LSU coach Dennis Shaver said Wednesday that junior sprinter Trindon Holliday is not expected to turn professional.
“Every indication is that Trindon is going to continue to be a two-sport athlete at LSU,” Shaver said. “I’d be awfully surprised if he doesn’t come back.”
Holliday has one year of outdoor track eligibility and two years of indoor eligibility remaining.
Holliday burst onto the scene as a sophomore in 2007 with a Southeastern Conference championship and an NCAA runner-up finish in the 100-meter dash. He set the school record in the event at the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Championships at 10.02 seconds.
Teammate Richard Thompson broke Holliday’s record this season with a 9.93-second performance at the 2008 SEC Outdoor Championships.
Holliday finished third behind Thompson and Clemson’s Travis Padgett at the outdoor championships this past weekend.
He will compete in the U.S. Olympic Trials beginning June 27 in Eugene, Ore.
Holliday is ranked fourth among American athletes in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.05 seconds.
“I think I have a nice, legitimate chance of making the [Olympic] team,” Holliday said. “I just have to go out and run the way I know how to run.”
Shaver said Holliday still has some “unfinished business” at LSU.
“Trindon has yet to win an individual [national] title,” Shaver said. “I really think Trindon can win the NCAA championship in the 100-meters next year.”
THOMPSON, SHAVER WIN AWARDS
The LSU victors have racked up some spoils.
Thompson was named NCAA Male Outdoor Runner of the Year on Tuesday, and Shaver was named NCAA Women’s Outdoor Coach of the Year on Wednesday.
Thompson joins former standouts Walter Davis (2002) and Xavier Carter (2006) as the only LSU winners of the award.
Thompson won the 100-meter dash and finished second in the 200-meter dash this past weekend at the outdoor championships. He ran the second leg of LSU’s national champion 4×100-meter relay team.
He was also named SEC Male Indoor and Outdoor Runner of the Year earlier this season.
“Collegiately … he was the very best,” Shaver said of Thompson. “It says a lot for somebody that came in and really no one knew very much about him in his first two years.”
Shaver also won SEC Women’s Indoor and Outdoor Coach of the Year this season, guiding the Lady Tigers to a sweep of the indoor and outdoor conference crowns.
NO LAUGHING MATTER
Shaver’s decision to replace junior Nickiesha Wilson with senior Kelly-Ann Baptiste in the 4×400-meter relay Saturday took several people by surprise.
Sophomore LaTavia Thomas, who ran the third leg, said she had no idea Baptiste was going to run until shortly before the event.
“I don’t think [Shaver] told anybody,” Thomas said. “I didn’t find out until we were about to go onto the track.”
Thomas said she even started laughing when Baptiste arrived with the team before the race.
“It was funny,” Thomas said. “I was laughing when I saw her coming into the clerking area. She told me ‘Don’t laugh, it’s not funny.'”
Shaver said he didn’t talk to the athletes about it during the meet.
“Most of our athletes were unaware that Nickiesha was having any trouble,” Shaver said.
Baptiste replaced Wilson in the relay because Wilson had a hamstring that started bothering her the second day of the meet, Shaver said.
Shaver said he didn’t ask Baptiste to run in the event until after the 200-meter dash but talked to her about being an alternate before that.
“She was always going to be an alternate,” Shaver said. “Right when she came off the track, I wanted [the coaches] to grab her and tell her that she couldn’t go to the awards, that she needed to come … because there was a possibility that we might use her on the [relay].”