Lady Tigers win SEC indoor

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Mar 3, 2008

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Despite setting the table with 16 qualifiers on Saturday, LSU track and field coach Dennis Shaver made sure his women’s team knew the score going into the final day of the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships.

While the top-ranked Lady Tigers were eyeing their first SEC indoor title since 1999, Shaver knew nothing was guaranteed despite a larger-than-usual number of qualifiers.

“It won’t matter much if we finish sixth, seventh and ninth in those events,” a cautious Shaver said Saturday night.

But the Lady Tigers did more than that — much more. They blew the competition away with an impressive 1-2-3 sweep in the first two running events of the day — the 60-meter hurdles and 60 meters — fueling their run to the team title in the Randal Tyson Track Center.

LSU went on to a final total of 133 points — including 119 on Sunday alone — to win going away over Tennessee (116) and Arkansas (93). It is the 11th SEC Indoor title for the Lady Tigers.

On the men’s side, fourth-ranked LSU also had a productive day with 94 points. But after the Tigers surged into the lead late in the meet, Arkansas rallied and scored 124 points to LSU’s 108. Tennessee was third with 99‰.

Led by John Kosgei, who won the 3,000 meters on Saturday and the mile on Sunday, the LSU men and women combined for nine victories in the three-day meet. That was the most since they had nine in the 1999 indoor championships.

While Kosgei went the distance, LSU’s sprinters and hurdlers set the tone early Sunday when the meet resumed.

Jessica Ohanaja, Nickiesha Wilson and Tenaya Jones raced to a 1-2-3 finish in the 60 hurdles before Kelly Baptiste, Samantha Henry and Juanita Broaddus matched their feat just 20 minutes later.

That gave the Lady Tigers 48 points in those two events alone.

“It was pretty much like it is in practice, we did the same thing,” said Ohanaja, who claimed her second straight SEC indoor title in 8.11 seconds.

Wilson (8.15) and Jones (8.30) followed, with Jones, a freshman, setting a personal best in the event.

Then came the 60, where Baptiste set a school record and SEC meet record with a time of 7.13 seconds. Henry clocked a 7.21 and Broaddus was next across the line in 7.27.