The LSU men and women’s track squads did not come home with an overall championship this past Saturday. But neither team returned to campus empty-handed from the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers brought home three event national championships and both squads finished as national runners-up, giving LSU the best combined finish in the nation.
“This was really a great track meet for both the men and the women,” LSU coach Dennis Shaver said in a news release. “I’m proud of both teams for what they did. The teams that were picked to win ahead of us just did what they had to do to come out on top.”
Florida State University won its second-straight men’s national championship by totaling 54 points during the four-day meet. The Tigers scored 48 points.
Meanwhile, Arizona State University grabbed the women’s title and finished with 60 points; the Lady Tigers piled up 53 points.
Two event national titles LSU captured in the meet came courtesy of the Lady Tigers.
The women’s 4-by-400 meter relay team ran away with the national championship with a time of 3:28.07. And in a bit of an upset, sprinter Sherry Fletcher grabbed the 100-meter championship. The victory was Fletcher’s first short-sprint win in her two-year LSU career.
“I’m so excited right now. I can’t even explain how I feel,” Fletcher said after the race. “I had no idea that I won until I looked up and saw my name on the board. Out in Lane 9, I wasn’t seeing anybody around me. All I could do was focus on my lane and try to get out to a better start than I did in the semis. I was so surprised to see my name come up first on the board.”
On the men’s side, middle distance runner Isa Phillips won the 400-meter hurdles title, which was the first event in Saturday’s meet finale.
“I knew from the start that I was going to win because I believed that I was going to,” Phillips said. “All champions think like that. It’s all about competing, and I love to get out and compete with the best. I knew I had it in me all the time.”
The highlight of the championship events came in the men’s 100-meter race on day three. LSU’s Trindon Holliday, who also plays football for the Tigers, faced off against Florida State spring Walter Dix. Holliday took an early lead in the race but was overcome by Dix’s speed near the end. Dix clocked a 9.93 time, which is the second-fastest mark ever by a college athlete.
Holliday finished the race with a 10.06 mark. He clocked a school-record 10.02 time in this past Wednesday’s semi-final round but could not duplicate that performance when it counted most.
“I got off to a great start,” Holliday said. “I saw [Dix] coming from the side at about 60 meters. That was an impressive finish by him. I was kind of surprised by my time because it didn’t seem like I was that far behind. I guess I really was.”
The race between Holliday and Dix was highly-anticipated, and it has already been posted on the popular Web site, youtube.com.
“I’m proud of our kids with the way they competed each day of the track meet,” Shaver said. “It was a great effort all the way around. Sure, we would have liked to win, but you can’t be that upset when the athletes perform the way ours did this week.”
—-Contact Kyle Whitfield at [email protected]