COLUMBIA, S.C. — Claston Bernard earned his place in history, highlighting the second day of competition for the LSU track and field team at the Southeastern Conference Championships at Weems Baskin Track in Columbia, S.C.
After two days of competition and with only a handful of finals contested so far, the Tigers sit in fourth place with 18 points, while the Lady Tigers are tied with Auburn for fourth place in the women’s competition with 9 Points. Georgia eads the men’s competition with 23 points, while Arkansas has a commanding lead in the women’s competition with 47.
The story of the day for LSU, however, was Bernard’s continued assault on the SEC record book.
Bernard became the first man in SEC history to win three consecutive decathlon titles and made a major breakthrough, surpassing the 8,000 point barrier with a winning total of 8,024.
“I’ve been waiting so long to reach 8,000 points and I finally did it,” said an exhausted Bernard. ‘It finally hit me in the last lap of the 1,500 when the announcer said I only needed to run an 80-second lap to reach 8,000.
“For decathletes, 8,000-points is the standard by which you are taken seriously. I want people to consider me among the elite decathletes and I needed to reach that level.”
Bernard became only the third man in LSU history to eclipse the 8,000 point plateau and registered the second highest winning total in Championship history behind only Mikael Olander of LSU who posted a winning total of 8,126 in 1988.
In addition, he accomplished the feat by registering personal best marks in seven of the 10 events of the competition. After registering three personal best times on Thursday, Bernard set new PR’s in his final four events on Friday.
“Claston put together a tremendous two-day effort,’ said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “He has worked so hard to get where he is and he continues to improve. He set a goal to win his third straight title and to reach 8,000 points and he followed through with it, he was not going to settle for anything less.”
After opening the day with a respectable 14.78 in the 110-meter hurdles to finish third, Bernard began to heat up.
He won the discus with a throw of 158-3, cleared a career-best 13-5 1/4 in the pole vault, then added the javelin title with a throw of 188-2.
With one event remaining, Bernard built up an insurmountable lead of nearly 400 points and needed to run under 4:40.00 to reach 8,000 points. While his 1,500-meter run was far from graceful, he plugged away to a personal best time of 4:36.84 to reach his goal and put his name in the history books.
Monet Rice finished seventh in her first SEC heptathlon, posting a score of 4,597. Rice moved from eighth to seventh in the final event of the competition, finishing four seconds ahead of Monique McClure of Ole Miss in the 800-meter run to swap places.
In other finals contested on Friday, LSU got a pair of fourth place finishes in the hammer. Candice Gonzalez finished fourth in the women’s hammer with a throw of 181-3, just off her season best, while 2000 SEC runner up Javier Nieto managed only a fourth place finish in the men’s competition with a throw of 199-6.
“That’s a great effort for Candice, she continues to get better and better and that was a breakthrough for her to get into the top five in an SEC meet as only a sophomore,” Henry added. “We thought Javier would finish higher, but those things happen.”
In the only track finals of the day, Likhaya Dayile finished sixth in the men’s 10,000-meter run with a time of 30:51.18, while Bridget Cusack placed seventh in the women’s with a time of 37:31.63.
Elsewhere on the track, the Lady Tigers advanced well in the 200-meter dash, but the Tigers were unable to advance any athletes in either the 200 or 800-meter run.
Muna Lee won her 200-meter heat with a time of 22.91 while Stephanie Durst finished second in her heat, but still advanced to Sunday’s final with a time of 23.28.
Myra Combs, ranked third in the nation heading into this weekend’s competition was unable to advance, however, finishing second in her heat with a time of 23.55. The Lady Tigers were also unable to advance any athletes in either the 800 or 400-meter hurdles.
Action heats up at the SEC Championshps on Saturday. The much anticipated men’s long jump, showcasing Olympians Walter Davis of LSU and Savante Stringfellow of Ole Miss. The sprints will take center stage on the track, with prelims of the short hurdles, 100 and 400-meter dashes, while Susanne Strunz attempts to become the first Lady Tiger to win an event over 800 meters, as she will compete in the 3,000-meter steeplechase.
Notes
* Bernard’s point total of 8,024 broke his own Jamaican national record of 7,833, set in March at College Station, Texas.
* Bernard joined school record-holder Mario Sategna and Mikael Olander as only the third man in LSU history to reach the 8,000-point barrier.
* Bernard won five events, the second time in three years that he won half the events. He won three in Baton Rouge last year, giving him 13 victories in 30 events over the last three SEC decathlons.
* Bernard’s score was the second highest in SEC Championship history behind only Olander’s meet record total of 8.126. It was only the second score of 8,000 points in SEC Championship history.
* The fourth place finish by Candice Gonzalez in the women’s hammer is the highest finish ever by a Lady Tiger in the event.