BATON ROUGE — LSU senior Shaunette Davidson kicked off this weekend’s action by winning the women’s pentathlon crown at the LSU Combined Events on Saturday as she scored an NCAA provisional qualifying total of 3,705 points in her first appearance in the event as a Lady Tiger.
Davidson outlasted runner-up Amy Seward of Miami, Fla., for the title as the Hurricane standout finished 90 points back in second place with a cumulative effort of 3,615 points. Seward entered the competition as the nation’s 11th-ranked pentathlete in the latest Trackwire Dandy Dozen.
Davidson took first place in her specialty event with a clearance of 5-7 in the high jump, while earning runner-up finishes in a trio of events, including the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.71, the shot put with a heave of 33-10 ? and the long jump with a leap of 19-4 ?. She finished sixth in the 800 meters with after crossing the finish line in 2:45.93.
The native of Manchester, Jamaica, said that while she is pleased with her performance in her first pentathlon in nearly two years, there is room for improvement between now and her next opportunity to earn an NCAA automatic qualifying score at the SEC Indoor Championships in Lexington, Ky., from Feb. 23-25.
“I’m pleased with my performance overall since it is my first pentathlon in a couple of years,” Davidson said. “I feel like I did pretty well, but there’s a lot of room for me to improve between now and the SEC meet. I’m going to really work on the hurdles and my speed endurance for the 800 meters. After that, hopefully I can go out and have a good meet.
“I started out pretty well in the 800, but I relaxed too much in the third lap. I tried to pick it up in the last lap but it just wasn’t there for me. Because of the rain and everything we’ve been having, that really hurt my training in the 800 and I couldn’t do as much running as I would have liked. That’s definitely something I can improve for the next time.”
LSU multi-events coach Boo Schexnayder agreed with Davidson’s assessment that she has the ability to post an automatic qualifying score the next time she steps on the track in the event at the SEC Championships. He believes she is ready to accept that challenge.
“I thought Shaunette did a great job tonight, but it was typical of a first pentathlon,” Schexnayder said. “There were some small mistakes here and there that cost her the opportunity to qualify automatically for NCAAs. She left some points out there that she can definitely get the next time she competes in this event, and I know she’s looking forward to that opportunity.”
Junior Gavin Fleming and freshman Eric Radecker are in second and third place, respectively in the men’s heptathlon after a strong showing on the first day of competition. Fleming trails by just 10 points as he totaled 2,713 points on Day 1, while Radecker finished the day with 2,581 points.
Fleming took first place in a pair of events with an indoor personal best leap of 21-11 ? in the high jump followed by a personal best clearance of 6-3 ? in the high jump. He also took third place in both the 60-meter dash with a time of 7.49 and the shot put with a distance of 34-11 ?.
Radecker highlighted his evening by tying Fleming for first place in the high jump with an equal clearance of 6-3 ?, while taking fourth place in both the long jump and shot put with marks of 20-8 ? and 34-0 ?, respectively, and fifth place in the 60 meters with a time of 7.58.
“Gavin had a great day by hitting some PRs today,” Schexnayder said. “He’s done very well and is in a really good position to win tomorrow and put up a PR score. This is the first time Eric has ever done multi-events, and I thought he had the jitters a little bit today. I know he’s chomping at the bit to come out here tomorrow and redeem himself with a good performance.”
The men’s heptathlon continues Friday at 1 p.m. with competition in the 60-meter hurdles, pole vault and 1,000 meters. The LSU Combined Events will be followed immediately by the Bayou Bengal Invitational with the field events beginning at 3 p.m. followed by the meet’s first running events at 6 p.m.