BATON ROUGE – A pair of LSU track and field standouts were honored by the Southeastern Conference on Tuesday as senior Samantha Henry was named the SEC Female Runner of the Week and freshman Damar Forbes was named the SEC Male Field Athlete of the Week for their outstanding efforts at the LSU Tiger Relays this past weekend.
This marks the first time this season that each has been honored by the SEC with one of the conference’s weekly awards for their performance in their respective events.
Henry enjoyed an impressive start to the 2010 outdoor season as she opened the campaign by running the 100-meter dash and 4×100-meter relay for the Lady Tigers at the LSU Tiger Relays.
Henry clocked a wind-legal time of 11.40 seconds in her first 100-meter race of the outdoor season during Friday’s preliminary round before returning to the track for Saturday’s final and running an impressive wind-aided time of 11.14 to win the event crown over fellow Lady Tiger All-Americans junior Kenyanna Wilson (11.25) and freshman Takeia Pinckney (11.30).
Henry’s time of 11.40 not only ranks her No. 1 in the SEC and No. 4 in the NCAA, but it also ranks No. 9 in the world through two weeks of the collegiate outdoor season.
In addition to her effort in the 100-meter dash, Henry also ran the leadoff leg on LSU’s 4×100-meter relay team that recorded the second-fastest time in the country this season as she teamed with freshman Kimberlyn Duncan, Pinckney and Wilson for a time of 43.68 in Friday’s preliminary round. LSU’s sprint relay team then won the event title on Saturday with a time of 44.01 in the final.
Forbes was one of the Tigers’ top performers this past weekend at the LSU Tiger Relays while setting two new overall wind-legal personal bests in his outdoor season opener.
Forbes opened with a legal jump of 25 feet, 2 inches on Friday night before posting another legal mark of 52-0 in the triple jump on Saturday afternoon to take second place in both events. Not only that, but he also finished each competition as the top-ranked collegiate athlete in the field.
His performance is a new lifetime personal record in each event that includes both the indoor and outdoor seasons. Both jumps were recorded with legal tailwinds, including a tailwind of 0.2 meters per second for his 25-2 long jump and a tailwind of 1.4 meters per second for his 52-0 triple jump. Forbes concluded the 2010 indoor season with indoor PRs of 25-1 ¼ in the long jump and 51-11 ¾ in the triple jump.
With his effort, Forbes wrapped up the weekend as the No. 1-ranked triple jumper in the in the nation and tied as the No. 3-ranked long jumper in the NCAA through two weeks of the outdoor season.