BATON ROUGE — The LSU track and field team improved its position for next week’s NCAA Indoor Championships, as several athletes earned qualifying meets at the LSU Last Ditch at the Carl Maddox Field House Friday evening.
At the same time, Claudine Williams made a long awaited breakthrough in the 800-meter run, as the defending NCAA outdoor champion earned an automatic qualifier in the event with a time of 2:07.11 at Iowa State.
“This is why we have these meets,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “We wereable to get a few more athletes qualified today and we’re in better position and better prepared for the national meet than we were a few days ago. In addition, we had a few people who already were in get back on track today so it was a very productive outing.”
Williams had yet to register either a provisional or automatic qualifier this season. After struggling in the 800 earlier this season she made a switch to the 400-meter dash before returning to her signature event this weekend.
Long jumper Monique Freeman broke out of a month-long slump in big fashion Friday evening, registering an NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 20 feet 10 inches to claim the event title. Inaddition, Bianca Rockett, already a qualifier in the triple jump, came up with a season-best NCAA provisional effort of 20-4+ in the long jump that moved her to 19th in the nation and onthe bubble to earn a berth.
On the men’s side J.J. Barton came up with a big effort in the high jump to put himself closer to the national meet. Barton’s provisional effort of 7-2 + moved him to 13th in the nation and all but assured him of an invitation to the NCAA Championships.
Traun Smith moved up the national chart in the men’s triple jump but it may not have been quite enough. Smith came up with a personal best mark of 52-0 which moved him to 23rd in the nation. Generally anywhere from 16-20 athletes are taken in that event.
Joyce Bates returned to NCAA form after an uncharacteristic fifth place finish in the women’s 60-meter hurdles at the SEC Indoor Championships last weekend. The senior defending national champion won the short hurdles with a blazing time of 8.19, just off her season best effort.
Other in-state athletes moving up the NCAA list on Friday included Derrick James of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette who won the men’s 60-meter hurdles title in a season-best time of 7.83, a mark that will put him on the NCAA bubble.
The NCAA Championships will be held next Friday and Saturday at the state of the art Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark.