BATON ROUGE – As the LSU men’s track and field team looks to join the national championship race again in 2011, a total of eight Tiger All-Americans return to the squad this spring to provide the team with the depth and talent it will need to compete against the nation’s best teams at the NCAA Championships.
In fact, the Tigers feature one of the more balanced teams in the country with at least one All-American in four event areas, including the sprints, hurdles, jumps and throws.
With defending NCAA champion Walter Henning teaming with the likes of 2010 NCAA runners-up Josh Dominguez, Barrett Nugent and Zedric Thomas, this year’s squad features a host of returning firepower and an infusion of elite talent with one of the nation’s top recruiting classes that is sure to lead LSU to the top of collegiate track and field again in 2011.
Sprints/Relays
Following a 2010 season in which the Tigers were without an NCAA scorer in any of the open sprinting events, including the 60 meters, 100 meters, 200 meters and 400 meters, the squad will look to return to its former glory in 2011 after signing a quartet of talented sprinters prepared to team with a trio of returning All-American relay runners to form the foundation of what is likely to be one of the top teams in the NCAA this spring.
Headlining LSU’s incoming class of recruits is a pair of former junior college stars ready to challenge for All-America honors in their first season in the purple and gold.
Horatio Williams joins the program following a brilliant career at Hinds Community College, where he won five All-America honors in two seasons competing in the National Junior College Athletics Association. The 2009 NJCAA Outdoor 200-meter bronze medalist boasts bests of 6.75 seconds in the 60-meter dash, 10.26 in the 100-meter dash and 20.48 in the 200-meter dash as he opens the 2011 season.
He is also sure to join LSU’s 4×100-meter relay team this year after winning an NJCAA Outdoor title in the event with Hinds CC in 2009.
Jamaican quartermiler Riker Hylton is another talented sprinter who comes to LSU from the JUCO ranks after earning All-America honors during the 2009 season with a third-place finish in the 400-meter dash at the NJCAA Outdoor Championships. Hylton, a prospect from the famed program at Essex Community College, has set personal records of 20.98 in the 200 meters and 45.92 in the 400 meters as he lines up for LSU this season.
The Tigers have also added the likes of sprinters Keyth Talley and Geno Jones to solidify the depth of the group this season as they look to regain their championship form.
Talley has transferred to LSU following a successful two-year stint at North Texas, where he was an NCAA semifinalist in the 60-meter dash at the NCAA Indoor Championships and an NCAA quarterfinalist in the 200-meter dash at the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds in 2010. The two-time Sun Belt Conference individual champion joins the LSU program with personal bests of 6.69 in the 60 meters, 10.35 in the 100 meters and 20.78 in the 200 meters.
Jones, a Bahamian international who struck 100-meter gold at the Carifta Games in 2010, has run as fast as 10.42 in the short sprint during his junior track and field career.
With senior leadership being an important part of any championship program, the Tigers will rely on the talents of Gabriel Mvumvure to fill such a role in 2011. Mvumvure, who owns PRs of 10.37 in the 100 meters and 20.72 in the 200 meters, anchored the Tigers’ sprint relay to a third-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships a year ago while finishing the year with a top time of 39.00 in the event.
The pool for LSU’s 4×100-meter relay team is sure to be deep again this spring as it will also return junior hurdler Barrett Nugent to the squad, who ran the lead leg throughout the season a year ago. And after sitting out the outdoor season with an injury during his true freshman season in 2010, Rynell Parson is returning to the form he showed early in the indoor season during which he clocked a time of 6.69 in the 60-meter dash in his collegiate debut for the Tigers. Parson owns personal bests of 6.67 in the 60 meters and 10.23 in the 100 meters.
In addition, the Tigers return a pair of All-Americans in the 4×400-meter relay in junior Ade Alleyne-Forte and sophomore Caleb Williams. In fact, Williams anchored the Tigers to third place nationally in the mile relay at the NCAA Indoor Championships in his rookie season. They have run personal bests of 46.27 and 46.50, respectively.
Hurdles
With his record-setting performance as a sophomore in 2010, Nugent has proven himself as one of the most prolific hurdlers in the history of the LSU track and field program. And after finishing just .04 seconds shy of winning an NCAA Outdoor title in the 110-meter hurdles a year ago, the Maurice, La., native is poised to add his name alongside the likes of greats Glenn “Slats” Hardin, Larry Shipp and Eric Reid as a NCAA champion in the hurdles as one of the nation’s top returning talents this spring.
While finishing as the NCAA Outdoor runner-up a season ago, Nugent broke Reid’s 23-year-old school record in the 110-meter hurdles with a then personal best of 13.49 in the national final. He then shattered his own school record during the summer with a time of 13.35 en route to a fifth-place finish in the finals at the 2010 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
In addition, Nugent also earned All-America honors during the indoor season after taking fourth place nationally in the finals of the 60-meter hurdles at the NCAA Indoor Championships. He became a school-record holder for the first time with his run in the national semifinal when he clocked in at 7.60 to shatter his own personal record in the event.
Nugent also made history with his performance at the SEC Championships as he became the first LSU Tiger in team history to sweep SEC Indoor and SEC Outdoor titles in the same year with his wins in the 60 hurdles and 110 hurdles in conference competition.
In addition, LSU returns an SEC scorer in the 400-meter hurdles from last year’s squad as James Thurn is set to compete as a junior after earning a seventh-place finish at the SEC Championships in 2010. He’s set a lifetime personal best of 52.59 in the intermediate hurdles.
Middle Distance/Distance
The Tigers have built a strong tradition in the middle distance races under the direction of assistant head coach Mark Elliott, and Richard Jones and Jamaal James helped continue that level of success while earning indoor All-America honors during their senior seasons a year ago.
