By Chris Macaluso
LSUsports.net
The LSU men’s track and field team has had some of the world’s greatest athletes wear the purple and gold since Coach Pat Henry took over the program 14 years ago.
But few have arrived at LSU with as much fan fare and anticipation as horizontal jumper Walter Davis.
The Louisiana native was one of the most sought after recruits in the country after dominating the junior college jumping events at Barton County College in Kansas.
He added to his stock after qualifying for the United States Olympic Team with third-place finishes in both the long and triple jumps at the Olympic trials and finishing 11th in the triple last year in Sydney.
Davis wasted little time in showing LSU’s Southeastern Conference foes why he earned one of the coveted spots on the U.S Olympic Team by breaking the LSU record in both the long and triple jumps and helping the Tigers to a second place finish in the SEC Indoor Championship by sweeping the horizontal jumps.
Davis added a national title to his resume in the indoor season by winning the triple jump. He became the first Tiger track and field athlete to win a national title in a horizontal jump and helped LSU to its first men’s indoor national championship.
This week, Davis hopes to add an outdoor title to his long list of accomplishments when LSU competes in the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., this week.
Davis has the potential to join an elite list of athletes who have won national titles in both horizontal jumps in the same season. Just five other men in history have accomplished that feat, including Olympic champion Mike Conley, who did it twice while at Arkansas in 1984 and 1985.
Another Razorback, Robert Howard won both in back-to-back years as well, accomplishing the feat in 1997 and ’98.
Both Henry and assistant coach Boo Schexdnayder said Davis has both the mental and physical ability to add an LSU athlete’s name to that list.
“Competing in the Olympics last season helped Walter(Davis) a lot as far as preparing him and making him stronger for the college meets,” Shexnayder said. “Competing against the best guys in the world makes some of the athletes he competed against this season not look so tough.”
But, Davis said that doesn’t mean he hasn’t faced a host of very talented jumpers from other teams. His fiercest competition has come from fellow SEC jumper Savante Stringfellow of Ole Miss.
Stringfellow, a fellow Olympian, and Davis have battled each other since the Olympic trials. Davis won a spot competing in both the long and triple jumps by finishing third in both events but decided to concentrate solely on the triple in Sydney.
The spot he vacated in the long jump went to Stringfellow.
“We talk a lot of trash and that pushes me to do well,” Davis said. “But he’s not the only one I trash talk with. Me and the other guys on LSU’s team pick on each other every day in practice. When I get to the meets, I’m ready because we’ve been pushing each other and talking during practice.”
So far this season, Stringfellow holds a slight 4-3 advantage in meet championships. But Davis has won the last two match-ups, taking the Penn Relays and SEC Outdoor titles.
According to Davis, the next title he wins will be the one he’s the most proud of.
“I’m confident I can win at the NCAA Outdoors and we can take home another team title,” Davis said. “If I’m at my best both mentally and physically, I feel like I’m going to win this meet.”