BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - LSU’s Semoy Hackett and Alabama’s Kirani James were named the SEC Women’s and Men’s Runners of the Year as the SEC announced Tuesday its 2011 Outdoor Track and Field awards. Arkansas’ Tina Sutej and Florida’s Will Claye were named Women’s and Men’s Field Event Athletes of the Year, while Coach of the Year honors went to Chris Bucknam of Arkansas for the men’s team and LSU’s Dennis Shaver for the women’s team. This marks the second men’s outdoor honor for Bucknam and the fourth women’s outdoor honor for Shaver. Co-Scholar-Athlete honors were awarded on the women’s side as Auburn’s Holly Knight and Tennessee’s Chanelle Price were named the recipients. Ole Miss’ Lee Ellis Moore earned the Men’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year award.
LSU’s Jasmin Stowers and Tennessee’s Dentarius Locke were named Freshman Runners of the Year, while Rochelle Farqujarson of Mississippi State and Stephen Saenz of Auburn earned Freshman Field Event Athlete of the Year honors.
Hackett won the SEC Commissioner’s Trophy, the high point scorer at the SEC Outdoor Championships, as she totaled 20.5 points and led the Tigers to a fourth SEC Outdoor team title in the last five seasons. She is the SEC Outdoor Champion in the100m and the 4x100 Relay and is the SEC Outdoor Runner-Up in the 200m. Hackett won the 100m title with a time of 11.01w, beating NCAA Indoor champion LaKya Brookins of South Carolina (11.02) and fellow LSU All-American and NCAA Indoor 200-Meter champion Kimberlyn Duncan (11.02). Her time in the 200 of 22.41w ranks as the No. 2 performance in the NCAA and the 4x100m relay time of 43.47 is a Spec Towns Track record.
James is the SEC 400m Champion as he clocked a time of 44.86, the second fastest 400m time in the nation and third fastest in the world. He also broke his own school record in event. James was a member of the team’s second-place 4x400m relay and he also owns the seventh fastest 200m time in the nation.
Sutej made history as she set an NCAA, SEC Championship and school record (15-1.5) when won her second consecutive SEC title in the pole vault. Sutej went undefeated during outdoor season and has 13 straight wins, dating back to indoor. Her clearance ranks her No. 1 in the NCAA and she also set meet records at Texas Relays and Penn Relays. Her lowest winning clearance of 14-1.25.
Claye won two individual league titles at the Championships, claiming both the long jump and triple jump events. It marked the first time that the same athlete had claimed both events since 2004. He currently leads the nation in the men’s triple jump with a mark of 17.24m/56-6.75 (+2.2) and ranks second nationally in the men’s long jump with a mark of 8.29m/27-2.50. His wind-aided triple jump mark at the SEC Outdoor Championships currently is the second-best wind-aided time in the nation so far this season. His best wind-legal triple jump mark from the SEC meet currently ranks seventh in the world (17.14m). Claye is the top American and ranks No. 2 in the world in the men’s long jump with a mark of 8.29m/27-2.50. He also tied for second in the individual point standings at the SEC Outdoor Championships, scoring 20 total points.
Women’s Freshman of the Year, Stowers, is the SEC Champion in the 100m Hurdles (12.88) and shattered her previous wind-legal PR of 13.15 with her SEC title clinching time. Her winning time also set a new facility record at Spec Towns Track in Athens, Ga. While 10 different Lady Tigers have now won the SEC title in the 100-meter hurdles, Stowers is the only freshman to accomplish the feat in program history. Stowers is the No. 3-ranked hurdler in the NCAA in 2011 as she owns a seasonal best wind-aided time of 12.86 set at the Texas Relays on April 9. She was named the SEC Female Freshman of the Week a league-leading three times during the outdoor season.
Tennessee’s Locke, the men’s Freshman Runner of the Year honoree, finished second by 1/100th of a second in the SEC 100-meter dash final, running a wind-aided (3.0 mps) 10.12 readout for the fastest time of his life. He finished third in the SEC 200m dash, checking in with a 20.59 clocking and he was the highest-finishing SEC freshman in the 100 and 200 meters. His runner-up showing in the 100 was the best by any freshman in men’s running events at the SEC meet.
