FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A trio of LSU stars were crowned Southeastern Conference champions on the final day of competition Sunday at the 2010 SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships as both the Tigers and Lady Tigers finished in third place in the final team standings at the Randal Tyson Track Center.
Sophomore Barrett Nugent kicked off the action in the first event on the track Sunday with a win in the 60 meter hurdles, while junior Richard Jones followed with a victory in the 800-meter run and fellow junior Brittani Carter put an exclamation point onto the end of the meet with a win in the high jump.
The Tigers racked up 108.5 points over the course of three days of competition to take third place overall in the final team standings behind the Arkansas Razorbacks (123) and Florida Gators (119).
The Lady Tigers scored 79.5 points for a third-place finish of their own as they trailed only Florida (110) and Arkansas (82) in the race to be crowned this year’s SEC Indoor champions.
“We knew coming in that it would be a tight three-team or four-team race in both genders with the winner not being decided until the relays. That’s exactly how the meet unfolded,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “I thought both of our teams fought hard and competed from our very first event on Saturday. But unfortunately, we came up a little short in the end. This is a very difficult championship to win.
“That’s what makes the SEC the greatest conference in the country. You come to a meet like this and four or five teams have a shot to win it. You have to congratulate the Arkansas men and Florida women for the way they performed. They went out and won their championship.”
Nugent entered his first SEC Indoor Championships as the favorite to win the title in the 60-meter hurdles as he lined up in Saturday’s preliminary round as the No. 1-ranked hurdler in the SEC and the No. 4-ranked hurdler in the NCAA this indoor year with a seasonal-best and personal-best time of 7.71 seconds.
Not only that, but Nugent has proven to be the most consistent hurdler in the conference in 2010 as he had recorded times between 7.71 and 7.80 in nine of 10 races this season.
But Nugent, who said he grew tired of the consistency and was anxious to show those in attendance at the Randal Tyson Track Center that he is a true All-America contender, raced over the five hurdles faster than he had ever gone before as he crossed the finish line in 7.65 seconds, finishing a split-second ahead of the time of 7.68 recorded by South Carolina’s Booker Nunley running to his left in Lane 4.
With his performance, Nugent is now the third LSU Tiger to be crowned SEC Indoor champion in the 60-meter hurdles in program history and the first since Bert Rareshide accomplished the feat in 1996. He also becomes the LSU school record holder in the event, eclipsing the previous school-record time of 7.69 run by former Tiger standout Ryan Fontenot at the 2008 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships.
But more importantly for Nugent, he leaves Fayetteville with the title of SEC champion and a true NCAA title contender as the No. 3-ranked sprint hurdler in the country this season.
“That was my motivation,” Nugent said of his goal to win an SEC title. “This shows just how much I’ve improved and how far I’ve come since last year. My goal isn’t just to make the final. My goal is to go out there and win it. Pretty much everything I’ve been working for finally came together today. It’s good that I’ve been consistent, but I wanted to break that and drop a fast time.
“It was a great race between me and Booker (Nunely). He’s a great hurdler and a great competitor. It’s an incredible what I’m feeling right now. Now, it’s time to get ready to come back for NCAAs.”
The Tigers would not stop there as Jones followed with an SEC title and LSU school record of his own as he ran away from the rest of the field to win the 800-meter run with a time of 1 minute, 47.78 seconds.
Jones, who entered the meet with an indoor personal record of 1:48.41 set on the same track at the Randal Tyson Track Center at the Tyson Invitational two weeks ago, led a 1-2 sweep by LSU as freshman Sadiki White also set a new lifetime best of 1:49.62 to finish runner-up and earn his first career All-SEC honor.
The Tigers have dominated the 800-meter run at the SEC Championships in recent seasons as Jones is the third different LSU athlete to be crowned SEC Indoor champion in the event in the last four years, joining the likes of teammate Jamaal James in 2007 and former Tiger All-American Elkana Kosgei in 2008. LSU has also had four different 800-meter runners earn All-SEC honors at the SEC Indoor meet in that span.
Like Nugent, Jones set a new LSU indoor school record with his performance as he beat the previous time of 1:47.84 set in 2005 by former LSU standout Jeffrey Fisher.
“Our strategy was to go out hard from the start, but I wasn’t expecting 50 (seconds) for my first 400. That was a few seconds faster than what we talked about,” Jones said. “But I felt great and didn’t look back. We couldn’t have asked for more. I’m proud of our young guys for coming here and performing how they did. That was big for Sadiki (White) and Garrek (Thompson) to score those points for us.”
Leading the charge for the Lady Tigers on the final day of this year’s SEC Indoor Championships was the performance of junior Brittani Carter, who was crowned SEC champion of the high jump for the first time in her collegiate career after finishing runner-up indoors and outdoors as a sophomore in 2009.
Carter, who has already qualified for the NCAA Championships with a seasonal best and personal-record clearance of 6-0 ¾, breezed through the competition with clearances at 5-7, 5-8 ¾ and 5-10 ½ on her first attempt at each height. She then clinched the title with a clearance at 5-11 ¼ on her second attempt.
With the win, Carter becomes the fifth Lady Tiger in program history to win the SEC Indoor crown in the high jump and the first to do so since Keisha Spencer during the 1999 season.
In addition those who won SEC titles during Sunday’s competition, three athletes and a pair of relays won All-SEC honors with their performance by finishing second in their respective events.
The LSU jumps crew was outstanding on the meet’s final day at the Randal Tyson Track Center as junior Zedric Thomas and junior Melissa Ogbourne each finished runner-up in the men’s and women’s triple jump. Thomas, who had already recorded an NCAA automatic qualifying mark in the long jump this year, set a new overall personal best and automatic qualifying mark of 53-3 ½ to place second in the triple jump and earn All-SEC honors for the first time in his career. Ogbourne also picked up her first All-SEC honor after jumping 42-9 ½ in the women’s competition.
The Tiger jumpers did not stop there as freshman pole vaulter Thomas Reinecke set a new lifetime best in the event with a clearance at 16-10 ¾ to take second place in his first appearance at the SEC Indoor meet.
LSU wrapped up this year’s SEC Indoor Championships with a pair of All-SEC performances in both the men’s distance medley and 4×400-meter relays.
In the DMR, the team of senior Jamaal James (1,200 meters), sophomore Garrek Thompson (400 meters), White (800 meters) and junior Alan Sticker (mile) carried the stick around the track in 9:51.57 to finish in second place behind the winning relay team from Arkansas (9:48.92).
The Tigers then followed with an all-conference performance in the 4×400-meter relay as the foursome of senior Armanti Hayes, sophomore Robert Simmons, Jones and freshman Caleb Williams set an automatic qualifying time for the NCAA Championships at 3:06.11 to finish second to Florida (3:05.53). The Tigers were impressive throughout the race as Williams anchored with a 45.64-second split only after Hayes had a split of 46.95, Simmons posted a split of 46.53 and Jones clocked a split of 47.00.
“We had a number of really outstanding performances this weekend. This was another big step for us with the NCAA Championships now just two weeks away,” Shaver said. “That will be our focus. We work for this all year long, and it is now time for us to perform at our very best when we come back in two weeks.”
With the SEC Indoor Championships in the rearview mirror, the Tigers and Lady Tigers now turn all their attention to the 2010 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships as they make their return to the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville on March 12-13.