BATON ROUGE – After opening her outdoor season Saturday afternoon with a win in the 100-meter hurdles while running one of the top times in the nation at the Louisiana Classics in Lafayette, LSU’s Tonea Marshall was honored for her performance by the Southeastern Conference as the SEC Women’s Freshman of the Week.
Marshall becomes the third member of LSU’s heralded 2016 recruiting class to earn SEC Women’s Freshman of the Week honors as she joins Ruby Stauber (Jan. 17, Feb. 14) and Nickolette Dunbar (Feb. 21).
One of the most highly-touted hurdle recruits to join the NCAA Division I ranks this season, Marshall fired out of the blocks in her outdoor opener for LSU as she won the women’s 100-meter hurdles in Lafayette with a wind-legal time of 13.40 seconds (+1.8). An SEC finalist in the 60-meter hurdles in her rookie season indoors in 2017, Marshall emerged from the meet with the No. 1-ranked wind-legal time in the SEC and No. 5-ranked time in the NCAA following the opening weekend of the outdoor season.
Marshall, who hails from Juan Seguin High School in Arlington, Texas, beat freshman teammate and Hoover (Ala.) High School product Brittley Humphrey to the finish line for the win as Humphrey’s wind-legal 13.51 sat No. 2 in the SEC and tied for No. 8 in the NCAA among wind-legal performances turned in over the weekend.
After taking this week off with the rest of her teammates, Marshall will look to make next week a special homecoming as she returns to her home state to run at the 90th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays running March 29-April 1 at Mike A. Myers Stadium at the University of Texas. Marshall actually set the Texas Relays high school record as a senior in 2016 as she won the girls’ 100-meter hurdles with her wind-legal PR of 13.04.
LSU’S SEC ATHLETES OF THE WEEK FOR 2017
SEC Men’s Field Athlete of the Week
Jan. 24 – Johnnie Jackson
SEC Women’s Freshman of the Week
Jan. 17 – Ruby Stauber
Feb. 14 – Ruby Stauber
Feb. 21 – Nickolette Dunbar
March 21 – Tonea Marshall