BATON ROUGE — Sophomore Kelly Baptiste became the first Lady Tiger to automatically qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships Friday at the Bayou Bengal Invitational.
Baptiste’s 7.26 winning time in the 60-meter moves her into second place in the country this year. The Lady Tiger is behind fellow SEC competitor Amberly Nesbit of South Carolina by just 1/100th of a second. SEC athletes now have six of the top eight times in the country this year in Division I.
“For her to come into this kind of a meet where it’s a little bit low key, she really did a good job of preparing herself to get ready,” said head coach Dennis Shaver. “She’s really starting to gain a lot of confidence in her running and starting to execute really well.”
Baptiste joins Tiger Xavier Carter as the only LSU athletes to automatically qualify for the final indoor event of the year.
Brooklynn Morris improved her provisional standing in the 60-meter dash, as her 7.34 time gave the Lady Tigers the top two spots in the event. She now has the fifth-fastest time in the country.
Sophomore Jessica Ohanaja turned in another stellar performance in the 60-meter hurdles, winning with a time of 8.31. Ohanaja now has turned in back-to-back top 10 times in LSU history and ranks in the top 10 in the nation in her event.
Long jumper Tina Harris won her first crown of the year with a leap of 20-02 1/4. That mark improves her already provisionally qualified standing. She now sits in 13th place, two spots behind fellow Lady Tiger Kathy Coleman.
On the men’s side, senior Darion Powell claimed the first heptathlon crown of the season. Powell totaled 5,521 points over the two day event, provisionally qualifying along the way. Powell’s point total was just over 100 points shy of automatically qualifying the Tiger.
“This heptathlon helped me learn what I need to do,” said Powell. “Everything was so close; I just need one more meet to get it all together.”
Led by All-American Austin Benton and Patrick Gavin, LSU’s men completed a near sweep of every event over 400 meters.
Benton claimed the 400-meter crown with a time of 49.37. Right behind him Michael Hendry brought home the 800-meter title, running his best time of the season at 1:53.79.
Drew Haro and Roland Leblanc finished second and third respectively in the mile run. Haro’s 4:19.21 and Leblanc’s 4:26.02 were both season bests. The Tigers took four of the top six spots in the event. Jake Simmons and Jeff Adolph rounded out the top six for LSU.
Patrick Gavin ran a spectacular 3,000-meter, claiming the top spot with a time of 8:22.73. This was the first time Gavin has run the 3-K for the Tigers, winning by 17 seconds over the field of 16 representatives from around the region.
Up next, the team will travel to New York City to compete in the New Balance Collegiate Invitational. The event, held Feb. 3-4, will be primarily held at the Armory Track and Field Center with selected finals being held at Madison Square Garden on Friday evening.