BATON ROUGE — LSU head track and field coach Dennis Shaver announced the signing of three athletes to national letters of intent on Tuesday. Junior college standout Juanita Broaddus as well as high school stars Tiaerra McLaurin and Carliesa Meakes will run for the Lady Tigers’ national championships squad beginning in the 2006 season.
“I’m excited about having the veteran experience that comes with signing Juanita out of junior college,” said Shaver. “Adding two young athletes in Tiaerra and Carliesa will give us a good solid nucleus to build on in years to come.”
Broaddus, a native of Philadelphia, Penn., comes to LSU from Barton Community College were she has enjoyed tremendous success both at the national level and on the international scene. A member of the United States’ gold medal winning 4×100-meter relay team at the 2004 World Junior Championships, Broaddus also won the NJCAA outdoor title in the 200 meters and earned runner-up honors in the 100 meters in her first season at Barton.
“Juanita has exceptional range as she is capable of running anything from the 60 to the 400 meters,” said Shaver. “We haven’t had someone in the program with the mental and physical ability she possesses in quite some time and that will help fill a huge void for us.”
Broaddus, who owns PRs of 7.30 in the 60 meters, 11.40 in the 100 meters and 23.40 in the 200 meters, has also enjoyed success indoors, finishing second in both the 60- and 200-meter dashes at last year’s NJCAA Indoor Championships.
McLaurin comes to Baton Rouge from Rock Hill, South Carolina. The Northwestern High School product won the 2004 state championship in the 100-meter dash and helped her team to the state title in the 4×400-meter relay as well as a second-place finish in the 4×100 relay. She has personal bests of 11.57 in the 100 meters and 24.12 in the 200 meters.
“We are very fortunate to get an athlete like Tiaerra,” said Shaver. “She fits well into the 100-200 meter mold and we feel has a tremendous potential for growth and promising future ahead of her. She is also an exceptional performer in the classroom and really epitomizes what we strive to bring to this campus in the form of a true student-athlete.”
Meakes, a native of Greenbelt, Md., and Eleanor Roosevelt High School, was a member of the 4×400-meter relay team that won the Maryland state title in 2004 en route to establishing a new state record in the event.
“We believe Carliesa is an untapped talent,” said Shaver. “She’s really only ran one season competitively at the high school level, but has made significant improvements in that time. We were impressed with her excitement in wanting to be a part of this program and think with some more time and the right conditioning that she has the potential to be extremely successful.”
LSU begins the 2005 season Jan. 15 when it hosts the Purple Tiger Invitational at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse.