KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – When sophomore Samia Stokes entered the discus ring for her warm up throws Saturday afternoon, she could not have envisioned that it would be more than four hours before she would take her first throws as a Lady Tiger at the SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
But she was ordered off the infield with the rest of the field at 6:06 p.m. ET with heavy thunderstorms and lightning surrounding Tennessee’s Tom Black Track at LaPorte Stadium.
Competitors in the women’s high jump, the women’s pole vault and the women’s discus were ordered off the infield at 6:06 p.m. ET and events on the track were suspended at 6:10 p.m. after the conclusion of the second of two preliminary heats of the women’s 1,500-meter run.
Athletes were not allowed to return to the track for warm ups until 9:45 p.m. The action resumed at 10:30 p.m. with the men’s 1,500-meter prelims, the men’s shot put and the women’s discus. The championships were delayed for the second day in a row, this time for 4 hours, 20 minutes.
When Stokes wrapped up the competition around midnight, she became the first Lady Tiger of this year’s meet to be crowned an SEC Outdoor champion for her outstanding performance.
“I knew today was my day to make something happen. I’ve been ready to do something all week,” Stokes said. “You have to expect anything when you compete, and having to wait so long after warming up was something I was prepared for. You just have to stay in it mentally. I made sure to stay focused throughout the break and get myself ready to compete again when it was time.
“I was really excited when I saw my mark pop up on the board. I didn’t expect it. It’s exciting because it’s huge for our team to get 10 points like that. I want to help us win (a championship).”
After qualifying for the final with the seventh-best throw of the prelim round at 152 feet, 11 inches on her very first attempt, Stokes uncorked a new personal best of 168-5 on her fourth attempt overall and first of the finals to take over the top spot that she would not relinquish. Stokes finished exactly four feet ahead of her nearest competitor as Florida’s Ashley Miller took second place with a throw of 164-5.
With the win, Stokes takes her place alongside one of the all-time greats at LSU as former Lady Tiger star Danyel Mitchell was the last to be crowned SEC champion in the women’s discus with back-to-back wins in 1993 and 1994. Mitchell was also crowned the NCAA champion in both years.
Stokes helped lead LSU into sole possession of fourth place in the team standings after the third day at the 2010 SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships as the Lady Tigers finished the day with 39 points.
Junior Brittani Carter added eight big points with a runner-up finish in the women’s high jump as she won her fourth career All-SEC honor by clearing the bar at 5-10 ¾.
The Lady Tigers also scored eight points in the long jump with a fourth-place finish by Melissa Ogbourne (20-4 ¼) and a sixth-place finish by Brittany Porter (20-1 ½). They also totaled seven points in the pole vault with a fifth place by Rachel Laurent (13-2 ½) and a sixth place by Katelyn Rodrigue (13-2 ½).
“What a performance by Samia Stokes after facing the kind of adversity that we saw today. That’s big for our team,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “I thought our athletes did a great job of competing again today. That’s what we expect from them when we line up in the championship meets. We expect that they will continue to do that as we head into a day full of championship finals tomorrow.”
The Tigers were outstanding in their own right as they finished the day with 45 points to sit in a tie for the top spot in the team standings with the Georgia Bulldogs.
As it did in their first event Friday, the throws group gave the Tigers a full head of steam heading into the evening session on Saturday by scoring 10 points in the men’s javelin competition.
Sophomore All-SEC performer Aaron Moore scored eight points by himself with a runner-up finish as he improved his personal record by more than six feet on the afternoon. Moore wasted little time once taking his spot on the runway as he let loose a throw of 226 feet, 8 inches on his very first attempt of the event to earn his first career All-SEC honor. Junior Mark DeBlanc finished in seventh place with a throw of 206-6.
Junior Walter Henning followed his second-straight SEC title win in the hammer throw on Friday with an eighth-place finish in the shot put on Saturday as he moved into scoring position with a throw of 52-10 ¾ on his sixth and final attempt. Henning has now scored 11 points on the weekend to lead the Tigers.
As the javelin came to a close, the Tigers turned up the heat by scoring 14 points in the long jump in what could always be remembered as the most exciting event at this year’s SEC Outdoor Championships.
In a final round of jumps that will rival anything that takes place at the NCAA Championships one month from now, senior Will Coppage recorded a seasonal-best wind-aided mark of 26-3 ¾ to finish in third place, freshman Damar Forbes recorded a new wind-legal lifetime personal best of 26-0 ¼ to finish fourth and junior Zedric Thomas recorded a new wind-legal outdoor personal best of 25-8 ¾ to finish sixth.
Within the last round and a half, each one of LSU’s jumpers held either the second or third position in the competition after Thomas grabbed the third spot in the fifth round with his outdoor PR of 25-8 ¾.
Forbes ignited a firestorm when he improved from sixth place to third place by jumping 26-0 ¼ in his last attempt of the competition, moving Thomas down to fourth place and Coppage down to sixth place.
On the following jump, Coppage catapulted himself all the way to second place with his effort of 26-3 ¾, which dropped Forbes down one spot into fourth place and Thomas into fifth place. Thomas did not have an improvement on his final jump of the competition and remained in fifth place.
When it seemed that Coppage would walk away with a second-place finish and All-SEC honors, Florida’s Christian Taylor seized control with an NCAA-leading jump of 26-10 ½ to overtake both Coppage and Arkansas’ Alain Bailey for first place. But Taylor’s lead was short-lived as Bailey regained the lead in the competition and on the national list with a winning jump of 27-4 ¾ to capture the conference crown.
Between final-round jumps by Taylor and Bailey, Tennessee’s Desmond Brown displaced Thomas with a mark of 25-9 ¼ as the Tigers wrapped up the event with 14 points.
“That’s exactly what we mean when we talk to our athletes about competing to the very end and knowing what you need to do in the competition to get the job done,” Shaver said. “Our guys were tremendous. We needed that kind of a competitive effort from them and they delivered. I cannot imagine that another event at this track meet will be that competitive and have that kind of drama through the very end.”
Saturday was another important day of qualifying for LSU as the Lady Tigers added five finalists in finals to be run on Sunday in addition to their nine qualifiers from Friday’s competition.
Three Lady Tigers won their respective preliminary heat of the women’s 100-meter dash, including senior Samantha Henry (11.43), freshman Takeia Pinckney (11.58) and junior Kenyanna Wilson (11.63). Junior Tenaya Jones also won her qualifying heat of the 100-meter hurdles with the second-fastest prelim time at 13.48, and freshman Charlene Lipsey advanced to the final of the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:30.19.
The Tigers added three qualifiers of their own as sophomore Barrett Nugent ran away with his prelim heat of the 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.66, senior Armanti Hayes won his prelim heat in the 400-meter dash with a time of 46.21 and junior Alan Sticker advanced in the 1,500 meters with a time of 3:49.39.
Sunday’s championship finals of the 2010 SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships will get underway at noon CT in the field events followed by the first events on the track at 4 p.m.
Team Standings
Women – Team Rankings – 8 Events Scored
1) Arkansas 42.50
2) Florida 40.50
3) Georgia 39.50
4) LSU 39
5) Kentucky 36
6) Auburn 28
7) Alabama 23
8) South Carolina 20.50
9) Mississippi 17
9) Miss State 17
11) Vanderbilt 5
12) Tennessee 4
Men – Team Rankings – 7 Events Scored
1) LSU 45
1) Georgia 45
3) Auburn 40
4) Mississippi 35
4) Florida 35
6) Arkansas 23
7) Tennessee 18
8) South Carolina 16
9) Miss State 9
10) Alabama 7