BATON ROUGE – Five members of the LSU Track & Field program were among the 23 student-athletes receiving their college degrees during Friday’s commencement exercises on campus as Fitzroy Dunkley, David Collins, Garret LeBouef, Andreas Duplantis and Ellen Barkemeyer each earned the title as LSU Graduate.
Commencement exercises began at 8:30 a.m. CT and continued through 6 p.m. at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, while ceremonies were also held at the Carl Maddox Field House on campus.
Dunkley and Collins both received marketing degrees from the E.J. Ourso College of Business, while LeBouef secured his degree in electrical engineering from the College of Engineering; Duplantis picked up his degree in textiles, apparel and merchandising from the College of Agriculture and Barkemeyer received her kinesiology degree from the College of Human Sciences & Education.
Congrats to 23 student-athletes who graduated Friday! “The Tribute,” an event recognizing their academic accomplishments, was held Thursday. pic.twitter.com/Gdx0qDdEVo
— LSU Tigers (@LSUsports) December 16, 2016
Dunkley finished his degree requirements in marketing all while guiding the Tigers to a sweep of NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor titles in the 4×400-meter relay and scoring the Olympic silver medal with Jamaica in the same event to highlight a stellar 2016 season on the track. A native of Trelawny, Jamaica, Dunkley also ended his collegiate career as the 2016 NCAA Outdoor Silver Medalist in the men’s 400-meter dash.
Collins was an All-SEC performer in his final season with the Tigers in 2016 as the SEC Indoor Bronze Medalist in the 35-pound weight throw as he launched a career-best of 68 feet, 3 ¾ inches at the SEC Indoor meet for the No. 6-ranked performance in school history in the event. He was also a two-time NCAA qualifier in the hammer throw outdoors while competing at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds in 2015 and 2016.
Duplantis was a four-year letterwinner with the Tigers from 2012-15 and ended his collegiate career as one of the top-10 pole vaulters in school history during both the indoor and outdoor seasons.
The son of former Tiger pole vault standout Greg Duplantis and brother of current LSU Baseball player Antoine Duplantis, Andreas cleared an indoor personal best of 17-9 ¼ to rank No. 4 in school history indoors and an outdoor PR of 17-7 to rank No. 10 in school history outdoors on LSU’s all-time performance lists. An NCAA Outdoor Championships semifinalist in 2012, Andreas scored six times at the SEC Championships between the indoor and outdoor seasons, including top finishes of third place at the SEC Indoor meet in 2013 and fifth place at the SEC Outdoor meet in 2015.
LeBouef is a former javelin thrower with the Tigers while posting a career-best mark of 193-6 in his four seasons from 2013-16, while Barkemeyer just completed her debut cross country season with the Lady Tigers for the 2016 fall season while running seasonal-best times of 16:17.99 for 4k, 19:29.79 for 5k and 23:03.80 for 6k.