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.
Fifth in a 10-part series previews a talented group of men’s throwers during the 2015 season.
Men’s Throws
The LSU Tigers will feature a wealth of talent and depth across all of the event areas with the start of the 2015 season now just one week away, and that is certainly evident in the throws as they look to pile up the points in the championship meets this spring.
Rodney Brown followed an All-America sophomore season in 2013 with a record-setting junior season in 2014 as he became the most prolific discus thrower in the program’s history, and he returns for his senior season as a national championship contender in his specialty.
Brown had flirted with breaking John Nichols’ school record of 209 feet, 1 inch throughout his collegiate career, even raising his personal best to 206-5 at the Texas Relays a year ago at the onset of the 2014 outdoor campaign. He then blew the former NCAA Champion’s 25-year-old mark out of the water with a new Penn Relays record throw of 210-10 to become the top Tiger in the event in program history.
But Brown didn’t stop there as he again raised his own school record by more than a foot during the summer with a personal-best throw of 212-2 in taking the title at USA Track & Field’s Throws Initiative Test Meet held ahead of the USA Outdoor Championships in August.
It was a 2014 season in which Brown earned All-SEC honors as the SEC Outdoor bronze medalist before advancing to the NCAA semifinals in the men’s discus throw for a second year in a row as one of the nation’s premier performers in the event. He was crowned the SEC Champion and earned All-America honors in the discus for the first time in his career while earning a fourth-place finish nationally at the 2013 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
A native of Chappell Hill, Texas, Brown is also one of the SEC’s top shot putters with his efforts as a three-time SEC Championships scorer in the event while posting personal bests of 58-9 ¼ indoors and 57-10 ½ outdoors during his collegiate career.
Joining Brown as a leader of LSU’s throws group during the 2015 season is fellow senior Jeremy Tuttle, who also enters his final season in Baton Rouge with All-America aspirations after advancing to the NCAA semifinals in the hammer throw for the first time a year ago. Tuttle was a 16th-place finisher at the NCAA Outdoor Championships to cap his junior season, and will look to go out as an NCAA finalist and All-American in his final season with the Tigers this spring.
A native of Sierra Vista, Arizona, Tuttle is a versatile athlete as he boasts a best of 216-8 in the hammer throw, as well as PRs of 227-6 in the javelin and 165-10 in the discus outdoors and 63-9 in the weight throw indoors during his collegiate career.
Two Tigers looking to join their teammates as championship scorers in such events as the discus and hammer throws during the 2015 season are junior standouts David Collins and Jeremy Octeau. Collins has thrown a best of 186-9 in the hammer throw, while Octeau has posted a PR of 168-1 in the discus throw in their respective careers.
The Tigers feature a trio of junior javelin throwers who will challenge for one of the eight scoring positions at the SEC Championships in the 2015 season with Philip Moody (204-2), Terry Hughes (203-6) and Garret LeBouef (197-11) returning to the squad in 2015.
Joining the program for the first time is junior college transfer Patrick Geers of Mission Viejo, California. Geers signed with the Tigers as a two-time California Community College Athletic Association champion during his two-year stint at Saddleback College where he posted a personal best of 167-3 in the discus and 202-0 in the hammer prior to his arrival at LSU. He is set to compete in both events in his debut season with the Tigers.