BATON ROUGE – The LSU track and field program will be well-represented in Des Moines, Iowa, this weekend at the 2010 USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships as nine current and former athletes will be competing at Drake Stadium on the campus of Drake University.
The action is set to kick off Thursday and will run through Sunday as the very best track and field athletes at the youth, college and professional levels in the United States will be competing.
A quartet of 2010 All-Americans will lead the charge for the Tigers and Lady Tigers after wrapping up an outstanding collegiate season two weeks ago at the 2010 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships held at historic Hayward Field at the University of Oregon.
Two-time NCAA champion Walter Henning will compete against the country’s best in the hammer throw after winning the national championship in the event in dramatic fashion two weeks ago. After trailing the runner-up Alexander Ziegler of Virginia Tech throughout the competition, Henning unleashed a throw of 238 feet, 10 inches on his sixth and final attempt to take the title.
With the win, Henning became the first collegiate thrower since 2006 to sweep NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor titles in the weight throw and hammer throw, while also sweeping SEC titles for the second time.
Joining Henning in Des Moines this weekend will be sophomore hurdle star Barrett Nugent, who finished as the NCAA runner-up in the 110-meter hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Nugent broke the 23-year-old LSU school record in the event in his second-place finish with a new personal-record time of 13.49 seconds. Eric Reid’s previous school record of 13.50 was set back in 1987.
A pair of All-American 800-meter runners will be in action this weekend at the USA Championships with departing seniors LaTavia Thomas and Richard Jones scheduled to run in the event.
Thomas wrapped up her brilliant career with 12 All-America honors as a Lady Tiger, which includes third place in the 800-meter run two weeks ago at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Jones won All-America honors during the indoor season with a fourth-place finish in the 800 meters at the NCAA Indoor meet.
Two-time World Indoor champion and current world-leader Lolo Jones will headline a star-studded group of former LSU athletes slated to compete this weekend at the USA Championships.
Jones has been impressive in 2010 as she is the current world leader in the 100-meter hurdles with a wind legal time of 12.55 to her credit this outdoor season. Jones has won all three IAAF Diamond League races in the 100-meter hurdles this season, while setting her world-leading time of 12.55 in a win June 12 at the adidas Grand Prix in New York. She has also won races in Doha, Qatar, and Oslo, Norway.
Jones successfully defended her World Indoor crown in the 60 hurdles in record-breaking fashion with an American record of 7.72 at the IAAF World Indoor Championships, also held in Doha, Qatar.
U.S. Indoor champion Jeremy Hicks will look to add the USA Outdoor crown to his season as he steps on the long jump runway this weekend. Other former LSU stars scheduled to compete this weekend at the USA Championships include Xavier Carter in the 200 meters and Ryan Fontenot in the 110 hurdles.
The future of the Lady Tiger program will also be on display at the USA Senior Championships as signee Jen Clayton of Suffern, N.Y., is set to compete in the women’s long jump.
A pair of Lady Tiger freshmen will also be competing this weekend at the USA Junior Championships set to run at Drake Stadium as Takeia Pinckney will compete in the 100-meter dash and Charlene Lipsey will line up in the 800-meter run following their outstanding rookie campaigns.
Pinckney is coming off a freshman season in which she earned three All-America honors, including a pair at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with a fourth-place finish in the 100-meter dash and as the third leg on LSU’s 4×100-meter relay team that finished as the national runner-up in 2010.