BATON ROUGE — Junior All-American Reggie Dardar was named the SEC Men’s Track Athlete of the Week on Tuesday after clocking the second-fastest 400-meter time in the world this season in the New Balance Collegiate Invitational this past weekend.
Dardar, who had not competed in the quarter mile prior to this weekend’s meet at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York, shattered his previous best indoor time by more than a second with a second-place effort of 46.24 to qualify provisionally for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
The Cecilia, La., native moved into the sixth spot on the school’s all-time indoor performance list after finishing just a split-second behind All-American Ricardo Chambers of Florida State, who nipped Dardar at the tape with the No. 1 time in the world this season at 46.23 to claim the event championship.
Dardar’s personal best time ranks No. 2 on the national descending order list and is the top time recorded by an SEC athlete during the 2007 campaign. In addition, he has entered the latest Trackwire Dandy Dozen released Tuesday as he is currently the nation’s ninth-ranked performer in the 400 meters.
Dardar also anchored LSU’s second-ranked 4×400-meter relay team to a first-place finish at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational over the third-ranked squad from South Carolina with a 46.70 split on the last leg. He teamed with seniors Siraj Williams, Melville Rogers and Marvin Stevenson to clock an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 3:07.54 in the victory.