BATON ROUGE – As the Tigers look to join the national championship race again in 2012, eight 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 programs at the NCAA Championships.
In fact, the Tigers feature one of the more balanced rosters in the country with at least one All-American returning in four event areas, including the sprints, hurdles, jumps and throws.
With defending NCAA champion Barrett Nugent teaming with 2011 NCAA Outdoor runner-up Damar Forbes and fellow All-Americans Ade Alleyne-Forte, Riker Hylton, Michael Lauro, Robert Simmons, Keyth Talley and Caleb Williams, this year’s squad features a host of returning firepower and an infusion talent with one of the nation’s top recruiting classes that is sure to lead LSU to pinnacle of college track and field again in 2012.
Sprints/Relays
The foundation of the LSU Track & Field program has been built on its success in the sprints and relays as the Tigers feature one of the more talented squads each year in their quest for a national championship. That is certainly evident again this season as the Tigers feature five All-Americans providing the scoring punch needed to compete for championships again in 2012.
Senior standout Riker Hylton emerged as one of the world’s top young 400-meter runners with his performance a year ago as he followed the collegiate season by capturing the Jamaican title in the event while setting a lifetime personal record of 45.30 seconds in the 400-meter final at the 2011 Jamaican National Senior Championships held in Kingston. That improbable race to the finish earned Hylton a trip to Daegu, South Korea, to compete at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics for the first time in his career, where he helped lead Jamaica to a bronze medal with his performance in the 4×400-meter relay.
Hylton, who was an NCAA Championships qualifier in the 400-meter dash both indoors and outdoors in 2011, is the NCAA’s No. 4-ranked returning quartermiler for his senior season as he is a strong All-America candidate in the event this spring.
Joining Hylton to form one of the NCAA’s deepest stables of 400-meter runners this year are seniors Ade Alleyne-Forte and Robert Simmons and junior Caleb Williams.
Williams has proven himself as one of the nation’s top quartermilers during his collegiate career as he recorded PRs of 46.08 to rank No. 5 indoors and 45.61 to rank No. 9 outdoors on LSU’s all-time performance list in the 400-meter dash. After earning a 10th-place finish nationally at the NCAA Indoor Championships as a freshman in 2010, Williams nearly reached All-America status indoors again as a sophomore in 2011 with his 12th-place finish at the NCAA meet. He also competed outdoors at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds for the second-straight season.
Simmons is a former NCAA Indoor All-American in his own right who captured the SEC Indoor crown and took fourth place nationally in the 400-meter dash at the NCAA Indoor meet as a freshman in 2009. He has recorded PRs of 46.22 indoors and 45.84 outdoors during his career at LSU to rank among the nation’s leading performers in the 400-meter dash.
That depth has earned LSU the label as a national championship contender in the 4×400-meter relay this season as Simmons (46.46), Alleyne-Forte (45.21), Williams (44.53) and Hylton (44.88) teamed to run the second-fastest time in program history in the national final a year ago at 3 minutes, 1.07 seconds to finish runner-up at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. It is a run that ranks second in school history only to the collegiate record of 2:59.59 set by the Tigers in 2005.
LSU finished as the national runner-up to Texas A&M, which must find replacements for three of its four legs that won the NCAA Outdoor title with a time of 3:00.62.
Senior Keyth Talley is sure to lead LSU’s group of short sprinters following his junior year in 2011 in which he advanced to the national semifinal in the 200-meter dash and ran the third leg on LSU’s 4×100-meter relay team that earned All-America honors with fourth place at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. He was also part of the foursome that clocked a 2011 seasonal-best time of 38.77 en route to a Penn Relays championship.
Talley owns personal bests of 6.68 in the 60 meters, 10.35 in the 100 meters, and 20.78 in the 200 meters in the wake of his All-American junior campaign with the Tigers a year ago.
The pool for LSU’s 4×100-meter relay team will be deep again this year as it returns such standouts as junior national champion hurdler Barrett Nugent, who has run the leadoff leg for the Tigers at the NCAA Championships in each of the last three seasons. The Tigers are also ready for the emergence of redshirt sophomore Rynell Parson as an All-America threat in the 100 meters as he clocked a 2011 seasonal best of 10.28 after sitting out with an injury as a true freshman back in 2010. Parson owns a 100-meter PR of 10.23 that he set as a high school sophomore in 2007.
