LSU men finish second, Tigers’ women third, in the NCAA indoor track and field championships

LSU's Noah Williams ran a school-record 44.41 to win the NCAA indoor national 400 meters last season., His time ranks as the fourth best in world history and third in collegiate history. PHOTO BY: LSU athletics.

LSU’s men turned in its best team showing since 2006 with a national runners-up finish Saturday in the NCAA indoor track and field championships in Fayetteville, Ark.

The Tigers, who scored a school record for most points in an NCAA indoor meet, finished with 56 points and trailed only national champion Oregon’s 79 points. Georgia was third with 35.

“We came here to compete and I thought we did a very good job of that,” LSU track coach Dennis Shaver said. “We’re bringing two team trophies home with us and we had four athletes win individual national titles On top of that 11 of our athletes PR’d at this meet which I can’t ever remember happening, so I’m very proud of our student-athletes. We can’t wait for outdoors to get going; we get some big pieces back that weren’t allowed to compete in indoors and we’re excited to see what we can accomplish together as a program outdoors.”

Noah Williams posted a school-record 44.41 to win the 400 meters, a time that ranks as the fourth best in world history and third in collegiate history.

“It means a lot to be up there near the top of the world indoor list of all-time,” Williams said. “It was my most efficient race of my career and everything came together.”

Damion Thomas delivered the seventh-fastest time in collegiate history – 7.51 seconds – to win the 60-meter hurdles where the Tigers came up with 15 points when Eric Edwards was fifth with a PR of 7.58.

They added a pair of individual national championships to the pair JuVaughn Harrison won Friday in the high jump and long jump.

Terrance Laird, the nation’s No. 1 ranked 200-meter runner, was just edged by Georgia’s Matthew Boling (20.19-20.20) for the national title, while Sean Dixon-Bodie was fifth in the triple jump (54-5 ¼).

The Southeastern Conference swept the top three spots in the women’s division with Arkansas capturing the NCAA indoor title with 68 points. Texas A&M (57) and LSU (39) followed in second and third, respectively, followed by USC (35) in fourth.

The Tigers, which had their best NCAA indoor finish since 2013, didn’t win any individual titles but had three competitors garner top six finishes along with a 4×400 relay that finished fourth in 3:29.69 – the third-best time in school history.

Amber Anning was fifth in the 400 (51.83) – the second-best time in school history – and Milan Young was fifth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.06) along with Favour Ofilli posting a sixth-place finish in the 200 (22.96).

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William Weathers

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