Jones, who swept SEC Indoor and SEC Outdoor titles in the 800-meter run in 2010, set the pace with a fourth-place finish in the half mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships, while James added three points with a sixth-place finish in the event to help lead the Tigers into a fourth place position in the final team standings at the national meet.
While the Tigers will be without the services of their All-American duo from a year ago, Alan Sticker will return for his senior season as the leader of the LSU middle distance and distance group as one of the leading milers in the Southeastern Conference.
A native of Pineville, La., Sticker earned his first career All-SEC honor in 2010 while running the mile leg on LSU’s distance medley relay team that finished runner-up in the final heat at the SEC Indoor Championships. Sticker teamed with the likes of James (1,200 meters), Garrek Thompson (400 meters) and Sadiki White (800 meters) to clock LSU’s sixth-fastest DMR time in program history at 9 minutes, 51.57 seconds in the conference final.
In addition, Sticker also scored for the Tigers at the SEC Championships in both the mile indoors and 1,500 meters outdoors by placing sixth and seventh, respectively. He has set personal bests of 3:49.05 in the 1,500 meters and 4:07.79 in the mile during his career.
Joining a young middle distance and distance group in 2011 will be true freshman and New Jersey native Keith Griffith. The touted Burlington native will open his college career with a lifetime personal best of 1:52.94 in the 800 meters.
Jumps
Perhaps one of the deepest and most talented groups on the LSU roster this spring is the jumps group as the Tigers return a pair of All-Americans accounting for five All-America honors during a breakout 2010 season for the squad under assistant coach Todd Lane.
Zedric Thomas led the way with his performance as he enters the 2011 seas mas was LSU’s top point scorer with 13 points at the NCAA Indoor Championships a year ago. He nearly won an NCAA title in the triple jump with his national runner-up finish as he posted a new lifetime PR of 53 feet, 5 ¾ inches at the national meet. Thomas added a fourth-place finish nationally in the long jump while finishing the indoor season with a lifetime personal best of 26-3 in the event.
Thomas went on to earn a pair of All-America honors outdoors following a seventh-place finish in the triple jump and a 10th-place finish in the long jump at the NCAA Outdoor meet.
While Thomas finished as a NCAA runner-up during the indoor season, Josh Dominguez became LSU’s first All-American pole vaulter since Daniel Trosclair in 2004 with his national runner-up finish in the pole vault at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Dominguez matched his overall personal best with a clearance at 17-8 ½ at the national meet en route to earning his first All-America honor in his final year of outdoor eligibility. Dominguez returns to the squad this season for his final year of indoor eligibility.
The 2010 also saw the emergence of one of the nation’s premier young talents in Decatur, Ga., native Damar Forbes. After making his first career NCAA Championships appearance in the long jump during the outdoor season, Forbes wrapped up his freshman season as the No. 3-ranked freshman in the country in both the long jump (26-0 ¼) and triple jump (52-0).
And the Tigers look to be even deeper in the jumps in 2011 after inking the No. 1-ranked triple jump prospect at the junior college level in Kyron Blaise of South Plains College. The Trinidadian boasts lifetime personal records of 25-11 in the long jump and 53-5 in the triple jump set during a junior college career in which he earned five All-America honors and was crowned a junior college national champion in the triple jump during the 2009 season.
Throws
There is no doubt that Tiger great Walter Henning enters his senior season in 2011 as the unquestioned leader of the LSU men’s track and field team after proving to be the most dominant thrower in the NCAA during a prolific junior season a year ago.
Henning added the title of NCAA champion to his already impressive resume as the five-time All-American became the first LSU Tiger in program history to claim NCAA titles in both the 35-pound weight throw indoors and the hammer throw outdoors while taking the title in all 12 competitions in which he entered during the 2010 season.
After winning his first career NCAA crown with a win in the 35-pound weight throw at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships, Henning completed the sweep with a dramatic come-from-behind victory in the hammer throw at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. While Henning trailed Virginia Tech’s Alexander Ziegler with a top mark of 235 feet, 6 inches through five rounds, he took the title on his sixth and final throw of the competition after setting a mark of 238-10 on his last attempt to finish more than one foot ahead of Ziegler’s throw of 237-7.
Henning proved to be unbeatable in 2010 as he wrapped up the season a perfect 12-for-12 in weight throw and hammer throw events while also sweeping SEC Indoor and SEC Outdoor titles for the second year in a row.
A native of Kings Park, N.Y., Henning shattered his own school records during his junior season with new personal records of 78-1 in the weight throw and 239-5 in the hammer throw. He also became the new meet record holder at the SEC Indoor Championships when his winning throw of 78-1 shattered the previous meet record of 76-5 set by Auburn star Cory Martin in 2007.
That performance helped earn Henning honors as the SEC Men’s Indoor Field Athlete of the Year and the Men’s South Central Region Field Athlete of the Year by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Following his performance as a junior in which he was named one of 10 semifinalists for the Bowerman Award, there is no doubt that Henning will lead the Tigers once again in 2011 as a favorite to win track and field’s equivalent to the Heisman Trophy.
In addition, Michael Lauro joined Henning by picking up All-America honors in both the weight throw and hammer throw for the first time in his career with an 11th-place finish indoors and a 12th-place finish outdoors at the NCAA Championships. Lauro ranked as one of the premier throwers in the NCAA a season ago while setting PRs of 68-3 ¼ in the weight throw and 217-8 in the hammer throw.
The Tigers also return a pair of All-SEC performers in the javelin as junior stars Anthony Martel and Aaron Moore look to push for All-America honors for the first time in their respective careers. Martel set his personal best of 221-7 in a second-place finish at the SEC Outdoor meet in 2009, while Moore set a personal best of his own at 226-8 to finish as the conference runner-up in 2010 to earn All-SEC honors for the first time in his LSU career.