BATON ROUGE - Three new LSU Track & Field recruits are among the students enrolling for the first day of classes of the fall semester on Monday as they cap a heralded Class of 2012 in the wake of another national championship season for the program during the 2012 outdoor campaign.
The Lady Tigers have added immediate depth in the field events by welcoming high jumper Shanice Hall (St. Catherine, Jamaica) and heptathlete Therese Jernbeck (Stockholm, Sweden) to campus this fall, while the Tigers have added standout sprinter Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake (Mandeville, Jamaica).
Their addition to the squad finalizes an outstanding 17-member Class of 2012 as both the Tigers and Lady Tigers inked seven recruits to National Letters of Intent in the spring.
"We're excited with the group of athletes enrolling in classes for the fall semester as we'll soon begin our preparation for the 2013 season," said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. "We've wrapped up our recruiting efforts for the fall by signing three athletes we expect to come in and make an impact on our program next season. Going through fall training will be a big step for each of them in their development."
Hall is certainly one of the top high jumpers to join the NCAA Division I ranks for the 2013 season as she hails from the program at Wolmer's Trust High School for Girls in Portmore, St. Catherine, Jamaica.
A 2010 Carifta Games gold medalist in the high jump, Hall owns a personal record of 6 feet, ¾ inches she set in winning the high jump crown at the 2012 Gibson Relays held at the National Stadium in Kingston. She has cleared the bar at 5-10 ¾ five times during her youth career, including her win at the 2010 Carifta Games and bronze-medal winning performance at the 2012 Jamaican Junior Championships.
Jernbeck joins the Lady Tigers program as one of the premier multi-event athletes in Europe as part of the Class of 2012 during her high school career at Viktor Rydbergs Gymnasium.
Jernbeck boasts a personal-record score of 5,324 points in the heptathlon that was set in a 12th-place finish for Sweden at the 2011 European Junior Athletics Championships held in Tallinn, Estonia. She has posted personal records of 14.88 in the 100-meter hurdles, 24.86 in the 200-meter dash, 2:19.65 in the 800-meter run, 5-5 ¼ in the high jump, 17-11 in the long jump 42-0 in the shot put and 133-7 in the javelin.
Mitchell-Blake joins the Tiger sprint group with an international pedigree of his own while competing for his native Great Britain in the 200-meter dash at the 2011 IAAF World Youth Championships. He has run PRs of 10.49 in the 100 meters and 21.49 in the 200 meters during his prep career.
Originally from London, England, Mitchell-Blake has developed his sprint talent while attending Jamaica College in Kingston after moving to Caribbean nation early in his high school career.
The Tigers signed seven prep standouts to National Letters of Intent in the spring, including sprinter Darrell Bush (Woodbury, N.J.), sprinter Cyril Grayson (Kenner, La.), sprinter Kavahra Holmes (Breaux Bridge, La.), thrower Terry Hughes (Prairieville, La.), hurdler Rashad Hulbert (Crete, Ill.), hurdler Joshua Lamers (Shreveport, La.) and sprinter Derrick Raymond (New Orleans, La.).
The Lady Tigers signed seven prospects of their own in the spring in thrower Kelsey Carlsen (Rome, Pa.), sprinter Aliyah Davis (Longview, Texas), jumper Keri Emanuel (North Charleston, S.C.), middle distance star Natoya Goule (Clarendon, Jamaica), distance star Morgan Schuetz (Baton Rouge, La.), hurdler Nikita Tracey (Clarendon, Jamaica) and Shana-Gaye Tracey (Manchester, Jamaica).
