BATON ROUGE — After claiming the NCAA Men’s Track and Field Championship last week, LSU head coach Pat Henry was named 2002 Mondo NCAA Division I Coach of the Year and senior Walter Davis was named the men’s 2002 Mondo Athlete of the Year, it was announced by the United States Track and Field Association on Wednesday.
In addition, sophomore Muna Lee earned women’s regional Athlete of the Year honors for the Tigers.
Curtis Frye of South Carolina was named the women’s Coach of the Year after leading the Lady Gamecocks to their first national championship in any sport. Angela Williams of Southern Cal was named the women’s Athlete of the Year after winning an unprecedented fourth-straight 100-meter title.
Henry guided LSU to its fourth NCAA team championship as the Tigers dethroned defending champion Tennessee, 64-57. LSU became the first men’s team to win the event at home since Oregon in 1984 and the first team to win the event at home overall since the Lady Tigers won the 1987 title at Bernie Moore Stadium.
The national title on the men’s side was the 23rd overall of head coach Pat Henry’s career, the second highest total of any coach in any sport in NCAA history. In addition, LSU added to its women’s title from the indoor season and won both a men’s and women’s title in the same year for the third time. LSU is still the only school to win both a men’s and women’s track title in the same year.
Davis won the long jump, triple jump and also led off LSU’s winning 4×100-meter relay team, ending his illustrious career as a nine-time All-American and a six-time national champion.
With his first national championship in the long jump, he recorded a mark of 26 feet 6 1/4 inches. He became the first LSU man to win the event since Llewellyn Starks in 1990.
The 2000 Olympian closed out his collegiate career by shattering his own LSU record in the triple jump, winning with a mark of 56-10 3/4. He closed his collegiate career a perfect 17-0 in the event.
In the process, he became only the sixth man in NCAA history to sweep the horizontal jumps and the first to do so since 1998.
Davis also ran the opening leg of the 4×100-meter relay, joining with Robert Parham, Pete Coley and Bennie Brazell to win the Tigers’ first NCAA short relay title since 1994.
Lee was named the athlete of the year for the South Central Regional after finishing third in the 100 meters and fourth in the 200 meters at the NCAA Championships. She also ran the anchor leg of the 4×100-meter relay team that finished second in the nation.
The national coaches of the year and athletes of the year were selected from a list of regional coaches and athletes of the year for the nine NCAA track and field regions or via write-in. Henry was selected as a write-in.