropped the Lady Tigers back to sixth.