BATON ROUGE – Lady Tiger All-Americans Rachel Laurent and Jasmin Stowers were honored Tuesday for their performance in leading the No. 3-ranked LSU women’s track and field team at the LSU Relays this past weekend with the team’s first SEC Athlete of the Week honors of the outdoor season.
Laurent received the SEC Female Field Event Athlete of the Week honor for her outstanding performance in the pole vault, while Stowers picked up the SEC Female Freshman of the Week award for her efforts in her collegiate outdoor debut in the women’s 100-meter hurdles.
Stowers, a freshman from Pendleton, S.C., became the first LSU track and field athlete this season to pick up a second SEC Athlete of the Week honor as she was also named the SEC Female Freshman of the Week back on Feb. 8 during the indoor season. The Tigers and Lady Tigers have received a total of seven SEC Track & Field Athlete of the Week honors to this point of the 2011 campaign.
Stowers enjoyed a record-setting performance in her collegiate debut in the 100-meter hurdles Saturday as she captured the event crown with a wind-legal personal-best time of 13.15 seconds.
That performance shatters her previous personal record of 13.52 that she set as a high school junior as she is now the No. 1-ranked performer in the NCAA and No. 2-ranked performer worldwide outdoors in 2011 through the opening two weeks of the collegiate outdoor season.
Stowers is also the new LSU Tiger Relays meet record holder in the event after eclipsing the previous feat of 13.19 set by former Lady Tiger national champion Nickiesha Wilson during the 2008 season.
Laurent, a junior from Houma, La., enjoyed a record-setting performance of her own in capturing the pole vault championship on Saturday as she set a new LSU Tiger Relays meet record, Bernie Moore Track Stadium facility record and LSU outdoor school record with a 2011 seasonal best clearance at 14 feet, 2 ½ inches. Her mark ranks No. 1 in the SEC and No. 2 in the NCAA for the 2011 outdoor season.
Laurent breezed through the competition with first-attempt clearances at 13-0 ¼, 13-4 ¼ and 13-8 ¼, with a clearance at 13-11 ¼ on her third attempt and 14-2 ½ on her first attempt of the competition.
She actually broke her own LSU outdoor school record in the event with her previous outdoor best of 14-1 ¼ set during her freshman season in 2009. She also broke the previous LSU Tiger Relays meet record at 13-5 ¼ set by Carrie Kayes of Akron in 2009 and the previous Bernie Moore Track Stadium facility mark of 14-2 set by Dana Ellis-Buller of Asics during the 2008 season.
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 Field Event Athlete of the Week
March 29 – Rachel Laurent
SEC Female Freshman of the Week
Feb. 8 – Jasmin Stowers
March 29 – Jasmin Stowers