AUSTIN, Texas — Sophomore Nickiesha Wilson qualified for Saturday’s final in the 400-meter hurdles as she improved upon her collegiate leading time in the event on Thursday at the Texas Relays with a new personal best of 56.67 seconds in the event prelims.
Wilson, who entered the meet with the nation’s top time after clocking a 56.99 in her collegiate debut in the event a week ago, posted the fastest time in the prelims as she also strengthened her hold on the No. 4 spot on the school’s all-time outdoor performance list.
“That was an outstanding performance by Nickiesha today, and I really think that she’s ready to run faster with another personal best on Saturday,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “We just hope that she lines up in the final with conditions like we saw today.”
Senior All-American Isa Phillips also improved upon his seasonal best time in the 400 hurdles after clocking the second-fastest preliminary time at 50.34 and advancing to Saturday’s final heat. Phillips improves his regional qualifying time of 50.84 set in his season debut at the LSU Tiger Classic last week.
“It was a better race for Isa today than last week, but he still has some improvements to make to run in the mid 49s,” Shaver said. “He’s having a problem going from the seventh to the eighth hurdle, and that’s something we hope to figure out before he lines up on Saturday. I’m confident that he’ll be able to do that and run really well in the final.”
Both of LSU’s 4×800-meter relay squads also posted Top 10 times in school history on the second day of the competition as the women finished third and the men took fourth in the finals of the meet’s first relay event.
The men’s foursome of Michael Hendry, Jamaal James, Jeffrey Parker and Reuben Twijukye clocked a time of 7 minutes, 23.32 seconds to move into the No. 6 spot on the school’s all-time list. The women’s team of Katie Dawson, LaTavia Thomas, Lindsay Day and Tanya Osbourne now ranks No. 8 all-time as they finished the race in 8:45.76.
“We had some really good efforts out there today in both relays,” Shaver said. “Both teams competed very well, which was great to see. This was a great way to start our relays at this meet with both moving into the Top 10 list in school history.”
The squads will be back in action at the Texas Relays on Friday as the preliminaries of the men’s and women’s 4×100-meter relays are scheduled to begin at approximately 9:30 a.m. Freshman Katelyn Rodrigue will kick things off in the field events as the women’s pole vault competition is slated to begin at 10 a.m.