Sun Belt honors Willis of Louisiana
<blockquote><p align=justify>LOUISIANA La. — UL senior Lawrence Willis has been named the Men’s Field Performer of the Week in the Sun Belt Conference.
The Iota product won the men’s triple jump title with a mark of 53-9.75 at last weekend’s LSU Tiger Relays. It was the first outdoor action for Willis since earning All-American triple jump honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships with a fourth-place effort.
Willis, Gillis show way in Texas
<blockquote><p align=justify>AUSTIN, Texas — Senior Lawrence Willis highlighted the action for Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns at the 77th annual Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays with a personal best distance of 55-1 to place second overall in the triple jump competition.
The mark ranks as the second longest triple jump recorded in school history trailing only Ndabe Mdhlongwa’s distance of 55-9.25 set in 1996.
Sophomore Justin Lemaire recorded the school’s fourth fastest time in the 10,000-meter run with a mark of 32:54.73 to finish 11th overall.
On the women’s side, distance standout Natalie Gillis continued her assault on the school’s record books by setting a new 5,000-meter record of 17:44.16 to place 12th overall in the race.
Gillis has now set records in the 1,500, 3,000, and 5,000-meter runs over the past three weeks.
The women’s 4x800 relay team of Laura Credeur, Analise Zaunbrecher, Laura Zaunbrecher, and Stacey Young posted a new school record of 9:12.50 to finish 12th overall.
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Ragin’ Cajun Texas Relays Results
Women-5,000m: 12th Natalie Gillis 17.44.16. 10,000m: 19th Jennifer Block 42:39.66. 100mH: Kim Octave 14.74 prelims, Darnesha Stonum 15.23 prelims Javelin: Amanda Caffey 137-02. 4x800 Relay: 12th Credeur, A. Zaunbrecher, L. Zaunbrecher, Young 9:12.50.
Men-100m: Nick Judice 10.98 prelims. 110mH: Lawrence Leben FS prelims. 10,000m: 11th Justin Lemaire 32:54.73. Triple Jump: 2nd Lawrence Willis 55-01.00 (NCAA Regional Mark). 4x100 Relay: 41.99 prelims. 4x400 Relay: 3:13.54 prelims.
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Willis aiming higher, farther
<blockquote><p align=justify><b>Ragin' Cajun triple jumper is thinking past Sun Belt league meet.</b>
LOUISIANA La. — Lawrence Willis probably doesn’t mean to sound cocky, but he can’t help it.
The guy is very possibly the nation’s best triple jumper, and he won’t have any competition in his specialty this weekend at the Sun Belt Conference’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
The University of Louisiana senior and Iota native goes into the league meet with the country’s second-best jump, a 55-1 mark he posted at the Texas Relays on March 31, and nobody in the conference is within six feet of his top mark.
“To me, it’s just a regular meet,” Willis said Thursday. “There aren’t any guys competing at my level in the triple jump, so I’m aiming to get the meet and conference records and get points for the team.”
Willis will be the Cajun to watch at the conference championships, which get underway today at North Texas’ Fouts Field in Denton. The limited first day of competition includes the opening day of the decathlon and heptathlon, the men’s and women’s discus and the men’s and women’s 10,000-meter runs.
Action in most other events begins Saturday, and the majority of the finals are Sunday. Middle Tennessee is the prohibitive pick to win the men’s title after Western Kentucky upset the Blue Raiders last year, and MTSU and host North Texas figure to battle for the women’s team crown after UNT claimed last year’s honors.
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Dan McDonald
dmcdonald@lafayette.gannett.com <!--
The Ragin’ Cajuns finished fourth in the men’s division and seventh in the women’s in last year’s outdoor meet, and the pre-meet poll of league coaches puts the Cajun men third and the women seventh. But the Cajun men were a close second in the league indoor meet behind MTSU (124-112), and UL Lafayette coach Lance Veazey was named men’s indoor Coach of the Year.
“Middle’s strong in the sprints and Western’s strong in the throws,” Veazey said. “Last year Western scored so many points in the field that Middle couldn’t catch them. Arkansas State’s going to be solid, and I think we’re going to get points from a lot of people.”
One of those, obviously, is Willis, who is entered in Saturday’s long jump and Sunday’s triple jump and high jump. He will be the meet’s most prohibitive favorite when he steps on the triple jump runway Sunday at 3 p.m. His closest league competitor, Middle’s Greg Jones, has a season best of 48-8 3/4.
In fact, teammates Lawrence Leben (47-11), one of the league leaders in the hurdles, and Kenny Minton (47-7 3/4) may provide the stiffest competition. Last year, the Cajun contingent scored 25 points in the triple jump alone.
But Willis’ goal this week is another 55-foot jump, which would equal the meet record set in 1995 by ex-Cajun standout Ndabe Mdhlongwa, and 55-9 1/4, Mdhlongwa’s all-time league best from 1996.
The latter mark would also put him into the national lead, with Indiana junior Aarik Wilson currently holding the country’s best jump at 55-3 1/2. Right behind Willis are a pair of LSU jumpers, John Moffitt (54-9 1/4) and Willie Bradley (54-6), and LSU’s Lejuan Simon (53-8 1/4) is ranked sixth in the national list.
