STARKVILLE, Miss. — Walter Davis won his second straight conference long jump title to lead LSU on day three of the SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships at W.O. Spencer Stadium on Saturday.
With Davis’ 10 points, combined with several other strong finishes, the Tigers sit in fifth place while the Lady Tigers are in seventh in the women’s competition. After advancing well for the second straight day, both teams have a majority of their scoring opportunities in place for Sunday.
Arkansas leads the women’s competition while sharing the lead with Tennessee in the men’s race.
“There’s not a whole lot more we could have done tonight,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “We got some quality finishes on both sides, particularly with Walter Davis winning the long jump again. We got some other really good finishes in the field from some of our young athletes like Matt Vincent in the shot put. I think we were able to get a lot done on the track as well in terms of advancing people for tomorrow, so I think it was a great day overall.”
Walter Davis is living proof that one jump is all it takes. The Olympian fouled on five of six attempts, but his one fair attempt was good enough for his second consecutive SEC Outdoor long jump title.
Davis struggled with his approach all afternoon, but on his third attempt he came up with a winning mark of 26 feet 5 3/4 inches to claim the sixth SEC title of his career.
“I struggled with my runway all day, I just couldn’t get my timing squared away,” said Davis. “I got a jump in on my third attempt and it was able to hold up. On my third attempt I wanted to get a fair jump just to get in the final but it was able to stand up.”
Davis will take aim at his second straight SEC triple jump title tomorrow, becoming only the second man in conference history to sweep the horizontal jumps in consecutive years.
Freshman Matt Vincent gave the Tigers a big boost in the shot put, finishing third with a throw of 55-11 3/4. Teammate Claston Bernard just missed giving the Tigers two scorers in the event, as the decathlete placed ninth with a throw of 49-6.
The Lady Tigers picked up a pair of top five finishes in the field, as Amanda Roussel placed fourth in the high jump, while Andria Booker finished fifth in the long jump.
Roussel came up with a mark of 5-7 to give the Lady Tigers five points in the high jump, while Booker came up with an NCAA provisional mark of 20-5 3/4 in the long jump as big marks soared across the board.
Teammate Nicole Toney came up with a strong mark of 20-2 1/4 but could only finish ninth and out of scoring position in a heavily contested event. Elva Goulbourne of Auburn won with an impressive mark of 22-4 1/2.
The Lady Tigers advanced extremely well in preliminary action on Saturday, placing four women in the 100-meter hurdle finals, while performing well in the sprints overall.
Lolo Jones came up with the fastest qualifying time of the day in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, clocking a time of 13.25, while Zamyal Jackson, Ranysha LeBlanc and Tiffany Robinson all advanced as well.
Ronetta Smith looked very strong in the women’s 400-meter dash and came up with the third fastest time of the day heading into Sunday’s final. Smith pounded out a very fast preliminary time of 52.59 to set up a potentially very fast time in the final, as she will battle South Carolina’s stable of quarter-milers.
Muna Lee continued her march towards defending both her sprint titles. A day after qualifying for the 200-meter title, Lee came up with a huge statement in the 100-meter dash, posting a time of 11.21, easily the fastest qualifying time of the day.
Lee will attempt to become only the third woman in SEC history to sweep the short sprints in consecutive years on Sunday. In her way, however, will be teammate Stephanie Durst who posted the fastest overall qualifying time in the 200-meter dash on Friday and advanced to the 100-meter final on Saturday night by winning her heat in a time of 11.46, the fourth fastest overall time.
On the men’s side, Pete Coley advanced in the 400-meter dash with an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 45.28, the third fastest time in LSU history.
Coley finished second in his heat, as Ricky Harris of Florida uncorked an NCAA-leading time of 44.84 to set the pace.
In addition to those athletes who have already advanced to finals, both relays will be in action on the track tomorrow. In the field, Davis will try to make it a clean sweep of the horizontal jumps for the second straight year, while Nicole Toney headlines the Lady Tigers’ quartet of potential scorers in the event.