BATON ROUGE — LSU’s relay teams are one of the feature attractions in the sport of collegiate track and field year in and year out, and for the first time in program history, the Tigers and Lady Tigers have swept the annual team relay titles awarded by Track & Field News.
LSU captured the men’s and women’s titles in Track & Field News’s 52nd-annual National Relay Rankings released in the publication’s November/December issue on newsstands now.
The Lady Tigers won their 10th Track & Field News relay title all-time and third in a row, while the Tigers captured their first team title in program history. It marks the first time that one school has claimed both the men’s and women’s titles since Florida accomplished the feat back in 2001.
The LSU women scored a nine-point victory over Baylor while racking up a total of 52 points in the standings, while the men outdistanced the Texas Longhorns by six points after scoring a total of 37 points. Teams could score points in eight different relay events, including the 4×100, 4×200, 4×400, 4×800, 4xMile, sprint medley, distance medley and shuttle hurdle relays.
Points were awarded in descending order with teams receiving 10 points for finishing No. 1 in the final rankings of an event and one point for finishing No. 10 overall. Rankings for both the 4×100 and 4×400 relays were determined by a team’s place at the 2008 NCAA Outdoor Championships, while the six other relay events were scored based on a team’s top time during the 2008 season.
The Lady Tigers ran away with the women’s title after scoring a national leading three event wins in the 4×800, sprint medley and shuttle hurdle relays. They also earned runner-up honors in three different events, including the 4×100, 4×200 and 4×400 relays.
The Tigers captured one relay title with a win in the 4×100 relay, while they also added runner-up honors in both the 4×800 and sprint medley relays. They reached their final point total by earning a sixth-place finish in the distance medley relay and a seventh-place finish in the 4×400 relay.
LSU’s relay teams have flourished under the direction of head coach Dennis Shaver, and the 2008 season proved to be no different as LSU won two national titles at the NCAA Championships.
The Lady Tigers continued their dominance in the 4×400-meter relay by winning the event at the NCAA Indoor Championships for the second-straight season, clocking an NCAA-leading time of 3 minutes, 31.14 seconds in the national final. It marked the sixth time that the LSU women were crowned champions of the event at NCAA Indoors, while they have also won six outdoor titles.
The Tigers won a national title of their own at the NCAA Outdoor Championships by capturing the team’s seventh crown all-time in the 4×100-meter relay. The team of Armanti Hayes, Richard Thompson, Gabriel Mvumvure and Trindon Holliday combined to run the sixth-fastest time in the history of collegiate track and field and third-fastest time in school history at 38.42 seconds.
LSU also made history at the 114th Penn Relays in April when it set a meet record by taking home a combined six Championship of America relay titles between the men’s and women’s teams.
The Lady Tigers won the 4×100, 4×800 and sprint medley relays before setting the new collegiate record of 52.77 to take top honors in the shuttle hurdle relay. The Tigers added wins in the 4×100 and sprint medley relays to give LSU six relay wins for the meet. LSU’s six titles at the Penn Relays is a meet record for a combined program, eclipsing the five relay wins by Villanova in the 1968, 1968, 1970 and 1978 seasons, and matched by LSU in 2007.
T&FN Men’s National Relay Rankings
1. LSU, 37
2. Texas, 31
3. Florida, 25
4. Baylor, 24
5. Mississippi State, 23
T6. Tennessee, 22
T6. Texas A&M, 22
8. Florida State, 15
9. Georgetown, 13
10. Villanova, 12
T&FN Women’s National Relay Rankings
1. LSU, 52
2. Baylor, 43
3. Tennessee, 39
T4. Michigan, 29
T4. Texas A&M, 29
6. South Carolina, 16
T7. Georgetown, 15
T7. Minnesota, 15
T9. Penn State, 13
T9. UTEP, 13