FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS, May 09-11—Nothing like putting pressure on the frosh to win the conference title. Luckily for LSU, the new kid is already a seasoned veteran of the international wars. Just before the 4×4 brought the SEC to a close, Mondo Duplantis soared over a Collegiate Record 19-8¼ (6.00). After already clearing 18-5½ (5.63) and 19-¾ (5.81), marks that guaranteed the 10 points, the 19-year-old sensation needed all three tries to bring down Lawrence Johnson’s 23-year-old record, leaving the final bar trembling but safe.
His victory gave LSU a 97-91 lead over the Gators. A 2nd in the 4×4 boosted LSU to a final tally of 105 to Florida’s 95, with Arkansas at 91 and Texas A&M at 86.5. Good vibes were in the air for the Duplantis family, as earlier in the day, Mondo’s brother Antoine had hit a 3-run homer to help the Tigers beat Arkansas 3–2 on the baseball field just down the street. Said Mondo, “I had a little déjà vu since I did the same thing indoors here in Fayetteville. I’m glad to have that off my shoulders. Now I can just relax and concentrate on NCAAs.” (Continued below)
It took Mondo’s CR to steal the headlines away from a stunning set of results in the 110 hurdles. On Friday, Florida’s Grant Holloway flew to a 13.07 in his heat, far ahead of rival Daniel Roberts of Kentucky (13.31). The world-leading mark made the Gator soph the No. 2 collegian ever, after only Renaldo Nehemiah’s legendary 13.00 from ’79. In the heavily anticipated final, Holloway drew lane 5, to the right of Roberts in 4. As expected, Holloway got out best, and held a clear lead through hurdle 9. Then the unthinkable happened: Roberts found another gear, catching Holloway in the air over the final barrier and beating him to the line.
The time: 13.07, moved the Kentucky junior into a tie with Holloway for the No. 2 collegian ever. The stunned Gator finished in 13.12, the No. 4 collegiate performance ever. Roberts’ run was anything but pretty, as he hit 9 of the 10 hurdles, the last three hard. He didn’t care. “It means the world,” he said. “I’m giving my all every race and it turned out good today.”
Texas A&M’s Devin Dixon ran a collegiate-leading 1:44.76 to win the 800 by nearly 20m. He raced aggressively from the start, leaving the field behind as he passed halfway in 50.02. The mark makes him equal No. 7 among U.S. collegians all-time. Dixon’s teammates made a statement in the 400 hurdles. First Robert Grant ran a U.S. and collegiate leading 49.56 in the heats. In the final, he was beaten 49.38-49.47 by teammate Infinite Tucker, whose last-gasp finish became the dive seen around the world. In the javelin, Mississippi State’s Anderson Peters whipped a 273-5 (83.35) winner, the No. 7 collegiate throw ever.
Said LSU coach Dennis Shaver of his team’s victory, “The chemistry and commitment that these guys have made to make a run at this championship is special. It’s been a while since we won one of these.” The LSU effort was helped along on the final day by wins in the 4×1 (38.85) and the triple jump, where Christian Miller went 53-¼ (16.16). Earlier in the meet JuVaughn Harrison had captured the high jump at 7-4¼ (2.24).
SEC MEN’S RESULTS
Fayetteville, Arkansas, May 09-11—
(5/9—10K, 400Hh, HT, JT; 5/10—St, 110Hh, HJ, LJ, SP)
Teams: 1. LSU 105; 2. Florida 95; 3. Arkansas 91; 4. Texas A&M 86½; 5. Alabama 77; 6. Kentucky 72½; 7. Tennessee 68; 8. Mississippi State 57; 9. Georgia 43; 10. South Carolina 41; 11. Mississippi 34; 12. Missouri 32; 13. Auburn 17.
100(1.8): 1. **Hakim Sani Brown’ (Fl) 9.99 PR; 2. *Raymond Ekevwo’ (Fl) 10.02 PR; 3. Mustaqeem Williams (Tn) 10.08 PR; 4. Keitavious Walter (Al) 10.11 PR; 5. Jaron Flournoy (LSU) 10.12 PR; 6. ***Anthony Schwartz (Aub) 10.21; 7. *Lester Miller (MsSt) 10.22; 8. *Akanni Hislop’ (LSU) 10.23 PR.
200(0.4): 1. Williams 20.31; 2. Flournoy 20.32; 3. Walter 20.42; 4. **Dwight St. Hillaire’ (Ky) 20.61 PR; 5. Hislop’ 20.72; 6. *Tyler Terry (LSU) 20.78 PR; 7. Correion Mosby (LSU) 20.82; 8. ***Jacob Smith (Ky) 20.87;… dnc—Sani Brown’.
