The Tigers earned a pair of top-10 team finishes at the NCAA Championships during the 2015 season as they followed a tie for seventh place indoors by winning their second-straight fourth-place team trophy outdoors at Oregon’s Hayward Field last June. Leading the way were nine All-Americans in such event areas as the sprints, hurdles, relays and throws as the Tigers again earned their place among the top teams in collegiate track and field once again.
They will follow a similar formula for success again in 2016 as they return five All-Americans to this year’s squad to help power a national championship run this spring. Led by returning All-Americans Tremayne Acy, Fitzroy Dunkley, Cyril Grayson, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and Jordan Moore along with their powerful relay teams as NCAA title contenders and a heralded recruiting class, 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 the men’s throwers that are looking to step up to the plate and take over from the departed Rodney Brown and Jeremy Tuttle in 2016.
Men’s Throws
LSU’s throws group has been instrumental in the Tigers’ success in recent years with record-setting and All-American discus thrower Rodney Brown and perennial SEC scorer and NCAA Championship qualifier Jeremy Tuttle piling up the points for the team in the championship meets at the conference and national level.
Brown, a two-time SEC Champion and former All-American in his time with the Tigers, closed out his career in 2015 as LSU’s school-record holder in the discus throw with a lifetime best of 213 feet, 5 inches last spring in a meet-record-setting performance at the 121st Penn Relay Carnival. He was twice crowned the Penn Relays Champion in the event with meet-record throws in 2014 and 2015.
Brown was twice crowned the SEC’s discus champion as a sophomore in 2013 and as a senior a year ago, while also earning All-America honors as the fourth-place finisher nationally at the NCAA meet in 2013.
He followed his senior season by stepping onto the international stage for Team USA at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics while making the trip to Beijing for his debut appearance at that level. Brown will next turn his attention to Rio de Janeiro next summer as he competes to earn a spot on his first Olympic team for the United States.
After signing with the Tigers from Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Arizona, nearly five years ago, Tuttle proved to be one of the most versatile athletes in Derek Yush‘s throws group in his career as he competed in an array of events ranging from the weight throw indoors to the hammer, javelin and discus throws outdoors. He was a six-time SEC scorer and three-time NCAA qualifier in his four seasons from 2012-15.
Tuttle left Baton Rouge ranked among the program’s all-time Top 10 performers in three events while setting personal bests of 227-6 in the javelin, 216-8 in the hammer and 63-9 in the weight throw.
But while the Tigers might bid farewell to a proven champion in Brown and championship stalwart in Tuttle, they potentially welcome another with the addition of junior college national champion Johnnie Jackson who earned four All-America honors in two seasons competing for Coffeyville Community College as part of the National Junior College Athletics Association.
Originally from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Jackson was crowned the NJCAA Indoor Champion in the weight throw in each of his two seasons at Coffeyville in 2014 and 2015 and also became the new NJCAA Indoor national record holder in the event at the Region IV Indoor Championships a year ago when he posted a personal-best throw of 66-9 ¼ in claiming the regional crown.
Jackson is also a decorated hammer thrower as a two-time NJCAA Outdoor Silver Medalist in the event and finishing his junior college career with a lifetime best of 208-6 in the event. He is also a strong candidate while at LSU to step into the discus ring as he joins the Tigers with a personal best of 174-2 in the event.
The Tigers boast strong depth in the weight throw and hammer throw events as Jackson will join the likes of seniors David Collins and Patrick Geers in competing for championship honors during the 2016 season.
Collins, who hails from Broadmoor High School in Baton Rouge, qualified to throw the hammer at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds for the first time in his collegiate career in 2015 after unleashing a personal best mark of 206-5 at the LSU Alumni Gold meet last April. That performance moved Collins into the No. 7 spot on LSU’s all-time outdoor performance list in the men’s hammer throw.
Collins also cracked LSU’s all-time Top 10 list in the weight throw indoors when he uncorked a PR of 64-6 ½ at last year’s LSU Indoor Invitational to become the No. 9-ranked performer in school history.
Geers nearly scored for the Tigers in his SEC Championship debut last winter when he threw a personal best of 63-8 ¼ to take ninth place overall in the weight throw final to cap his 2015 indoor season. He later stepped into the circle in both the discus and hammer throws at the SEC Outdoor Championships to close out his junior season. Geers owns personal bests of 167-3 in the discus throw and 202-0 in the hammer throw.
The Tigers also feature two talented javelin throwers in their ranks as Terry Hughes and Garret LeBouef return for their junior year in 2016. Hughes, a two-year letterwinner and two-time SEC Championship competitor with the Tigers, owns a personal best of 207-4 in the event. LeBouef has thrown a lifetime best of 197-11 in the javelin in his time with the Tigers.