FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The LSU track and field teams were led by a trio of All-America performances by senior Samantha Henry, junior Brittani Carter and junior Zedric Thomas on an outstanding first day of action Friday at the 2010 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships being held this week at the Randal Tyson Track Center at the University of Arkansas.
Both the Tigers and Lady Tigers scored five points on the opening day of competition and put themselves in position for a big finish with seven scoring opportunities apiece on Saturday.
LSU was impressive during Friday’s preliminary races on the track as seven of eight athletes lining up for a spot in Saturday’s championship finals advanced to compete on the final day of the meet.
“We were really hitting on all cylinders today. Pretty much everybody we had who stepped onto the track with a chance to make a final tomorrow made it to the final,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “I could not be more proud of the way both of our teams competed today. We did about everything we could do today to put ourselves in a position to have a strong finish tomorrow on both sides.
“I’m not sure that a single team at this track meet had as good a day as we had in terms of qualifying from today’s prelims. We were almost perfect in that respect.”
Henry led the way for the Lady Tigers by earning a seventh-place finish in the final of the 200-meter dash after running a time of 23.52 seconds for her 11th career All-America honor as a Lady Tiger. Henry’s time in the final came after running a seasonal-best time of 23.41 in the qualifying round.
Not only did Henry earn All-America honors in the 200-meter dash, but she also put herself in position to receive a second All-America honor at this year’s NCAA Indoor Championships by qualifying for the 60-meter final to be held Saturday at the Randal Tyson Track Center. The Lady Tiger great clocked the sixth-fastest qualifying time of the evening at 7.27 in her 60-meter prelim.
Carter earned her third career All-American honor in the high jump and her second indoors as she was the fifth-place finisher in this year’s competition with a clearance at 5 feet, 11 ¼ inches.
The bronze medalist at the NCAA Indoor Championships a year ago, Carter scored the Lady Tigers’ first four points of the meet after breezing through the competition with first attempt clearances at 5-8 ¾, 5-10 and 5-11 ¼ before bowing out of the event with the bar resting at 6-0 ½.
Carter’s performance is sure to give her a springboard into the outdoor season as she wraps up the indoor campaign as the reigning SEC Indoor champion with three career All-America honors in her specialty. In fact, she becomes the first Lady Tiger in program history to win three All-America certificates in a career after taking third indoors and fifth outdoors as a sophomore in 2009.
Thomas put the Tigers on the scoreboard with an All-America performance of his own as he took home a fourth-place finish in the men’s long jump for his first career All-America honor in an LSU uniform.
Thomas opened with a jump of 25-9 ¼ on his first attempt of the competition, and that mark held true into the final round of jumps en route to a fourth-place finish.
“We’re off to a great start. We probably even did a little bit better today with the scoring opportunities we had than maybe we were expected to coming in,” Shaver said. “We were scheduled to compete in three finals today and we scored in all three. You can’t ask for much more than that. Our kids have done a great job of competing all year long, and I thought they showed that competitiveness again today.”
Sophomore hurdler Barrett Nugent led a host of LSU qualifiers during Friday’s preliminary action with a record-breaking performance in the men’s 60-meter hurdles.
Nugent, who was crowned SEC champion after running a personal best of 7.65 on the same straightaway at the Randal Tyson Track Center at the SEC Indoor Championships just two weeks ago, shattered his own LSU indoor school record with a blistering time of 7.60 to win his preliminary heat. Nugent finished only behind the time of 7.55 run by defending NCAA champion Ronnie Ash of Oklahoma in the prelims.
Nugent has put himself in a position to earn his first career All-America honor in the sprint hurdles and is on track to be the first Tiger to accomplish the feat since former LSU star Alleyne Lett in 2007.
“I got out a little slow, but I think I caught everyone by the third hurdle and turned it on the second half of the race,” Nugent said. “My focus today was getting to the final. I wasn’t expecting to run a PR. I was just focused on making it to the final. Now I have to come back and run a much better race tomorrow.”
The Lady Tigers were impressive as they qualified three sprinters into the final of the 60-meter dash to be held Saturday as Henry will be joined by junior Kenyanna Wilson and freshman Takeia Pinckney. Wilson was the third-fastest qualifier during the prelims after running a seasonal-best time of 7.25 to place second in her heat, while Pinckney was the fifth-fastest qualifier with a time of 7.26 in the same race.
LSU also qualified a trio of runners into the finals of the 800-meter run to be held on Saturday with senior Jamaal James and junior Richard Jones securing a spot in the men’s final scheduled for 7:35 p.m. and senior LaTavia Thomas earning a spot in the women’s final scheduled for 7:45 p.m.
Thomas won her preliminary heat with a time of 2 minutes, 5.75 seconds, while James took second with a time of 1:49.67 and Jones took third with a time of 1:49.47 in their respective preliminary heats.
Other Tigers scheduled to compete on Saturday include Thomas in the triple jump, national-leading junior Walter Henning and sophomore Michael Lauro in the weight throw and the nation’s fourth-ranked 4×400-meter relay team. The Lady Tigers will also feature such athletes as junior Melissa Ogbourne in the triple jump, sophomore Rachel Laurent in the pole vault and also the nation’s fourth-ranked 4×400 relay.
“Tomorrow is another track meet for us. That is the mindset that we must have going in,” Shaver said. “It will be an exciting end to the indoor season, and I’m sure we’ll go down to the last couple of events of the day before we decide a champion. We need to show the same fire that we did today to be in the mix.”
Saturday’s action at the 2010 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. CT with the multi-events, followed by the first field events at 2 p.m. and the first events on the track at 6:15 p.m. Live results from the event will be available online at www.flashresults.com, while fans are able to see up-to-the minute updates of the Tigers and Lady Tigers by following @LSUTrackField on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lsutrackfield.