Farquharson earned the Freshman Field Event honors by winning the long jump at the SEC Outdoor Championships with a mark of 6.48m (21-3 1/4). This mark ties her seventh in the NCAA, second best freshman mark this season. This is the first honor of this type for the Mississippi State women’s program.
Auburn’s Saenz was voted Freshman Field Event Athlete of the Year as he scored 20 pts in 2011 SEC Championships and won the shot put with a throw of 19.58m (64-3). He was also the discus runner-up and placed 7th in the hammer.
As a co-Scholar-Athlete recipient, Knight finished 4th in both the 5,000m and the 10,000m events at the SEC Championships. She was the SEC Cross Country Championship runner up this past fall as well. She boasts a 4.00 in human development and family studies. Price, from Tennessee, swept SEC Indoor and Outdoor titles in the 800 meters this season. An 11-time SEC scorer, the five-time All-SEC performer and four-time SEC champion, won the 2011 indoor (2:05.10) and outdoor 800m (2:04.22) titles and 2010 and 2011 indoor DMR crowns. Price also ran on UT’s distance medley relay unit, which won a conference title in an SEC meet-record time of 11:05.37 and earned 2011 first-team All-America honors indoors, finishing sixth in the 800 and eighth in the DMR at the NCAA Championships. The junior went undefeated in the 800m during the outdoor season and has a 3.92 GPA in journalism and electronic media.
Moore, of Ole Miss, is the SEC Outdoor Champion in the 400 meter hurdles. He ranks sixth nationally and top in East Region in the event. Moore is also a top student in the classroom, graduating in May with a bachelor’s degree in biology and minor in chemistry. He will go to medical school with the help of three different prestigious scholarships he earned as an undergrad. He received the Taylor Medal, which is the highest academic honor a student can receive at UM. A 2010 first team CoSIDA Academic All-American, he was Ole Miss’ nominee for the 2011 SEC McWhorter Scholar-Athlete of the Year. He is a multiple SEC Academic Honor Roll member and a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi academic honor societies. He has a 3.94 GPA in biology.
2011 SEC Outdoor Track and Field Awards
Women’s Runner of the Year: Semoy Hackett, LSU Men’s Runner of the Year: Kirani James, Alabama
Women’s Field Athlete of the Year: Tina Sutej, Arkansas Men’s Field Athlete of the Year: Will Claye, Florida
Women’s Freshman Runner of the Year: Jasmin Stowers, LSU Men’s Freshman Runner of the Year: Dentarius Locke, Tennessee
Women’s Freshman Field Athlete of the Year: Rochelle Farquharson, MSU Men’s Freshman Field Athlete of the Year: Stephen Saenz, Auburn
Women’s Co-Scholar-Athletes of the Year: Holly Knight, Auburn; Men’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Lee Ellis Moore, Ole Miss
Chanelle Price, Tennessee
Women’s Coach of the Year: Dennis Shaver, LSU Men’s Coach of the Year: Chris Bucknam, Arkansas
2011 SEC Outdoor Track All-SEC Teams
Men’s First Team
Kirani James, Alabama
Marek Niit, Arkansas
Dorian Ulrey, Arkansas
Ben Cheruiyot, Auburn
Stephen Saenz, Auburn
Terrell Wilks, Florida
Eddie Lovett, Florida
Christian Taylor, Florida
Jeff Demps, Florida
Will Claye, Florida
Gray Horn, Florida
Matt Cleaver, Georgia
Brian Moore, Georgia
Colin Boevers, Kentucky
Barrett Nugent, LSU
