The Lady Tigers relied on youth to return them amongst the NCAA’s elite in 2015 as they cracked the Top 10 by tying for ninth place at the NCAA Indoor Championships before ending the season with an 11th-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with their performance. In all, eight Lady Tigers turned in All-American performances over the course of the season while seven of those athletes reached All-America status for the first time in their collegiate careers.
All eight of those All-Americans make their return to the squad in 2016 as LSU will once again challenge for top honors at the SEC and NCAA Championships. Chanice Chase returns as the only senior All-American in the squad, while other All-Americans in juniors Nataliyah Friar, Rushell Harvey, Jada Martin and Rebekah Wales; and sophomores Mikiah Brisco, Daeshon Gordon and Aleia Hobbs hope to make 2016 a season to remember in Baton Rouge.
Tenth in a 10-part series previews a the women’s throwers who look to play a major role in LSU’s success in the championship meets in 2016.
Women’s Throws
While the 2015 season might have closed the book on one of the historic careers by a Lady Tiger thrower with Tori Bliss‘ departure, it wrote the first chapter in another blossoming career with the emergence of Rebekah Wales as one of the NCAA’s leading javelin throwers during her sophomore season last spring.
Bliss left the program as the most decorated shot putter to ever wear the purple and gold in her four seasons in Baton Rouge from 2012-15 as she was crowned an SEC Indoor Champion, a two-time All-SEC putter and a three-time All-American with the Lady Tigers. She also set indoor and outdoor school records in the event that may stand for years to come.
Bliss’ indoor school record of 60 feet, 7 ¼ inches set at the NCAA Indoor Championships a year ago scored the NCAA silver medal and become the No. 8-ranked shot putter indoors in NCAA history. She then turned her attention outdoors and raised the bar even higher with a lifetime best of 60-8 at the 2015 LSU Invitational to become the No. 9-ranked putter outdoors in collegiate history.
She ended her career as an All-American once again by earning fourth place at the NCAA Outdoor Championships just one season after she earned her first award as the NCAA Outdoor Silver Medalist in 2014.
Bliss’ record-setting career also included setting the SEC Indoor Championships meet record of 60-1 on her very first throw of the competition last season en route to being crowned the SEC Indoor Champion. She then went out as the SEC Outdoor Silver Medalist in her final SEC Championships with the Lady Tigers last May.
The Lady Tigers will surely miss Bliss’ consistent production in the championship meets, but Wales is poised to take the reins of LSU’s throws group after emerging as one of the NCAA’s top javelin throwers in 2015.
A native of West Monroe, Louisiana, and product of West Monroe High School, Wales became the first Lady Tiger to earn All-America honors in the javelin throw in 27 years with her fourth-place finish nationally during last year’s NCAA Outdoor Championships held at Oregon’s Hayward Field. That’s where she threw a series-best of 178-0 on her third throw in the qualifying round to become the first Lady Tiger thrower to score points in the event at the NCAA Championships since Cheryl Coker in 1988.
Wales qualified for the NCAA semifinals for the second-straight season after unleashing her personal-best throw of 179-11 for the second-best qualifying performance at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds to move up to No. 2 on LSU’s all-time outdoor performance list in the women’s javelin. She is also the first Lady Tiger since Coker in the late 1980s to eclipse the 170-foot mark in the event.
Not only that, but Wales is also just the fourth Lady Tiger to be crowned the SEC Champion in the javelin after opening her series with a winning throw of 177-0 at the SEC Championships at Mississippi State.
Wales wasn’t the only Lady Tiger javelin thrower to enjoy the best season of her collegiate career in 2015 as Annie Simoneaux bounced back from two injury-plagued seasons in 2013 and 2014 to throw a PR of 165-6 on the runway at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds to advance to the national semifinals at Hayward Field for the first time in her career.
Simoneaux’s personal-best throw of 165-6 made her the No. 8-ranked javelin thrower in the history of the Lady Tiger program as she followed with a 10th-place finish nationally in the NCAA semifinals with a best throw of 163-6 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The Rayne, Louisiana, native also picked up four points for the team with a fifth-place finish in the javelin final at the SEC Championships last May.
Simoneaux has been an All-SEC performer in her time with the Lady Tigers as she kicked off her career by winning the SEC Outdoor bronze medal as a true freshman in 2011 before scoring the SEC Outdoor silver medal as the conference runner-up as a sophomore in 2012. Those two performances helped the Lady Tigers win their fourth and fifth SEC Outdoor team championships in a six year span from 2007-12.
Simoneaux and LSU’s coaching staff got the ruling they hoped for in the offseason that she would be granted a sixth-year of eligibility to compete again in 2016 after missing the 2013 and 2014 seasons with injury.
Sophomore Sidnie Wilder also looks to take a step forward in her development and contribute for the Lady Tigers in the championship meets this season after finishing her freshman season in 2015 as one of LSU’s top-10 performers in school history in both the weight throw indoors and hammer throw outdoors. She threw a personal best of 58-10 ¼ in the weight throw at last season’s LSU Twilight meet to rank No. 8 in school history in the event, while also throwing a seasonal best of 180-8 in the hammer throw at the Texas Relays to rank No. 9 all-time at LSU.
Wilder, who owns a personal best of 181-8 in the hammer throw from her prep career at Cameron (Wisc.) High School, placed 10th in both events at the SEC Championships in her debut season a year ago.
Also returning to the women’s throws group for the 2016 season is sophomore Marvalyn Vernon, who concluded her freshman season in 2015 with personal bests of 51-7 in the weight throw indoors, and 130-10 in the discus throw and 133-9 in the hammer throw outdoors in her first season in the program.