Simon, Moffitt and Bradley finished 1-2-3 in March’s NCAA indoor championships while Willis had a then-career best 54-4 jump to finish fourth and earn All-America honors for the second time. He was the fourth-place finisher at last year’s NCAA outdoor meet for his first such honor.
His 55-foot effort, a mark which ranks him eighth on this year’s world-best list, served notice that he’s out to improve on that place this year.
“It didn’t feel like I went that far,” Willis said of his Texas Relays jump. “My main purpose there was to get back at the LSU guys that beat me at nationals. Whatever I jumped, I just wanted to be better than those three.”
He’ll get his chance at the NCAA Mideast Regionals May 28-29 at LSU’s Bernie Moore Stadium, where he’ll face stiff competition. Five of the nation’s current top six marks come from jumpers who will compete in the Mideast meet.
The world ranking, two All-American honors and six career Sun Belt titles are heady stuff for a guy who had a best mark of 47-7 when he came out of Iota High School four years ago.
“I knew I had it in me when I came here,” Willis said. “I just had to find out what I had to do to get to that point. I’m there now, so it’s time to accomplish the next goal and get to 56 feet.”
Willis, the All-Louisiana Field Athlete of the Year in 2003, said that his seven-foot improvement from high school was more mental than physical.
“I had to become more mentally strong,” he said. “Seeing all those guys out there at the national meets, I had to tell myself that I could be just as good as those guys. It was kind of self-taught. Now, my goal is to keep myself a step ahead of them.”
Saturday’s long jump and Sunday’s high jump are a different story. Willis ranks only third in the league in the long jump and hasn’t high jumped all year, and in fact hasn’t worked much in practice on either event. His primary purpose there is to gain points for the Cajun team, which he did in winning the long jump at the league indoor meet.
“I’m still going in there thinking I’m better than the other guys,” Willis said, “and that they’ve got to beat me in order to win.”
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Willis floats through the SunBelt competition
<blockquote><p align=justify><b>Willis gets easy triple jump win</b>
DENTON, Texas — To nobody’s surprise, Lawrence Willis completed his sweep of the Sun Belt Conference’s horizontal jumping events for 2004 here Sunday on the final day of the league’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Willis soared to an easy win in the triple jump with a 53-6 1/2 effort, winning the event by almost four feet, and added that win to the long jump title he won with a career and league-best 25-1 3/4 Saturday.
The senior from Iota had also taken the long and triple jump titles in the league’s Indoor Championships in February.
Willis’ win, Walter Whitfield’s completion of one of the meet’s toughest doubles, and an all-around effort from senior Lawrence Leben helped boost the Ragin' Cajun men to a fifth-place team finish with 101 points.
Western Kentucky won its second straight men’s title with 147, with Arkansas State second at 133 1/2, pre-meet favorite Middle Tennessee at 123 and host North Texas at 108 in the nine-team field.
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The Cajun women’s squad also had an individual champion, as Amanda Caffey won the javelin competition. UL had 32 1/2 points to finish eighth as a team.
New Mexico State won the women’s title with 175 points, well ahead of host and defending champion North Texas at 143.
Willis, who holds a best of 55-1 in the triple jump and ranks second nationally, won the event on his first effort Sunday with his best mark. After two fouls in the finals, he went 52-5 3/4 on his last effort.
Leben was second in the triple with a personal best of 49-11, a warmup for a day in which he led the Cajuns with 22 points.
He finished second in the 110-meter hurdles with a personal best 13.93 time, trailing only Middle Tennessee’s Linnie Yarbrough (13.76).
The mark put the Port Barre product third on UL’s all-time list in the event while also qualifying him for the NCAA Regional Championships May 28-29 in Baton Rouge.
Leben also took a third in the 400-meter hurdles with a season-best 53.36.
Whitfield gave the Cajun men their other first place, outkicking North Texas’ Josh Rogers on the final lap to win the 5000-meter in 15:29.13. Whitfield had won the 3000-meter steeplechase Saturday with a 9:25.20.
Caffey provided the Cajun women with their first individual Sun Belt title since 2001 with a personal best 145-8 mark in the javelin, winning the event by almost 16 feet.
The mark topped her previous best by almost two feet and also qualified her for NCAA Regional competition, making her the first Cajun woman to reach the regionals.
Natalie Gillis turned in a second place effort in the 5000-meter in 18:20.98 for the Cajun women’s other top performance. Andree Bonvillain also claimed all-league honors by tying for third in the women’s pole vault with a school-record 11-3 3/4 clearance.
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Lawrence Willis Earns Return Trip To NCAA Outdoors
<blockquote><p align=justify>BATON ROUGE - Louisiana senior Lawrence Willis earned a berth in the NCAA Outdoor Championships for the second straight season with his fifth place finish in the men's triple jump here Saturday evening at the NCAA Mideast Regional Track and Field Championships at LSU's Bernie Moore Track Stadium.
Willis, a fourth place finisher at the NCAA National Championships last season and three-time Sun Belt triple jump champion, qualified for this year's meet in Austin, Texas, with a mark of 53-01.75.