400: 1. *Quincy Hall (SC) 44.60; 2. St. Hillaire’ 45.47; 3. *Tyler Terry (LSU) 45.96; 4. **Hunter Woodhall (Ar) 46.22 PR (prosthetics); 5. Skyler Bowden (Al) 46.46; 6. **Benjamin Lobo Vedel’ (Fl) 46.57; 7. *Raymond Kibet’ (LSU) 46.81; 8. Arinze Chance’ (SC) 46.93.
800: 1. *Devin Dixon (TxAM) 1:44.76 PR (CL) (=7, x AmC);
2. **Marco Arop’ (MsSt) 1:46.93; 3. Otis Jones (SC) 1:48.09; 4. **Kieran Taylor (Ar) 1:48.34;
5. **John Rivera (Ms) 1:49.18; 6. *Daniel Nixon (MsSt) 1:49.29; 7. *Carlton Orange (TxAM) 1:50.61; 8. Dejon Devroe (MsSt) 1:52.38.
1500: 1. **Waleed Suliman (Ms) 3:47.64; 2. Cameron Griffith’ (Ar) 3:48.81; 3. *Benjamin Young (Ky) 3:49.11; 4. Zach Long (Tn) 3:49.76; 5. ***Dalton Hengst (Ms) 3:50.47; 6. ***Martin Prodanov’ (Mo) 3:50.52.
St: 1. **Alex Crigger (Tn) 8:47.85 PR; 2. *Stephen Jones (MsSt) 8:53.32; 3. *Matthew Thomas (Ky) 8:53.48 PR; 4. *Silas Kipngetich’ (Aub) 8:58.86 PR.
5000: 1. *Gilbert Boit’ (Ar) 13:54.46; 2. Gilbert Kigen’ (Al) 13:54.84; 3. Cameron Griffith’ (Ar) 13:55.05; 4. **Matt Young (Ar) 13:57.97 PR.
10,000: 1. Kigen’ 29:27.77; 2. Boit’ 29:31.17; 3. Young 29:32.90; 4. Austen Dalquist (Ar) 29:51.72; 5. Mark Robertson (Ms) 29:56.24; 6. *Preston Cates (Ar) 29:57.09 PR; 7. Alfred Chelanga’ (Al) 29:57.76.
110H(1.0): 1. *Daniel Roberts (Ky) 13.07 PR (=WL, AL, CL) (=2, =2 C); 2. *Grant Holloway (Fl) 13.12 (x, 4 C);
3. Isaiah Moore (SC) 13.42; 4. ***Tai Brown (Ky) 13.68; 5. *Robert Dunning (Al) 13.71 PR; 6. Shakiel Chattoo’ (Ar) 13.71 PR; 7. **Damion Thomas’ (LSU) 13.78; 8. Michael Nicholls’ (Ga) 13.81; 9. *Carl Elliott (Ar) 13.83.
Heats: I(0.8)–1. Holloway (Fl) 13.07 PR (WL, AL, CL) (2, 2 C).
400H: 1. *Infinite Tucker (TxAM) 49.38 (AL, CL);
2. Robert Grant (TxAM) 49.47; 3. Rasheed Tatham (MsSt) 50.35; 4. **Cory Poole (Fl) 50.35; 5. Christian Boyd (LSU) 50.49; 6. Ilolo Izu (TxAM) 50.68; 7. *DeWitt Thomas (TxAM) 50.78; 8. *Travean Caldwell (Ar) 50.86.
Heats: II–1. Grant 49.56 (AL, CL).
4 x 100: 1. LSU 38.85 (Vincent, Hislop’, Mosby, Flournoy); 2. Florida 39.12 (Ekevwo’, Sani Brown’, Holloway, Clark); 3. Arkansas 39.26 (Oglesby, Boyd, Hari’, Ejiakuekwu’); 4. Kentucky 39.50; 5. Tennessee 39.78; 6. Texas A&M 40.42.
4 x 400: 1. Texas A&M 3:01.77 (out AL, CL) (Deadmon, Grant, Johnson 44.96, Dixon 44.23);
2. LSU 3:02.09 (Camel, Mosby, Flournoy 44.85, Terry 44.83); 3. Arkansas 3:03.53 (Brown 45.71, Schwartz 45.56); 4. South Carolina 3:04.43 (Hall 45.20, Jones 45.69); 5. Florida 3:05.08 (Holloway 45.05); 6. Mississippi State 3:08.31.
