BATON ROUGE – A pair of LSU track and field standouts have been honored by the Southeastern Conference for their performance in Saturday’s season opener at the Purple Tiger Invitational with LSU’s first SEC Athlete of the Week honors of the 2011 campaign.
Senior long jumper Zedric Thomas has been chosen the SEC Men’s Field Athlete of the Week and junior Horatio Williams has been selected the SEC Men’s Runner of the Week for their performance.
Thomas, a senior from New Iberia, La., continued to show the All-America form he displayed last season in LSU’s 2011 indoor opener on Saturday as he took home the long jump title at the Purple Tiger Invitational with a new lifetime personal-best mark of 26 feet, 3 ¾ inches.
Thomas outdueled fellow LSU long jump star Damar Forbes for the event title as Forbes followed with an impressive jump of 26-3 to take runner-up honors in the first competition of the year.
Thomas finished the meet as the No. 1-ranked long jumper in the NCAA in the early part of the season as his jump ranked him No. 4 on LSU’s all-time indoor performance list. This marks the second year in a row that Thomas has opened the season with a jump of at least eight meters as he also established his then personal best of 26-3 in the long jump at the Purple Tiger Invitational to open the 2010 season.
Williams, a junior from Starkville, Miss., who transferred to LSU in the fall following a brilliant two-year career at Hinds Community College, enjoyed a record-setting debut in his first meet with the Tigers in winning the 60-meter dash at the Purple Tiger Invitational.
Williams shattered his own personal record in the event with the No. 1-ranked performance in the NCAA to this point in the season with a winning time of 6.61 seconds to take the event crown.
He actually set back-to-back personal bests in his LSU debut as he followed a 6.73 in the preliminary race with a blistering time of 6.61 in the final that ranks No. 3 on LSU’s all-time indoor performance list in the 60-meter dash. Williams entered the meet with a previous PR of 6.75 that he posted at the NJCAA Indoor Championships during his sophomore season at Hinds Community College a year ago.
With his performance, Williams trails only former national champion sprinters Richard Thompson (6.51) and Trindon Holliday (6.54) on the school’s all-time performance list in the event.