BATON ROUGE — Senior sprinter Kelly Willie was named the SEC Men’s Track Athlete of the Week it was announced Thursday by the conference office. The league honors marks the first for Willie and the fifth for an LSU athletes this season.
Willie, a native of Houston, Texas, was recognized following a sensational outing at last weekend’s LSU Tiger Relays. The 16-time All-American won the 100-meter dash with a personal best and NCAA Regional qualifying time of 10.25 seconds. The time, the fastest run by a LSU athlete in the event since 1996, ties as the sixth fastest in Tiger school history and leads the nation this year.
In addition, Willie helped the Tigers to a pair of meet titles and regional qualifying times in both the 4×100 and 4×400-meter relays, running the anchor leg on the short relay team that clocked 39.72 and the lead leg on the long relay that finished with an NCAA-leading time of 3:05.03.
The Tigers return to action this weekend when they host the LSU Invitational on Saturday at Bernie Moore Track Stadium. Competition will begin at 10 a.m. with the field events, running events will follow at 2 p.m.