Jumping Events
HJ: 1. **JuVaughn Harrison (LSU) 7-4¼ (2.24) =PR; 2. *Shelby McEwen (Al) 7-3 (2.21); 3. *Darryl Sullivan (Tn) 7-3; 4. *Clayton Brown’ (Fl) 7-3; 5. ***Roberto Vilches’ (Mo) 7-3; 6. Keenon Laine (Ga) 7-1½ (2.17); 7. Jhonny Victor (Fl) 7-1½; 8. **Rahman Minor (Ky) 7-1½.
PV: 1. ***Mondo Duplantis’ (LSU) 19-8¼ (6.00) CR (old CR 19-7½/5.98 Lawrence Johnson [Tn] ’96) (17-10½, 18-5½, 19-¾, 19-8¼ [3]) (5.45, 5.63, 5.81, 6.00 [3]);
2. Jacob Wooten (TxAM) 18-2½ (5.55); 3. Will Herrscher (Al) 17-10½ (5.45) PR; 4. **Peyton Weissmann (Ms) 17-6½ (5.35) =PR; 5. ***Robin Nool’ (TxAM) 17-6½ =PR; 6. tie, Carl Johansson (TxAM) & **Matthew Peare (Ky) 17-2¾ (5.25); 8. ***Andrew Ference (Tn) 17-2¾.
LJ: 1. **Ja’Mari Ward (Mo) 26-7 (8.10); 2. **JuVaughn Harrison (LSU) 26-3¾ (8.02); 3. Yann Randrianasolo’ (SC) 26-1¾ (7.97); 4. *Rayvon Grey (LSU) 25-10¾ (7.89) PR; 5. **Allen Gordon (Ms) 25-10¾ (7.89) PR; 6. Holloway 25-8¾ (7.84).
TJ: 1. *Christian Miller (LSU) 53-¼ (16.16) PR; 2. *Clayton Brown’ (Fl) 52-2¾ (15.92); 3. **Jalen Tate (Tn) 52-¾ (15.87);
4. ***Georgi Nachev’ (Mo) 51-11¾ (15.84) PR; 5. Nairn’ 51-5½ (15.68) PR; 6. Da’Quan Bellard (LSU) 50-11 (15.52).
SP: 1. Denzel Comenentia’ (Ga) 65-7 (19.99); 2. **Joseph Maxwell’ (Tn) 63-5 (19.33) PR; 3. *Eric Favors (SC) 61-11 (18.87) PR; 4. Kord Ferguson (Al) 61-7½ (18.78); 5. **Connor Bandel (Fl) 61-5 (18.72); 6. Noah Castle (Ky) 61-3½ (18.68).
DT: 1. Ferguson 195-10 (59.70); 2. Comenentia’ 192-1 (58.54); 3. Castle 182-8 (55.68); 4. Lenford 182-7 (55.65); 5. Maxwell’ 175-7 (53.52); 6. Bandel 175-1 (53.36).
HT: 1. **Thomas Mardal’ (Fl) 239-6 (73.00) PR; 2. Comenentia’ 234-6 (71.48); 3. AJ McFarland (Fl) 232-11 (70.99); 4. **Jake Norris’ (LSU) 231-1 (70.44); 5. Anders Eriksson’ (Fl) 226-9 (69.12); 6. ***Bobby Colantonio (Al) 226-8 (69.09) PR; 7. Seth Whitener (Tn) 220-1 (67.09); 8. **Georgios Korakidis’ (Tn) 219-7 (66.94).
JT: 1. **Anderson Peters’ (MsSt) 273-5 (83.35) (x, 8 C) (249-2, 273-5, p, p, p, p) (75.94, 83.35, p, p, p, p);
2. Curtis Thompson (MsSt) 255-6 (77.88); 3. ***Tyriq Horsford’ (MsSt) 238-3 (72.62) PR; 4. Sam Hardin (TxAM) 237-7 (72.42); 5. Elijah Marta (Ky) 233-6 (71.17) PR; 6. *William Petersson (TxAM) 228-9 (69.72); 7. ***Nick Mirabelli (TxAM) 226-1 (68.91); 8. **Cade Antonucci (Aub) 223-7 (68.14); 9. John Putnam (Aub) 222-0 (67.67).
Dec(5/09-10): 1. Nathan Hite (TxAM) 7468; 2. ***Karel Tilga’ (Ga) 7236; 3. *Chris Stone (Aub) 7212; 4. **Jason Edwards (Mo) 6685 PR. ◻︎
