Twelve national championships and 10 Southeastern Conference titles in eight years have put the LSU relay teams into the ranks of the track elites and made Baton Rouge home to one of the most prestigious programs in the nation.
“It’s always great to be a part of a program like this,” said senior sprinter Barrett Nugent. “This is probably one of the best programs in the country. It always has been in the past. … They’ve always had great relays. But if you’re on one of these relays you can’t just expect to go out there and run it. You have to be one of the best.”
The program, led by LSU coach Dennis Shaver for the past eight seasons, has played host to some of the sport’s top athletes. Muna Lee, Xavier Carter and Esther Jones have all passed the baton for the purple and gold.
In 2005, the men’s 4×400 team of Reggie Dardar, Kelly Willie, current LSU sprints coach Bennie Brazell and Carter won a national title with a time of 2:59.59. The time set the collegiate record for the event, which still stands unbeaten.
“Each [team] has been unique,” Shaver said. “We’ve had teams that I thought they really only ran just hard enough to win the NCAA title, and then we’ve had teams … and maybe they didn’t win, but I thought they ran well together.”
Looking back to 2003, LSU’s outdoor program has earned 47 top-three finishes for the 4×100 and 4×400-meter relay in either the national or SEC championship meets.
Many of today’s athletes look back to the former Tigers for motivation to push themselves to their full potential. Nugent cites former hurdles standout Eric Reid Sr. as the source of his inspiration.
“Looking at someone like Mr. Reid, coming up here it was a big goal of mine to push to be like [him],” Nugent said. “Without him, I wouldn’t have had that push, and he was my push.”
 
—-
Contact Michael Gegenheimer at [email protected].