BATON ROUGE – For the third week in a row, two members of the LSU Track & Field program have been recognized as Southeastern Conference Athletes of the Week for their performance, as senior Damar Forbes and junior Kimberlyn Duncan were honored Tuesday morning following their effort in leading the Tigers and Lady Tigers at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational.
Duncan becomes the third-straight Lady Tiger to capture SEC Women’s Runner of the Week honors after senior Cassandra Tate was selected on Jan. 24 and junior Charlene Lipsey was honored on Jan. 31.
Forbes is the first Tiger to be honored as an SEC Athlete of the Week this season following his pick as the SEC Men’s Field Athlete of the Week after sweeping long jump and triple jump titles over the weekend.
Duncan is off to a fast start in defense of her NCAA Indoor title in the 200-meter dash after improving on her NCAA-leading performance in the event while taking the event title Saturday afternoon at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational held at The Armory Track & Field Center in New York.
After entering the weekend with the NCAA’s leading time of 23.25 seconds set in her second-place finish at the Razorback Invitational on Jan. 28, Duncan followed the fastest time of the qualifying round at 23.34 with a new NCAA-leading effort of 23.22 to take the New Balance title over Texas A&M standouts Dominique Duncan (23.63) and Ashley Collier (23.66) in Saturday’s final at The Armory.
Not only did Duncan extend her national lead in the 200 meters, but she also cracked the NCAA’s Top 10 in the 60-meter dash on Friday night after running back-to-back seasonal bests of 7.35 in the preliminary round and 7.34 in the final en route to a sixth-place finish and No. 9 national ranking in the event.
A native of Katy, Texas, Duncan has now won 11-straight 200-meter finals against collegiate competition dating back to her win at the Tyson Invitational during the 2011 indoor season a year ago.
Forbes emerged as an All-America threat in both the long jump and triple jump this season after sweeping collegiate event championships with two of the NCAA’s leading performances this weekend.
Forbes put himself in the NCAA title discussion in the long jump on Friday night after recording his 2012 seasonal best of 26 feet, 0 ¾ inches to take the title with the No. 1-ranked performance in the SEC and No. 2-ranked performance in the NCAA this season. He then followed with a collegiate victory during the triple jump on Saturday afternoon while cracking the NCAA’s Top 10 with the No. 2-ranked performance in the SEC and No. 9-ranked performance nationally at 51-10 ½ en route to the win.
A native of Decatur, Ga., Forbes is already within striking distance of his indoor PRs in both jumps which currently stand at 26-3 in the long jump and 51-11 ¾ in the triple jump as he competes in 2012.
LSU’s 2012 SEC Track & Field Athletes of the Week
SEC Men’s Field Athlete of the Week
Feb. 7 – Damar Forbes
SEC Women’s Runner of the Week
Jan. 24 – Cassandra Tate
Jan. 31 – Charlene Lipsey
Feb. 7 – Kimberlyn Duncan
SEC Women’s Field Athlete of the Week
Jan. 31 – Denise Hinton
SEC Women’s Freshman of the Week
Jan. 24 – Tori Bliss