BATON ROUGE — LSU head track and field coach Dennis Shaver has been named the South Central district’s Co-Women’s Coach of the Year for the 2007 outdoor season as announced by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association on Monday.
Shaver guided the second-ranked Lady Tigers to their first SEC Outdoor title in 11 years at the conference meet three weeks ago, while also leading the squad to back-to-back NCAA Mideast Regional championships with a dominating win a week ago.
Shaver is accompanying a total of 19 Lady Tigers and two relay teams to Sacramento for this week’s NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which is the largest contingent of any team in the field. The squad is looking to win its first outdoor national title since 2003.
LSU features entrants in seven events who rank among the top-eight performers nationally. Among those are sophomore hurdles standout Nickiesha Wilson, who is the top-ranked 400-meter hurdler with a national leading time of 55.20 seconds, as well as the nation’s top-ranked 4×100-meter relay team that boasts a seasonal best time of 43.26.
The USTFCCCA has honored the top men’s and women’s head coaches in each of the nine districts in Division I outdoor track and field for the 2007 season. The organization will release this year’s region coaches and athletes of the year for each of the nation’s four regions Tuesday.