Walter Henning, LSU
Lee Ellis Moore, Ole Miss
Ricky Robertson, Ole Miss
James Harris, Mississippi State
Daundre Barnaby, Mississippi State
Randy Patterson, Mississippi State
O’Neal Wilder, Mississippi State
Joe Berry, Tennessee
Men’s Second Team
Dwayne Extol, Alabama
Fres Samoei, Alabama
Bobby Onyeukwu, Alabama
Duncan Phillips, Arkansas
Eric Fernandez, Arkansas
Caleb Cross, Arkansas
Neill Braddy, Arkansas
LaShawn Butler, Arkansas
Tarik Batchelor, Arkansas
Kevin Lazas, Arkansas
Tony McQuay, Florida
Christian Taylor, Florida
Stipe Zunic, Florida
Justin Welch, Georgia
Tenor Davilmar, Georgia
Luis Orta, Kentucky
Horatio Williams, LSU
Marcus McGehee, LSU
Carson Blanks, Ole Miss
Marcus Jackson, Mississippi State
Dentarius Locke, Tennessee
Women’s First Team
Shelise Williams, Arkansas
Regina George, Arkansas
Gwendolyn Flowers, Arkansas
Whitney Jones, Arkansas
Tina Sutej, Arkansas
Makeba Alcide, Arkansas
Joanna Atkins, Auburn
Maya Pressley, Auburn
Genevieve LaCaze, Florida
Fawn Miller, Florida
Maria Augutis, Georgia
Nikola Lomnicka, Georgia
Semoy Hackett, LSU
Kimberlyn Duncan, LSU
Jasmin Stowers, LSU
Kenyanna Wilson, LSU
Rebecca Alexander, LSU
Kimberlyn Duncan, LSU
Rochelle Farquharson, MSU
Annie Alexander, Tennessee
Ellen Wortham, Tennessee
Brittany Sheffey, Tennessee
Liz Costello, Tennessee
Chanelle Price, Tennessee
Women’s Second Team
Meghan Austin, Alabama
Kaylon Eppinger, Alabama
Stephanie Brown, Arkansas
Cache Armbrister, Auburn
CeCe Williams, Auburn
Kai Selvon, Auburn
Cory McGee, Florida
Keely Medieros, Florida
Bridget Lyons, Georgia
Taylor Adams, Georgia
Saniel Atkinson, Georgia
Mary Angell, Kentucky
Jennifer Clayton, LSU
Melissa Ogbourne, LSU
Cassandra Tate, LSU
Rachel Laurent, LSU
Juliana Smith, Ole Miss
Kierre Beckles, South Carolina
LaKya Brookins, South Carolina
All-Freshman Team
Women
100m dash – Darshay Davis, UF (6th)
200m dash – Darshay Davis, UF (4th)
400m dash – Ebony Eutsey, UF (5th)
800m run – Megan Malasarte, UG (4th)
1,500m run – Cory McGgee, UF (2nd)
5,000m run – Elizabeth Anderson, VU (6th)
10,000m run – Kiara McCue-Woods, UG (13th)
100m Hurdles – Jasmin Stowers, LSU (1st)
400m Hurdles – Amber Allen, SC (8th)
3,000m Steeplechase – Stephanie Strasser, UF (8th)
High Jump – Jeannelle Scheper, SC (4th)
Pole Vault – Linda Hadfield, UT (6th)
Long Jump – Rochelle Farquharson, MSU (1st)
Triple Jump – Lynnika Pitts, LSU (6th)
Shot Put – Hilenn James, UG (5th)
Discus – N/A
Hammer – Karen Henning, LSU (5th)
Javelin – Fawn Miller, UF (1st)
Heptathlon – Brittany Harrell (3rd)
Men
100m dash – Dentarius Locke, UT (2nd)
200m dash – Dentarius Locke, UT (3rd)
400m dash – James Harris, MSU (3rd)
800m run – Ford Bell, UT (13th)
1,500m run – Niklas Buhner, AU (5th)
5,000m run – Matt Mizereck, UF (6th)
10,000m run – Mark Parrish, UF (3rd)
110m Hurdles – Eddie Lovett, UF (2nd)
400m Hurdles – Dwayne Extol, UA (6th)
3,000m Steeplechase – John Valentine, MSU (7th)
High Jump – Marcus Jackson, MSU (2nd)
Pole Vault – Chase Brannon, UT (5th)
Long Jump – Raymond Higgs, ARK (3rd)
Triple Jump – Kentrell Sanders, UM (4th)
Shot Put – Stephen Saenz, AU (1st)
Discus – Stephen Saenz, AU (2nd)
Hammer – Justin Welch, UG (2nd)
Javelin – Stipe Zunic, UF (2nd)
Decathlon – Kevin Lazas, Arkansas (2nd)
Commissioner’s Trophy - Semoy Hackett, LSU (20.5 pts)
Commissioner’s Trophy - Dorian Ulrey, Arkansas (25 pts)