BATON ROUGE – Tiger All-Americans Quincy Downing and Joshua Thompson and Lady Tiger standout Mariah Georgetown are now ready to take the next step and embark on their post-collegiate careers as they were among 15 LSU athletes taking part in commencement exercises on Friday morning at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Thompson (interdisciplinary studies) and Georgetown (sport administration) both completed their academic requirements this summer as they received their undergraduate degrees, while Downing graduated back in May but was unable to take part in graduation ceremonies at that time while competing for the Tigers at the SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Downing and Thompson both wrapped up their collegiate careers by leading the Tigers to a repeat of the fourth-place trophy they won a year ago at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Downing, the 2014 NCAA Outdoor Bronze Medalist in the 400-meter hurdles, repeated as an All-American in the event again this season as the fourth-place finisher nationally in the final held at Oregon’s Hayward Field back on June 12. He then led off the Tigers to an NCAA Championship in the 4×400-meter relay by teaming with Fitzroy Dunkley, Cyril Grayson and Vernon Norwood in the meet’s final event.
A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Downing leaves the program as a two-time NCAA Champion, nine-time All-American and five-time All-SEC performer as one of the NCAA’s leading 400-meter hurdlers and a key member of LSU’s 4×400-meter relay over the last four seasons. He was also crowned a World Junior Championships Gold Medalist in the 4×400-meter relay following his freshman season in 2012.
Thompson earned All-America honors for the first time in his collegiate career at this year’s NCAA Outdoor Championships when placing in both the finals of the 110-meter hurdles and 4×100-meter relay.
The Steubenville, Ohio, native led off the Tigers to a bronze-medal-winning third-place finish in the final of the 4×100-meter relay with a seasonal-best time of 38.62 seconds before also finishing fourth nationally in the final of the 110-meter hurdles with a career-best wind-aided time of 13.34 (+3.9) in his final race as an LSU Tiger.
Georgetown was also one of the leading sprint hurdlers for the Lady Tigers in her two seasons at LSU as she ended her career with PRs of 8.29 in the 60-meter hurdles indoors and 100-meter hurdles outdoors. She was an SEC Championship scorer for the Lady Tigers for the first time during the 2014 indoor season when she clocked her personal best of 8.29 for sixth place in the conference final.