The Tigers featured a balanced attack while taking home the fourth-place team trophy from the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships a season ago after also earning a top-10 team finish with a tie for eighth place nationally during the 2014 indoor season. Leading the way were nine All-Americans in such event areas as the sprints, hurdles, relays and throws as the Tigers again cemented their position as one of the top teams in collegiate track and field.
They will follow that formula for success again in 2014 as they return seven of their nine All-Americans from last year to help fuel a national championship run during the 2015 campaign. Led by the likes of seniors Aaron Ernest, Vernon Norwood, Quincy Downing, Rodney Brown and their powerful relay teams as NCAA title contenders, the pieces are in place for the Tigers to contend for their first national championship since the 2004 season.
Fourth in a 10-part series previews the men’s jumpers during the 2015 season.
Men’s Jumps
The Tigers will join the national championship chase with a senior-laden squad during the 2015 collegiate track and field season, and among LSU’s All-America contenders that look to score the points at the NCAA Championships is pole vaulter Andreas Duplantis as he will put on the purple and gold for the final time this spring.
A three-time NCAA Championship qualifier outdoors in the pole vault during his college career, Duplantis looks to take his performance to new heights as he enters the 2015 season with a personal best of 17 feet, 9 ¼ inches indoors and 17-7 outdoors as one of the top returning vaulters to the collegiate ranks.
The son of former Tiger All-American Greg Duplantis, Andreas ranks among the squad’s all-time great pole vaulters as the No. 4-ranked performer indoors and No. 7-ranked performer outdoors in the history of the LSU program.
After advancing to the NCAA semifinals at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships during his freshman season in 2012, Duplantis advanced to the quarterfinal round at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds in each of the last two seasons as one of the Tigers’ best in the event. He owns a career-best 19th-place finish at the NCAA Championships in his career as he competes for his first All-America honor in the event in 2015.
Duplantis is also a four-time SEC Championships scorer in his time with the Tigers and a former SEC Indoor bronze medalist in the event.
Joining Duplantis in the pole vault during the 2015 season will be fellow Louisiana native Cameron Robichaux, who returns to the squad following his freshman season last spring in which he set a lifetime best of 16-6 ¾ during the 2014 indoor season.
Returning to lead the Tigers in the horizontal jumps is New Jersey native Jonathan Pitt as he steps onto the runway for his sophomore season. After signing with the Tigers from South Brunswick High School, Pitt qualified for the NCAA Championship in his first outdoor campaign at LSU while competing at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds. He also scored for the team with an eighth-place finish in the triple jump final in his SEC Indoor Championships debut in 2014.
Following a strong fall training regimen, Pitt is poised to build on his freshman successes and improve his personal bests of 50-2 ½ indoors and 49-9 ¼ outdoors set a year ago.
While Pitt is the team’s top returning performer in the horizontal jumps, the Tigers are set to welcome Opelousas (La.) High School product Da’Quan Bellard into the program for the 2015 spring semester as the in-state standout enrolls at LSU in January.
A four-time Louisiana Class 4A state champion in the long jump and triple jump during a heralded high school career, Bellard was honored as the Most Outstanding Performer in Class 4A in leading Opelousas High School to the state crown at the 2014 Louisiana High School Athletics Association Outdoor State Track & Field Championships last spring. He swept Class 4A titles for the long jump (23-8 ½w) and triple jump (49-6) to cap his senior season, emerging from the event as the No. 10-ranked high school triple jumper in the United States for the 2014 season.
While setting a lifetime best of 49-6 in the triple jump in his final state meet at Opelousas High School, Bellard also set a personal best of 24-3 in the long jump during his senior season.