by Fred J. Demarest
Associate Sports Information Director
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — All she could do was wait, but that was nothing new to her. Sa’Donna Thornton sat in suspense, waiting for the results of the women’s 60-meter final to be posted at the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships. Moments before, she had crossed the line simultaneously alongside Ole Miss sprinter Teneeshia Jones. She had run a near flawless race from start to finish against a heavily favored Jones.
Now all she could do was wait.
When her name appeared on the scoreboard at the Nutter Field House at Kentucky and the number “1” appeared next to it, Thornton burst into tears, realizing she had finally won, that she had finally broken through.
The look in her eyes told you it was well worth the wait.
“I did it,” she said as her eyes began to swell. “I finally did it.”
Thornton definitely did. And in the process she finally emerged as one of the nation’s premier sprinters.
Thornton’s road to success has been longer than most. She arrived in Baton Rouge in the fall of 1996, and right off the bat ran in the shadows of some of the great sprinters in LSU history – Peta-Gaye Dowdie, Astia Walker and Kwajalein Butler.
This weekend Thornton will try to leave her own mark on the LSU history books, as the fifth-year senior will be one of a handful of favorites at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark.
The fifth-year senior ranks fifth in the nation in the event heading into Friday’s preliminary round but hopes that her previous experience will benefit her.
A four-time All-American, Thornton finished seventh in the 60-meter dash at last year’s NCAA Indoor meet and in the preliminary rounds last year ran a time of 7.25 seconds, the 10th fastest time ever run by an American collegian.
“I need to do that in the final this time,” said Thornton. “If I get out of the blocks like I did in the semifinals last year, I’ll be okay.”
Thornton is the Lady Tigers’ last link to their unparalleled string of 11 consecutive NCAA Outdoor titles. She ran the opening leg of the Lady Tigers’ national champion 4×100-meter relay in 1997 and helped them edge Texas by a single point to extend the longest winning streak in Division I women’s history, any sport.
Last year Thornton helped the Lady Tigers regain the outdoor title, making the final of the 100-meter dash and scoring in the event, as they made a furious rally on the final day of competition to edge Southern California.
For the past four years Peta-Gaye Dowdie was always there. A 19-time All-American and one of the greatest athletes in LSU history, Dowdie graduated following the Lady Tigers’ victory in Durham last June, however.
LSU needed someone to step up and Thornton has done just that.
“I don’t feel any pressure on myself in that position,” said Thornton. “We’ve got a very young team, but also a very talented young team and I’ve just tried to pass my experiences down to them. I also know that I have to step up myself and that they have to be able to count on me.”
Thornton has been instrumental in tutoring a young sprint corps that has quickly emerged into one of nation’s best. Now they are chasing her, however. Now she is the one they look up to.
“This is where I’ve always wanted to be,” said Thornton. “This is what I was hoping for.”
And what she was always waiting for.