Willis' jump earned the Cajuns men's team four points as he became the only UL Lafayette athlete to earn points at the meet. His finish was Louisiana-Lafayette's lone Top 10 finish.
The Iota native is likely to be the Cajuns lone representative at the national meet unless one of his teammates earns an at large berth.
Fellow senior Lawrence Leben, an 11th place finisher in Friday's 110-meter hurdles, rounded out the list of finalists in the triple jump with a 19th place finish at 47-05.00.
Walter Whitfield, competing in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase, enjoyed a stellar preliminary round as he finished third in his section finishing in 9:23.90.
Whitfield's mark wasn’t high enough to qualify, though, as he wound up 15th.
UL Lafayette's lone women's candidate was Amanda Caffey in the javelin throw.
Caffey's mark of 133-10 was second-best in her flight trailing only Bowling Green's Andi Bunko at 137-09. However, Caffey missed out on qualifying for nationals as her mark was the 11th best.
The NCAA National Championships will be held June 9-12 in Austin, Texas, at Mike A. Meyers Stadium.
<center><b><i>LOUISIANA SI
Willis preparing for NCAA Outdoor championships
<blockquote><p align=justify>One year ago, Lawrence Willis was preparing for his first-ever appearance in a national collegiate track and field championship, and wasn’t really sure what to expect.
That’s what made his fourth-place finish in the 2003 NCAA outdoor triple jump such a pleasant surprise — to everyone except Willis.
“I tried to look at it like any other meet,” said the University of Louisiana standout, who earned the first of his two All-America honors with a 53-10 1/4 jump in Sacramento, Calif. “I tried not to get too stressed, not to worry about it, and just relax.”
Being able to handle the mental strain of national competition has been one of Willis‚ strong points over the past year, and a trait that should help him Friday and Saturday when he competes in his specialty in the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Austin.
Willis will take part in the qualifying round Friday evening, with the top 12 jumpers moving on to Saturday evening’s finals of what will be his final collegiate appearance.
“He’s more prepared this year,” Ragin’ Cajun coach Lance Veazey said. “He’s got the experience from the outdoor meet last year and that helped him indoors earlier this year.
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Dan McDonald
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“I’d be surprised if he didn’t do really well again. He’s a big-meet competitor. He does well at the Texas Relays and the other big meets. He’ll win at the conference meet but his marks aren’t as good.”
Willis has very little competition in the Sun Belt, where he’s won three straight triple jump titles. But it’s in the bigger meets that he’s turned in his best marks.
His 53-10 1/4 in last year’s NCAA outdoors was only a fraction off his then-career best of 54-2, and this year his two longest jumps have come on the sport’s two biggest stages so far this season.
He turned in a career-best 54-4 effort in finishing fourth in the NCAA Indoors in March in Fayetteville, Ark., and followed that a month later when he soared 55-1 at the Texas Relays for the second-best mark in the nation among collegians.
“It gets easier the more big meets you’re in,” Willis said. “I’ve been there before, I know the routine.’’
One advantage he has this weekend is the opportunity to focus on one event. In the league meets and other events during UL Lafayette’s regular season, he usually also competed in the long jump and occasionally the high jump, but the triple is his sole focus this weekend.
The 55-1 leap crossed a threshold, with 55 feet mark considered the dividing line for triple jumpers to compete on a national or international level. His jump ranks in the world’s top 30 in the event this year.
It’s also a mark that wasn’t expected when Willis was recruited by the late Charles Lancon and came to the Cajuns out of Iota High.
“We had him as just a great athlete who did a lot of things,” said Veazey, an assistant to Lancon at the time. “He was in the quarter, the high jump, the long jump. We knew he could triple jump, but he did so many things well that he was kind of an unknown that had a lot of upside.”
It was at the 2003 Texas Relays that he made his first big mark in the event, when he finished second in the “B” division and made the move to the “A” competition.
“It was like a light going off in his head,” Veazey said. “That convinced him that he could compete on that level, and he’s really blossomed since then.”
There is a downside to that specialization, though.
“I miss running the quarter,” Willis said. “That’s the first thing I ever did in track. I ran it almost all the time in high school, but when I got here it conflicted on the time schedule with the triple jump.’’
We had three or four guys to run the 400 and didn’t have anybody in the triple at the time, so it was a good option for me.”
It’s obviously worked out well Ź well enough that this weekend’s meet may not even be the highlight of his season. His effort at Texas was good enough to earn him a trip to Sacramento July 9-18 for the U.S. Olympic Trials, where he will attempt to earn a spot on Team USA for this summer’s Olympic Games in Athens.
The “A” standard for earning a Trials spot was 54-6.
“Just going to the Trials is a privilege,” Willis said, “to be jumping with the best guys in the world. It’s my first time to do that, and I have to look at it like I try to look at the NCAA’s, as just another meet. But I’m not going to worry about the Trials until after the nationals are over.”
“He’s been to the NC’s before,” Veazey said, “so getting to the Trials is like another stepping stone. I really think he wants to see how far he can go with this.”
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