BATON ROUGE — Junior hurdles standout Jessica Ohanaja has capitalized on her stellar performance on the track during the indoor season as she was named the USTFCCCA South Central Region Women’s Track Athlete of the Year on Tuesday.
Ohanaja, who has been recognized among the nation’s elite track athletes by the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, is coming off of the best performance of her LSU career as she set a new personal best time of 8.03 seconds to win her first career SEC title in the 60-meter hurdles two weeks ago.
The Houston, Texas, native is set to compete in the event at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships for the second time in her career as she enters the meet among the favorites with her season best time ranking No. 1 on the national descending order list and No. 3 on the school’s all-time performance list behind Lady Tiger greats Joyce Bates (7.99) and Lolo Jones (8.00).
Ohanaja has won the event title in the 60-meter hurdles in six of the seven indoor meets in which she has competed this season, including the Modrall Sperling Lobo Invitational (8.23), the New Balance Collegiate Invitational (8.14) and the SEC Indoor Championships (8.03). She also won the college title at the prestigious 100th Millrose Games at Madison Square Garden in New York on Feb. 2.