BATON ROUGE – On the strength of an NCAA-leading performance in the 60-meter hurdles this past weekend at the 2011 New Balance Collegiate Invitational, Lady Tiger hurdler Jasmin Stowers is the latest SEC Female Freshman of the Week as announced Tuesday by the league office.
Stowers, a freshman from Pendleton, S.C., becomes the fifth different LSU athlete to earn an SEC Athlete of the Week honor this season in the wake of her performance at The Armory in New York.
Stowers emerged as a true All-America candidate in the women’s 60-meter hurdles after finishing runner-up in the event on Friday night when she shattered her own personal record and qualified automatically for the NCAA Indoor Championships with a time of 8.13 seconds in the event final.
After matching her previous PR with a time of 8.28 in the qualifying round, Stowers became just the second female hurdler to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships this season as her season-best time of 8.13 in the final currently ranks in a tie for the fastest performance in the country in 2011. It also ranks as the No. 8 performance on LSU’s all-time indoor performance list in the event.
Stowers also ranks No. 1 on the SEC performance list so far this season as she leads Lady Tiger teammate Tenaya Jones (8.16) in the event. No other sprint hurdler in the SEC has run faster than 8.40 through the first month of the 2011 indoor campaign following this weekend’s action nationwide.
LSU’s SEC Track & Field Athletes of the Week
SEC Male Runner of the Week
Jan. 18 – Horatio Williams
SEC Male Field Event Athlete of the Week
Jan. 18 – Zedric Thomas
Jan. 25 – Walter Henning
SEC Female Runner of the Week
Jan. 25 – Semoy Hackett
SEC Female Freshman of the Week
Feb. 8 – Jasmin Stowers