LSU track notebook: Jackson Martingayle wins SEC scholar-athlete of the year award

For the second year in a row, a member of the LSU track and field program has been named the Southeastern Conference’s scholar-athlete of the year.

Distance runner Jackson Martingayle claimed the men’s honor for the 2022-23 academic year, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey announced Tuesday.

A senior from Virginia Beach, Virginia, Martingayle follows in the footsteps of former LSU pole vaulter Lisa Gunnarsson— the 2022 women’s winner.

Martingayle and Georgia swimmer Callie Dickinson, the women’s winner, were chosen by a committee of faculty athletics representatives from all 14 SEC schools.

The winners will each receive $20,000 post-graduate scholarships for earning the award, which is named after the late SEC commissioner H. Boyd McWhorter. It’s the highest honor an SEC student-athlete can receive.

“Callie and Jackson are representative of the focus, determination and success of SEC student-athletes in competition and in the classroom,” Sankey said in a statement.

A five-time SEC academic honor roll member, Martingayle has compiled a 4.08 GPA in natural resource ecology and management and will graduate later this month.

He is the third LSU track and field athlete to win the award, joining Gunnarsson and Mikael Olander (1989).

Overall, Martingayle is the ninth LSU athlete to be honored as the league’s scholar-athlete of the year.

The others are Olander, Gunnarsson, Michael Blanchard (football, 1995), Martin Nyberg (swimming, 1996), Lisette Lee (women’s golf, 2000), Rudy Niswanger (football, 2006), Kelly Quinn (volleyball,2018), and Skylar Mays (men’s basketball, 2020).

SEC honors Oghenebrume

Sophomore sprinter Godson Oghenebrume was named the runner of the week for his performance in the LSU Invitational on Saturday.

Oghenebrume claimed the 100 meters with a wind-aided time of 10.01 seconds and anchored the 4×100-meter relay unit to a winning time of 38.26 seconds.

The relay time was a Bernie Moore Track Stadium record and the fifth-fastest time in collegiate history. It was just .02 off the school’s all-time clocking of 38.24 set in 1998.