BATON ROUGE — Tiger senior Darion Powell earned all-conference honors and automatically qualified to the NCAA meet after posting a personal-best 7,640 points in the decathlon Friday evening at the SEC Outdoor Championships.
Beginning the day with 3,831 points, Powell won three of the final five events en route to runner-up honors.
“I felt really good today,” said Powell. “The goal was to put up an NCAA qualifier and get through the events. I knew if I did that it (qualifying) would take care of itself.”
With his 7,640 points Powell easily surpassed the NCAA automatic qualifying standard of 7,500 points. The total, the seventh best in school history, also ranks as the sixth best in the country this season.
“To go to the SECs and PR is always good,” said LSU assistant and multi-event coach Boo Schexnayder. “It was a very positive performance. I think Darion feels good about it and the fact that he probably left 100 to 150 points out there where he knows he can still improve.”
Powell began the day on the right note, winning the first two events, the 110-meter hurdles (14.62) and the discus (147-10). He then added a season best in the pole vault (15-5) and a personal best and first-place finish in the javelin (199-7), before closing out the competition with a 4:57.27 showing in the 1,500 meters.
Also picking up all-conference honors for the Tigers was thrower Rabun Fox.
The sophomore from Houma, La., jumped up three spots to second in the final standings after launching the hammer a personal-best 198-11 on his sixth and final throw of the afternoon.
“It was a clutch throw,” said LSU throws coach John Woosley. “I think it showed a lot of composure and maturity on his part.”
The mark bettered his previous best by over eight feet and moved him up to fifth on LSU’s all-time performance list in the event.
“We knew it was coming,” said Woosley. “Rabun is a very talented and gifted young man, but he is still young as a thrower. He’s had some big throws this year, but they just hadn’t landed in the meet. Today it did.”
In other final action, senior Megan Akre ended up sixth in the women’s heptathlon with 4,856 points. Her second-day effort was highlighted by a first-place showing in the 800 meters (2:20.16) where she bettered the field by over four full seconds.
Senior Edwin Billot missed out on scoring for the Tigers in the decathlon after dropping out of the competition with a sore back following seven completed events.
On the track, qualifying round competition got underway in the 200 and 800 meters, as well as the 400-meter hurdles.
The Lady Tigers qualified two athletes into Sunday’s 800-meter final as juniors Tanya Osbourne and Meisue Francis each won their prelim heats with times of 2:07.51 and 2:08.36, respectively.
The Tigers advanced one into the men’s half-mile final as sophomore Michael Hendry automatically moved on after finishing second in his heat with a season-best time of 1:51.52.
In the 200 meters, Lady Tigers Kelly Baptiste and Brooklynn Morris each won their qualifying round heats to advance to the final. Baptiste turned in the third fastest time of the day at 23.25, while Morris was just off her pace at 23.32.
On the men’s side, senior Kelly Willie and sophomore Xavier Carter also automatically qualified to the 200-meter final by virtue of winning their prelim heats. Willie, one of just three athletes to run under 21 seconds on the day, finished in 20.97, while Carter crossed the line in 21.23.
In addition, junior Isa Phillips advanced to final-day action in the men’s 400-meter hurdles. He won his prelim heat in 50.91, the second-fastest time of the day.
Action from the SEC Championships and John McDonnell Field continues tomorrow afternoon. Field events will begin at 1 p.m. and running events will follow at 7 p.m.