BATON ROUGE — Senior standout Shaunette Davidson and freshman Eric Radecker kicked off the LSU Combined Events on Thursday by finishing the first day of competition in second place in their respective specialty events at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium.
Davidson is just eight points behind heptathlon leader Shevell Quinley of Arizona as she scored a total of 3,310 points on the day, while Radecker tallied 3,315 points in the men’s decathlon to sit in second place behind Arizona’s defending NCAA champion Jake Arnold.
Davidson took top honors in the high jump with a season best clearance of 5 feet, 9.25 inches, while also taking second place in both the 100-meter hurdles with an impressive time of 14.36 seconds and the 200-meter dash after crossing the finish line with a time of 25.22.
The native of Manchester, Jamaica, who is the reigning SEC champion in the women’s indoor pentathlon after scoring a total of 3,896 points at the conference meet, also posted a new overall personal best mark in the shot put competition on Thursday with a throw of 35 feet, 8 inches to take fourth place in the event.
“I’m excited for Shaunette because it’s great to see her having fun and she’s going to really help our team once we get into the championship season,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “We really do need her to not only make it to the NCAA outdoor meet, but she is somebody who could really end up scoring some points for us once she’s there competing.”
Radecker was equally impressive in his collegiate debut in the men’s decathlon competition as he finished runner-up in the long jump with a leap of 21-6, while also taking fourth place in both the 100-meter dash (11.60) and high jump (6-1 ?) along with fifth-place finishes in the shot put (35-5 ?) and 400 meters (53.49).
Arnold, who is the defending NCAA champion in the decathlon after scoring 7,870 points at the NCAA Outdoor Championships a season ago, leads the event by an impressive total of 710 points over Radecker as won all five event titles en route to a Day 1 total of 4,025 points.
“It’s just an experience factor for Eric and just getting through one competition and performing well,” Shaver said. “He’s doing a great job right now, and I look forward to him having another good day tomorrow. It’s also an amazing thing that the NCAA decathlon champion from Arizona has come to LSU to do a decathlon. We’re certainly honored to have him here competing.”
Junior Gavin Fleming took fourth in the long jump (21-0), fifth in the 100 (11.64), sixth in the 400 (54.85) and eighth in the shot (33-6 ?), but finished the first day of the decathlon competition in sixth place overall with 2,502 points as he was unable to record a height in the high jump.
“We’re half though with the men and a little bit more than half through with the women,” Shaver said. “Tomorrow will be the telling tale to see if they can come back and have some good events. The weather looks like it’s going to be nice, so it should be a pretty exciting competition.”
The decathlon continues Friday at 3 p.m. with the running of the 110-meter hurdles followed by the afternoon’s first event in the heptathlon with the discus throw at 3:45 p.m. The Tigers and Lady Tigers will also play host to the LSU Tiger Classic on Saturday beginning at 10 a.m. at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium.