The LSU track and field teams performed well at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., but couldn’t scrounge enough points together to take home the team titles at the event.The Tigers finished fourth, while the Lady Tigers finished third.The Tigers finished with 42 points, 15 points behind Southeastern Conference foe Florida, who won the national title with 57 points. Texas A&M and Oregon finished tied for second with 44 points each, respectively.The Lady Tigers finished well behind Oregon for first place but managed to hold off several other teams in a close race for the remaining spots. Oregon won with 61 points, and Tennessee came in second with 36 points, one point ahead of LSU’s 35.”That was just an incredible meet for both of our teams,” LSU coach Dennis Shaver said in a news release. “I have no doubt in my mind that we had about as good a meet as we could have on both sides. I’m not only proud of the way we performed, but with the way we competed in the track meet from the very first event Friday. I could not have asked for more from our kids with the way they represented LSU.” Junior thrower Walter Henning added to his growing resumé with his first national championship in the weight throw. Henning won the event with his third throw, a whopping 77-foot, 3 3/4-inch throw that was more than a foot longer than his nearest competitor, Steffen Nerdel of Memphis.Henning finished fourth at the event last season.”This is absolutely awesome. I’m just so happy right now getting this win,” Henning said in a news release. “That’s exactly what it means: 10 points. That was the goal coming in, and that was all I was thinking about throughout the entire competition. The team is always more important than the individual.”The national title in the weight throw caps an impressive indoor season for Henning, who claimed the longest throw in the country this season and won every meet he participated in this season.”Naturally, I’m going to have butterflies for any big meet whether it’s the SECs or the NCAAs,” Henning said. “Last night, I think I may have got four hours of sleep. But it’s all worth it after this win today. I’m very excited and look forward to the outdoor season.”Junior Zedric Thomas earned two separate All-American nods at the meet. The New Iberia native was the runnerup in the triple jump and the fourth-place finisher in the long jump.Sophomore hurdler Barrett Nugent earned his first All-American honor on the strength of his 7.65-second run in the 60-meter hurdles. Nugent’s efforts were good enough for fourth place.The Lady Tigers relied on the ever-stellar performance of senior LaTavia Thomas, who garnered her fifth All-American honor in the 800-meter run.Thomas ran the race in 2 minutes, 3.90 seconds and finished the event in third place, just one hundredth of a second behind the second-place finisher, Lacey Cramer of BYU.Thomas also anchored the Lady Tigers’ 4×400-meter relay team, which sped past the finish line with a season-best time of 3 minutes, 33.79 seconds, good enough to grab runner-up honors on the national stage.Another Lady Tiger standout, senior Samantha Henry, picked up her 12th career All-American honors this weekend after finishing sixth in the 60-meter dash and seventh in the 200-meter dash.The LSU track and field teams begin their outdoor season next weekend in Lafayette in the Louisiana Classics, hosted by Louisiana-Lafayette.
 
 
 
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