LEXINGTON, Ky. — LSU freshman Rachel Laurent made history during Saturday’s competition at the 2009 SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships by becoming the first ever Lady Tiger to be crowned conference champion in the pole vault with yet another record-setting performance.
Laurent shattered her own school record in the event and became the first LSU vaulter in program history to clear the 14-foot barrier with a new overall personal-best clearance of 14 feet, ? inch.
She improves upon her previous personal best of 14-0 set as a high school senior during the 2008 outdoor season, and her performance ranks No. 3 indoors in the NCAA this season. Her clearance also breaks the indoor school record of 13-9 ? she set at the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 14.
“I think I was more excited about a new PR (personal record) more than anything. It didn’t really hit me that I had won until the competition was over,” Laurent said. “I’m just grateful that I could do my part for the team and try to get us off to a good start. I never expected anything like this in my first conference meet. I’m very happy with how I jumped today.
“I actually had a little bit of a scare during warm-ups because the pole I was using was cracked in shipping and I had to use another one in the competition. I really didn’t even need it because I felt good once I got out there. I’m just really excited to get our team off to a good start.”
Laurent was locked in a tight battle with Arkansas’ Tina Sutej as the only two vaulters remaining in the competition with the bar being raised to a height of 13-10.
Laurent, who was the first to jump, cleared the bar with ease on her first attempt before Sutej was eliminated from the competition following a pair of misses. With the SEC title already in hand, she improved once again on her first attempt with the bar resting at 14-0 ?.
With the win, Laurent scored a total of 10 points for the Lady Tigers in her first appearance at the SEC Championships as LSU finished the day in second place with 32 points.
Junior Katelyn Rodrigue added four points of her own with a fifth-place finish in the pole vault, while the Lady Tigers took fourth and fifth place in both the long jump and weight throw. Junior Kim Williams scored five points with a fourth-place finish in the weight throw followed by four points and a fifth-place finish by freshman Allison Horner. Sophomore Melissa Ogbourne was the fourth-place finisher in the long jump followed by senior Andrea Linton in fifth place.
The Tigers finished the day in ninth place in the team standings as senior Jeremy Hicks scored all six points with his third-place finish in the long jump.
Hicks just missed earning all-conference honors with a top-two finish after posting a jump of 24-11 on his fifth jump of the competition. He has all but secured his spot to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships in two weeks as he boasts an impressive seasonal-best of 25-8 ? to rank No. 4 among all long jumpers in the country entering this weekend’s action.
Junior Samantha Henry was LSU’s top performer on the track during Saturday’s action while she clocked the fastest time in the preliminary rounds of both the 60-meter and 200-meter dashes and moved into the No. 2 spot in the NCAA this season in both events.
Henry scorched the track in the 60-meter prelim with a seasonal-best time of 7.19 seconds to earn her first NCAA automatic qualifying time of the season.
She then wrapped up the day’s events for the Lady Tigers by running the nation’s second-fastest time in the prelims of the 200 meters at 23.30. Her performance is sure to earn an at-large bid for the NCAA Indoor Championships as she opened the SEC meet with a strong NCAA provisional qualifying time of 23.61 set on two occasions this season.
Henry will be joined in the final of the 60-meter dash by sophomore Kenyanna Wilson and junior Kristina Davis who qualified fourth and ninth, respectively, during Saturday’s prelims. Wilson set a new personal best with an improved NCAA provisional qualifying time of 7.28 to move into the Top 10 performers in the NCAA this season. Davis equaled her personal best in the event with an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 7.44.
Like Henry, Wilson also qualified for the final of the 200 meters after setting a new indoor PR of 23.93. Freshman Cassandra Tate was the ninth qualifier for the 200-meter final at 24.16.
Sophomore Tenaya Jones, who clocked a then personal best of 8.30 to finish third in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles at the SEC Indoor Championships a year ago, is looking to improve after an impressive performance during Saturday’s prelim. Jones cruised to a new personal best of 8.24 to improve her NCAA provisional qualifying time with the 10th-fastest time in the nation this year.
In addition, three Lady Tigers qualified for the 800-meter final, including junior LaTavia Thomas (2:08.03), sophomore Brittany Hall (2:08.28) and senior Kayann Thompson (2:08.33).
While the Lady Tigers qualified 10 athletes into Sunday’s championship finals, the Tigers had six athletes advance to the final day of competition as junior Trindon Holliday (60 meters), junior Patrick Lee (60 hurdles), junior Armanti Hayes (400 meters), junior Jamaal James (800 meters), sophomore Richard Jones (800 meters) and freshman Robert Simmons (400 meters) are set to line up in the finals of their respective events.
Lee and Jones both enjoyed personal-best performances while improving their NCAA provisional qualifying times entering the weekend. Lee shattered his top time in the 60 hurdles with a time of 7.86, while Jones improved with a new indoor personal best of 1:49.89 in the 800 meters.
“I don’t think we could have done any better than what we showed today, especially the women’s team,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “We probably scored more points than we were supposed to in the events that were finals today, and we had an outstanding day of qualifying and probably got quite a few more into finals tomorrow than we were expected to.
“I also thought we had a few athletes put themselves in a very good position to compete for us at the NCAA meet. Samantha looked great in both prelim races. I was also very impressed with both Kenyanna Wilson and Tenaya Jones for the way they competed today.
“I thought both teams did a good job of competing today, and we’re going to need that same kind of fire tomorrow if we hope to be in a position to compete for a team championship.”
The Tigers and Lady Tigers are ready for an exciting conclusion to the 2009 SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships as the final day of competition is set to get underway Sunday at 10 a.m. CT with the field events followed by the first events on the track at 12:30 p.m.
SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships Results
Saturday at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Lexington, Ky. (All race distances in meters)
Men’s
3,000
1. Dorian Ulrey, Arkansas, 7:55.56; 2. Shawn Forrest, Arkansas, 7:56.45; 3. Tyson David, Alabama, 7:57.07; 4. Jean-Pierre Weerts, Auburn, 7:58.26; 5. Elkanah Kibet, Auburn, 7:59.97; 6. James Strang, Arkansas, 8:01.38; 7. Girma Mecheso, Auburn, 8:04.04; 8. Emmanuel Bor, Alabama, 8:08.47.
High Jump
1. Brenard Wilson, Tennessee, 7-0 ?; 2. Ryan Fleck, Auburn, 7-0 ?; 3. Frankie Hammond, Florida, 6-11; 4. Brian Knight, Ole Miss, 6-11; 5. Tyler Campbell, Alabama, 6-11; 6. Kevin Dickson, Georgia, 6-9; 7. Tyler Boswell, Alabama, 6-9; 8. Alain Bailey, Arkansas, 6-7.
Long Jump
1. Christian Taylor, Florida, 25-3 ?; 2. Alain Bailey, Arkansas, 25-1 ?; 3. Jeremy Hicks, LSU, 24-11; 4. Tarek Batchelor, Arkansas, 24-7 ?; 5. Caleb Lee, Ole Miss, 23-10 ?; 6. Wale Odetunde, Ole Miss, 23-8 ?; 7. Brenard Wilson, Tennessee, 23-8; 8. Michael Nichols, Alabama, 23-6 ?.
Shot Put
1. Nick Panezich, Tennessee, 60-10 ?; 2. Jason Cook, South Carolina, 60-3; 3. Kemal Mesic, Florida, 59-6 ?; 4. Eric Werskey, Auburn, 59-5 ?; 5. Rashaud Scott, Kentucky, 59-5 ?; 6. Beau Burroughs, Florida, 58-11 ?; 7. Chase Madison, Kentucky, 58-8; 8. Israel Machovec, Georgia, 56-11 ?.
Heptathlon
1. Michael Ayers, Tennessee, 5,717; 2. Gray Horn, Florida, 5,586; 3. Scott Pierce, South Carolina, 5,325; 4. Curt McGill, 5,292; 5. Tommy Barrineau, Georgia, 5,278; 6. Cory Harris, Georgia, 5,120; 7. Terry Prentice, Arkansas, 5,023; 8. Jager Livingston, Auburn, 5,004.
TEAM SCORES (5 events scored)
1. Arkansas, 37; 2. Florida, 33; 3. Tennessee, 32; 4. Auburn, 25; 5. South Carolina, 19; 6. Alabama, 14; 7. Ole Miss, 12; 8. Georgia, 11; T9. LSU, 6; T9. Kentucky, 6.
Women’s
3,000
1. Sarah Bowman, Tennessee, 9:21.66; 2. Jackie Areson, Tennessee, 9:24.34; 3. Catherine White, Arkansas, 9:25.06; 4. Genevieve LaCaze, Florida, 9:25.10; 5. Denise Bargiachi, Arkansas, 9:21.17; 6. Christine Kalmer, Arkansas, 9:37.93; 7. Sarah Madebach, Georgia, 9:41.64; 8. Katherine Peterson, Kentucky, 9:47.84.
Pole Vault
1. Rachel Laurent, LSU, 14-0 ?; 2. Tara Diebold, Arkansas, 13-5; 3. Tina Sutej, Arkansas, 13-5; 4. Natalie Moser, Florida, 13-1 ?; 5. Katelyn Rodrigue, LSU, 13-1 ?; T6. Lynda Cooper, Alabama, 13-1 ?; T6. Liza Todd, South Carolina, 13-1 ?; 8. Katie Stripling, Arkansas, 12-9 ?.
Long Jump
1. Peter-Gaye Beckford, Arkansas, 20-9 ?; 2. Shara Proctor, Florida, 20-8; 3. Whitney Jones, Arkansas, 19-10 ?; 4. Melissa Ogbourne, LSU, 19-9 ?; 5. Andrea Linton, LSU, 19-8 ?; 6. Wendy Copeland, Mississippi State, 19-8; 7. Priscilla Gaines, Mississippi State, 19-6; 8. Lynne Layne, Tennessee, 19-2 ?.
Weight Throw
1. Juliana Smith, Ole Miss, 62-3; 2. Kristin Smith, Kentucky, 61-11 ?; 3. Heather Smith, Kentucky, 60-10 ?; 4. Kim Williams, LSU, 57-11 ?; 5. Allison Horner, LSU, 53-10 ?; 6. Valentina Srsa, Auburn, 52-9 ?; 7. Annie Alexander, Tennessee, 52-8; 8. Favian Cowards, Mississippi State, 52-3 ?.
Pentathlon
1. Ashley Trimble, Kentucky, 3,991; 2. Marrissa Harris, Mississippi State, 3,945; 3. Chealsea Taylor, Alabama, 3,934; 4. Laquinta Aaron, Mississippi State, 3,917; 5. Ellen Wortham, Tennessee, 3,736; 6. Danielle Sampley, Kentucky, 3,645; 7. Rachel Robbs, Alabama, 3,608; 8. Peter-Gaye Beckford, Arkansas, 3,585.
TEAM SCORES (5 events scored)
1. Arkansas, 45; 2. LSU, 32; 3. Kentucky, 28; 4. Tennessee, 25; 5. Mississippi State, 19; 6. Florida, 18; 7. Alabama, 10.5; 8. Ole Miss, 10; 9. Auburn, 3; 10. South Carolina, 2.5; 11. Georgia, 2.