BATON ROUGE – After leading the No. 2-ranked Lady Tigers to a victory over No. 17-ranked Texas A&M in Saturday’s second-annual LSU vs. Texas A&M Dual Meet, senior Cassandra Tate and freshman Tori Bliss were recognized by the Southeastern Conference on Tuesday afternoon with two of this week’s SEC Athlete of the Week honors announced by the league office.
Tate has been named the SEC Women’s Runner of the Week for the first time in her career, while Bliss is the SEC Women’s Co-Freshman of the Week in the wake of LSU’s dual meet victory.
Tate catapulted herself to the top of the national rankings in the 400-meter dash in her 2012 indoor season debut in the event while cruising to victory with a new indoor personal record and the No. 1-ranked effort in the NCAA at 53.13 seconds during Saturday’s action at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.
In an event that produced five of the Top 10 400-meter times in the NCAA for the 2012 season, Tate won the dual meet title over the likes of No. 3-ranked Rebecca Alexander of LSU (53.63), No. 4-ranked Kamaria Brown of Texas A&M (53.77), No. 9-ranked Ibukun Mayungbe of Texas A&M (54.34), and No. 10-ranked Siedda Herbert of LSU (54.40) in the three-section final.
Tate’s 2012 season opener of 53.13 is almost a full half second ahead of the NCAA’s No. 2-ranked run of 53.61 by Arkansas standout Regina George through two weeks of the indoor campaign.
Bliss earned her first collegiate victory with a record-setting performance in the shot put on Saturday after helping the Lady Tigers solidify their 82.5-76.5 victory over the Aggies in this year’s dual meet.
Bliss set a new lifetime personal record of 50 feet, 11 ½ inches on her third attempt of the competition for a narrow shot put victory over Texas A&M freshman Brea Garrett (50-10 ¾). That performance eclipsed her previous lifetime PR of 50-9 ½ that she set as a high school senior during the 2011 outdoor season for a gold-medal winning performance at the New Balance Outdoor Nationals.
A native of Portage, Ind., Bliss is the No. 3-ranked freshman in the NCAA in the shot put this season, and is the No. 1-ranked freshman and No. 3-ranked performer among all classifications in the SEC. Only seniors Annie Alexander of Tennessee (58-1) and Keely Medeiros of Florida (51-5) rank ahead of Bliss in the current SEC rankings in the shot put for the 2012 season.
LSU’s 2012 SEC Track & Field Athletes of the Week
SEC Women’s Runner of the Week
Jan. 24 – Cassandra Tate
SEC Women’s Freshman of the Week
Jan. 24 – Tori Bliss