BATON ROUGE — Thursday morning LSU track and field coach Pat Henry said that something good always comes out of NCAA last ditch meets. On Friday he proved to be a prophet, as the LSU track and field team added to its list of NCAA qualifiers at the LSU Last Ditch at Bernie Moore Track Stadium.
The Lady Tigers got one automatic qualifier and three high provisional marks that are all but certain to gain entry to the NCAA Championships, while the Tigers got a pair of high provisionals.
“That’s why you have this meet,” said Henry. “We’re a better team heading into the NCAA Championships than we were before the start of the day.”
Susanne Strunz ran a hand timed automatic mark of 10:18.3 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase to become LSU’s first distance qualifier since the 1998 indoor season. A malfunction with the timing system forced LSU officials to use hand times for all track events on the evening.
In the field, Myra Combs and Chenelle Marshall built upon their 1-2 finish at last weekend’s SEC Championships, both posting high provisional marks.
Marshall won the event with a slightly wind-aided mark of 21 feet ? inch, moving her into the top 10 in the nation, while Combs registered a slightly windy mark of 20-9 ? to finish second.
SEC indoor triple jump champion Bianca Rockett moved to the 10th spot nationally with a mark of 43-2 ?. Marie Ahlander of Tulane won the event with a mark of 43-9 ?, the third best mark in the nation in 2001.
On the men’s side, Robert Parham and Pete Coley registered provisional marks in the men’s 400-meter dash in a very race. Parham finished second in a provisional hand-timed mark of 45.5, while Coley finished third and recorded a provisional time of 45.6 in his first open quarter of the season.
Friday’s meet concluded the regular season for LSU, as those who have qualified now prepare for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., from May 30-June 2. The Lady Tigers are the defending champions, while the Tigers finished fifth a year ago.