The Tigers are also excited for the debut of the nation’s No. 1-ranked dual sprinter at the prep level for the Class of 2011 as Homewood, Ala., product Aaron Ernest is set to make his collegiate debut in 2012. Ernest signed with wind-legal PRs of 10.33 in the 100-meter dash and 20.72 in the 200-meter dash as one of the nation’s leading prep prospects in each event.
Hurdles
After finishing as the NCAA runner-up in his two previous appearances at the NCAA Championships, Nugent struck gold for the first time in his collegiate career with an upset victory in the national final of the 110-meter hurdles held at the 2011 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.
Nugent finished runner-up to national champion Andrew Riley of Illinois in the finals of the 110-meter hurdles at the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Championships and the 60-meter hurdles at the 2011 NCAA Indoor Championships before lining up as a favorite to challenge for his first NCAA title as an LSU Tiger during the 2011 outdoor season. And Nugent again played the role of underdog after drawing Lane 8 as the No. 7 seed following the semifinal round.
But it was Nugent who crossed the finish line as the 2011 NCAA Outdoor champion with his wind-aided run of 13.28 as he edged Riley (13.33w) at the tape to take the title. His victory snapped a 24-year drought as he became LSU’s first national champion in the 110 hurdles since a gold-medal winning performance by former Tiger Eric Reid during the 1987 season.
While preparing to wrap up a brilliant collegiate career as a senior in 2012, Nugent has already solidified his position as the most decorated sprint hurdler in the history of the LSU Track & Field program as a seven-time All-American and school-record holder in the 60 hurdles (7.60) and 110 hurdles (13.35).
Not only did Nugent capture his first career NCAA title in the 110-meter hurdles as a junior a year ago, but he also defended the SEC Outdoor crown he won in 2010 as he showed once again to be the class of the Southeastern Conference. Nugent has captured three league titles over the past two seasons in addition to his performance at the NCAA Championships.
The Tigers will again look to Nugent to score big points in championship action this year as they are sure to contend for SEC and NCAA championships. He is sure to contend for national titles of his own in the sprint hurdles once again during the 2012 campaign.
Middle Distance/Distance
The Tigers have built a strong tradition in the middle distance events under the direction of assistant head coach Mark Elliott, and they will compete in 2012 with a youthful squad of 800-meter runners led by sophomore Keith Griffith and freshman Quincy Downing.
A native of Burlington, N.J., Griffith actually split his time between the 400-meter dash and 800-meter run during his freshman campaign a year ago while competing in each event at the SEC Championships. Griffith made his debut for the Tigers at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds lining up in the 400 meters. He set personal bests of 47.89 indoors and 47.32 outdoors during his rookie season with the Tigers.
Griffith signed with the Tigers as one of the elite middle distance recruits in the Northeast with a personal record of 1:52.94 in the 800 meters during his prep career.
Downing is an elite middle distance prospect in his own right following his prep career at Glenville High School in Dayton, Ohio, where he established personal records of 47.77 in the 400 meters and 1:51.99 in the 800 meters.
Downing set his 800-meter PR in winning the event title at the 2009 USA Track & Field World Youth Track & Field Trials to qualify for the IAAF World Youth Championships. Downing has earned experience competing at the highest levels of youth track and field following starts at such events as the USA Junior Championships and New Balance Outdoor Nationals.
Jumps
After qualifying for the national final in the long jump at the 2011 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Tiger standout Damar Forbes leaped into the record book on his fourth attempt of the competition as he shattered his own personal best and joined the 27-foot club by soaring 27 feet, 0 inches into the pit with one of the more impressive performances by an LSU Tiger during the four-day meet in Des Moines, Iowa, a year ago.
That performance earned Forbes his first career All-America accolade as the sophomore finished as the NCAA runner-up and within six inches of taking home his first career NCAA title. He became the first Tiger since John Moffitt in 2004 to eclipse the 27-foot mark in the long jump with the No. 3-ranked mark on LSU’s all-time outdoor performance list in the event.
But Forbes did not stop there as he made his debut at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics while competing for Jamaica and finishing in 20th place overall in the event held in Daegu, South Korea. Forbes, who nearly earned All-America honors during the indoor season with a ninth-place finish in the long jump at the NCAA Indoor Championship, ended his sophomore season as the No. 18-ranked long jumper worldwide for the 2011 campaign.
