Richard Thompson came back to campus for one more record Friday night at the LSU Twilight track and field meet.A packed Carl Maddox Field House got quite a show from Thompson and former Florida State sprinter Walter Dix, both of whom were 2008 Olympians. Thompson and Dix went head to head in the preliminaries of the men’s 60-meter dash, with Dix besting Thompson with a time of 6.72 seconds to Thompson’s 6.74.When Dix declined to run in the finals, the finals were all about Thompson. He raced past the finish line with a time of 6.59 seconds, tying the Field House record.Thompson, who will skip the Indoor World Championships, said his focus is on the outdoor season.”As the outdoor season starts, I’m going to try to run in some smaller meets and work on 400s, 4x4s, 200s, getting myself stronger for the 100-meters because you see some of those guys were pulling away from me at the end of the race,” Thompson said. “I need to get stronger and work on my technical aspect.”Thompson, who trains in Baton Rouge, said he has faith in a good season thanks to LSU coach Dennis Shaver.”Coach Shaver is such a great coach,” Thompson said. “I have so much faith in him. I’m sure I’ll be able to run faster this year and in years to come.”It was a record-breaking night all around for the Tigers and Lady Tigers. Some people on the team sat out the meet to rest for Southeastern Conference Championships. Many of those who participated broke their own personal best marks.Senior Will Coppage placed second in the men’s long jump with a season-best jump of 25 feet, 3 inches, an NCAA provisional mark. Sophomore Earnest Green placed seventh with a personal best jump of 24 feet, 1/4 inches.Junior Melissa Ogbourne improved her personal best in the triple jump by 2 feet. Her mark of 43 feet, 5 inches won the event and ranks seventh all-time in LSU history.Sophomore Michael Lauro placed first in the men’s weight throw with a personal best of 67 feet, 9 inches.”I came into this meet expecting a big throw tonight because of what the training’s been like these past few weeks,” Lauro said. “I came into the meet nice and relaxed … PRed the first two throws and I was really happy with it.”Lauro said he is looking forward to competing at SEC championships and NCAA championships.”This is going to be my first year at nationals,” Lauro said. “I’m excited about the whole thing. The whole season’s been going great.”Shaver said he was pleased with the results he saw in the meet and saw it as a chance for athletes other than automatic NCAA qualifiers to step up.”Internal motivation for each athlete is different at this time of the year,” Shaver said. “Those who really haven’t achieved the kind of marks that they wanted are more motivated in this kind of competition than those who are automatic NCAA qualifiers, who we didn’t allow to compete.”It was a good day all around in terms of improving personal- best marks, Shaver said.”With the people that we had in the competition, I thought we got some things done that were real positive,” Shaver said. “We had several indoor personal bests. Many of the kids who competed around the track probably aren’t going to be able to go for the SEC indoor meet … so it was a great opportunity for them.”____
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