BATON ROUGE — LSU junior Samantha Henry and sophomore Walter Henning each received recognition from the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association on Thursday as the organization released its Division I Indoor Track and Field Athlete of the Year honors.
Henry was named the Women’s South Central Region Track Athlete of the Year, while Henning earned Men’s South Central Region Field Athlete of the Year honors from the association.
Henry became the fourth woman in Southeastern Conference history to sweep indoor conference titles in the 60-meter and 200-meter dashes at the SEC Indoor Championships. She joined LSU greats Peta-Gaye Dowdie (2000) and Muna Lee (2002) as the only Lady Tigers to accomplish the SEC sweep in the short sprints. It was the first time in her career to win an individual SEC title.
The native of Kingston, Jamaica, set a seasonal best and ran the second-fastest time in the NCAA this season with a time of 7.19 seconds in the preliminaries of the 60 meters at the SEC meet. She also ran a seasonal best and the NCAA’s sixth-ranked 200-meter time at 23.30 at the SEC meet.
Henning has enjoyed a record-setting sophomore season in his first campaign at LSU. He became the first LSU athlete to be crowned SEC champion in the 35-pound weight throw since the event was first contested at the conference meet in 1992.
He recorded a new LSU school record and personal-best throw of 74 feet, 5 ? inches at the SEC meet to finish more than six feet ahead of his nearest competitor and rank No. 2 in the NCAA.
Henning has set the LSU school record in the weight throw three times this season and recorded an NCAA automatic qualifying mark in all five of his competitions this season. He is a perfect 5-0 in those competitions, including a 1-0 record and win against NCAA leader Chris Rohr at the SEC/Big 12 Challenge in College Station, Texas, back on Jan. 31.
The duo will represent LSU at the 2009 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships beginning Friday at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium in College Station. Henry will compete for the first time on Friday in the 60-meter prelims at 5:30 p.m. followed by her entry into the 200-meter prelims at 6:30 p.m. Henning will compete in the weight throw on Saturday at 5 p.m.