Forbes, who hails from Decatur, Ga., will compete this spring as a national championship contender in the long jump while leading the Tiger jumpers in 2012.
Joining Forbes as part of a talented jumps group is All-American hopeful Kyron Blaise of Toco, Trinidad & Tobago. In his first season with the Tigers in 2011, Blaise was an NCAA Championships qualifier in both the long jump and triple jump as one of the top performers in the country during his junior season.
Blaise nearly earned his first career All-America honor in his NCAA debut as he finished in ninth place in the triple jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships as a junior in 2011. He added a 12th-place finish in the long jump indoors before competing for LSU in the triple jump at the NCAA Outdoor Championships to wrap up the collegiate season. He posted a lifetime PR of 53-8 ¼ in the triple jump during his first season with the program a season ago.
The Tigers also feature a pair of All-SEC pole vaulters on the roster this season as they welcome back the likes of senior Marcus McGehee and junior Thomas Reinecke to the squad in 2012.
McGehee returns for his final season of indoor eligibility after capturing All-SEC honors last season with a runner-up finish in the pole vault at the SEC Indoor and SEC Outdoor meets for his first and second career all-conference performances. While also making his NCAA debut with the Tigers, McGehee cleared PRs of 17-7 ½ indoors and 17-7 ¾ outdoors to highlight the event in 2011 for the Tigers. Reinecke, the 2010 SEC Indoor runner-up, owns a lifetime PR of 17-0.
The Tigers feature two other 17-foot pole vaulters in junior Joseph Caraway (17-0 ¾) and freshman Andreas Duplantis (17-2), as well as one of the nation’s premier high jump prospects in the Class of 2011 in Cecilia, La., native William LeBlanc (6-11).
Throws
The 2011 season saw the end of an era as Walter Henning wrapped up his collegiate career as arguably the greatest thrower in the storied history of the LSU Track & Field program. After sweeping NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor titles in the weight throw and hammer throw as a junior in 2010, Henning defended his crown with a repeat national title in the weight throw in his senior season before capturing a third-place finish in the hammer throw at the NCAA Outdoor Championships a year ago.
In three seasons with the Tigers from 2009-11, Henning won three NCAA titles and took home six All-America honors from the NCAA Championships as the unquestioned leader of the men’s team. He also posted an unbeaten record against SEC competition with a sweep of SEC Indoor and SEC Outdoor titles in each of his three seasons in Baton Rouge.
Henning also wrapped up his collegiate career as the school-record holder with personal best marks of 78-1 in the weight throw and 239-5 in the hammer throw as an LSU Tiger.
Despite Henning’s departure, the Tigers are poised contend in the throws once again at the NCAA Championships as they are led by the likes of senior All-American Michael Lauro as a standout in both the weight throw and hammer throw.
Lauro proved himself as one of the nation’s leading hammer throwers as a junior a season ago while earning an All-American sixth-place finish in the event at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, setting a personal record of 221-3 in his series at the national meet. But he didn’t stop there as he raised his hammer PR to 223-0 in a win at Hammerama 2011 in his home state of Rhode Island during the summer. In addition, Lauro nearly earned All-SEC honors in the hammer throw with his fourth-place finish at the SEC Championships.
Lauro also made an NCAA Championships appearance during the indoor season with his performance in the weight throw as he nearly scored for the Tigers with an 11th-place finish in his second-straight NCAA Indoor appearance in the event. He established his PR of 70-7 in the weight throw en route to an All-SEC second-place finish at the SEC Indoor Championships in earning automatic qualification into the national meet.
The Tigers are also led in the throws by All-SEC javelin standout Aaron Moore of Mandeville, La. Moore established a personal record of 228-6 in the javelin as a junior in 2011 as one of the nation’s leading performers. He is a three-time NCAA Championship qualifier with his event and a former SEC runner-up during his sophomore season in 2010.
Other SEC scorers returning to the squad this season include senior Ryan Roubion in the javelin and junior Daniel Obioha in the discus. Roubion has set a PR of 210-10 with SEC finishes of fifth place in 2009 and eighth place in 2011. Obioha recorded a PR of 167-9 in a seventh place in the discus at the SEC Championships a season ago.
The Tigers also welcome a pair of standout recruits from the Class of 2011 to solidify the depth of the throws group as freshmen Rodney Brown of Chappell Hill, Texas, and Jeremy Tuttle of Sierra Vista, Ariz., will make their collegiate debuts this season.