LSU junior All-American and indoor national champion thrower Walter Henning knows something about breaking records — he’s been doing it since his days at St. Anthony’s High School in South Huntington, N.Y., where he broke a 25-year-old record during his senior year. Henning originally committed to North Carolina after setting multiple national records in the indoor weight throw. Henning chose to transfer to LSU after his freshman year at North Carolina.The decision to come to LSU was a two-part choice. Henning wanted to be part of the winning tradition at LSU and wanted to throw under assistant coach Derek Yush.”Me and coach [Yush] have been right on the money since I got down here,” Henning said. “All our training has been going well.” It was obvious since Henning’s second throw in an LSU uniform the Tigers had something special. Henning launched the 35-pound implement 72 feet, 3 3/4 inches, setting a new LSU record by nearly 2 1/2 feet in his first meet.”Walt leads by example in a lot of ways. He’s competitive, and it’s just really raised the bar,” Yush said. “He comes in, and he works hard every day, and I think everybody else follows.”Henning had an outstanding sophomore campaign that included two All-American performances, a Southeastern Conference title in both the weight throw and the hammer throw and a runner-up finish at the NCAA outdoor championships.But it’s the All-American’s junior campaign that has been generating buzz. Henning has thoroughly dominated the competition by winning all 10 meets this season.The closest any competitor has come to matching Henning’s output was in the NCAA championships, where Memphis’ Steffen Nerdal came nearly within a foot of Henning’s winning throw of 77 feet, 3 3/4 inches.A quick look at the LSU record book shows Henning’s place in history. Henning has beaten the previous gold-standard for the Tigers in the event at every meet since he arrived on campus.The previous bests for the Tigers were 69 feet, 11 1/2 inches in the weight throw and 222 feet, 3 inches in the hammer throw. Henning topped those marks by 8 feet, 1 1/2 inches and 17 feet, 2 inches, respectively.But Henning isn’t concerned about his legacy at LSU or the amount of attention he gets.”It’s not about how far you throw, it’s about how many points you score at the national meet,” Henning said. “If I could have three national championships next to my name, that’s what I’m looking for. I don’t really care about throwing more than 250 feet in college.”LSU coach Dennis Shaver said Henning has had a tangible effect on the entire team.”Performance speaks. He’s a great competitor,” Shaver said. “When you have a great performer in one of the event groups, it carries over to the other people in that event group, and I think the enthusiasm sometimes gets carried over to the entire team.”Henning’s performances at the top of the collegiate ranks have been masterful, but he may be best known for an errant throw in practice. While practicing at his high school, Henning threw an off-target heave that destroyed school property.”Usually we threw from the half-court line,” Henning said. “One of the throws got away from me and it smashed the corner off one of the basketball backboards.” Henning still has the chunk of backboard, which was proudly on display in his room at his parents’ house.——Contact Luke Johnson at [email protected]