EUGENE, Ore. – With only a handful of finals being contested during Wednesday’s action at the 2010 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, LSU junior Zedric Thomas made the most of his opportunity by earning All-America honors with a seventh-place finish in the triple jump with a wind-legal outdoor personal record of 52 feet, 10 ¾ inches.
Thomas picked up right where he left off at the NCAA Indoor Championships back in March by earning a third All-America honor this season as he has emerged as one of the nation’s elite horizontal jumpers.
After opening the competition with a foul on his first attempt, Thomas landed 52-10 ¾ from the board for his second attempt of the preliminary round to tie for second place in the first flight and finish in the No. 5 spot in the standings heading into the final round of jumps.
He then posted a wind-legal mark of 51-3 ¾ on his fourth attempt and a wind-aided mark of 51-9 ¾ in his fifth attempt before matching his best mark of the day with a wind-aided jump of 52-10 ¾ on his sixth and final attempt of the competition. With a seventh-place finish in the event, Thomas scored the first two points of the meet for the Tigers as they head into Friday’s events with 10 scoring chances remaining.
The New Iberia native has now earned three All-America certificates with his performance this year as he finished runner-up in the triple jump and third in the long jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
“The weather wasn’t ideal today. It being rainy and cold made it hard to get my body prepared to compete today,” Thomas said. “I still felt like I had a big jump in me. Even after my last jump, I still felt like I had a lot left in me. I’m happy to score some points, but I feel like I left a big jump out there today.”
Wednesday was an important day of qualifying for LSU as three athletes and one relay team advanced for the Lady Tigers into national finals to be held later this week.
The Lady Tigers first stepped onto the track for the semifinal round of the 4×100-meter relay and clocked the second-fastest time of the afternoon at 43.50 seconds. The team of senior Samantha Henry, freshman Kimberlyn Duncan, freshman Takeia Pinckney and junior Kenyanna Wilson advanced to the NCAA final that is scheduled to run on Saturday afternoon at 12:03 p.m. CDT.
Pinckney returned to the track later in the evening for the semifinal round of the women’s 100-meter dash and advanced to the national final in her first career appearance at the NCAA Outdoor Championships by finishing third in her heat with the third-fastest time of the day with a wind-aided 11.18.
Two Lady Tigers also lined up in the semifinal round of the women’s 800-meter run and qualified for the event final set for Friday at 7:50 p.m. Senior LaTavia Thomas won her heat with the third-fastest clocking of the day at 2 minutes, 4.82 seconds, and senior Kayann Thompson finished third in her semifinal race in the eighth-fastest time of the afternoon at 2:05.08 to give LSU two of the eight lanes in the national final.
By advancing to the final, Thomas has put herself in a position to earn her sixth career All-America honor in the 800 meters, which includes a runner-up finish outdoors in 2008 and a third-place finish in 2009.
The Tigers had one qualifier into an NCAA final during Wednesday’s semifinal action at the 2010 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships as they advanced their 4×100-meter relay into the finals to be held Saturday at 12:11 p.m. CT. The Tigers are the reigning NCAA runners-up in the event.
While running with a team of sophomore Barrett Nugent, senior Will Coppage, senior Armanti Hayes and junior Gabriel Mvumvure, LSU crossed the finish line with the fourth-fastest time of the day at 39.13.
“There’s no doubt that we had our ups and downs today,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “I thought our athletes who advanced really competed well and did what they had to do to get to the final. We came into the day with 17 chances to score on the women’s side and now we only have 11 chances to score. It’s tough to not get a single point out of those six opportunities.
“I thought the men competed well for the most part. Zedric Thomas set a new personal best, and I thought did a great job to get in there and get us some points. We needed that from him today.”
In other semifinal action, Wilson (11.42) finished in 11th place and Henry (11.55) finished in 16th place in the women’s 100-meter dash. Sophomore Cassandra Tate (58.12) took 11th place in the 400-meter hurdles and freshman Charlene Lipsey (2:08.08) was the 15th-place finisher in the 800-meter run.
In the field events, junior Brittani Carter cleared the bar at 5-9 ¼ to take in 11th place in the women’s high jump, while sophomore Samia Stokes threw 155-0 to finish in 16th place in the discus.
For the Tigers, senior Richard Jones (1:47.18) finished in 11th place and freshman Sadiki White (1:50.63) finished in 20th place in the semifinal round of the men’s 800 meters. Senior Armanti Hayes placed 12th in the 400-meter dash with a time of 46.35, while fellow senior Jerel Hill finished in 16th place overall in the semifinal round of the men’s 100-meter dash with a time of 10.43.
Freshman Damar Forbes joined Thomas in the men’s triple jump competition and finished in 20th place on the afternoon after jumping 49-3 ½ on his second attempt.
LSU continues the competition at the 2010 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday as the field events begin at 5 p.m. CDT followed by the first events on the track at 6:30 p.m. All fans can access live results of the meet courtesy of Flash Results by logging on to www.flashresults.com.
Fans can also find up-to-the-minute and behind-the-scenes coverage of the Tigers and Lady Tigers by following @LSUTrackField on Twitter and by becoming a fan of the official LSU Track & Field page on Facebook. Results, photos and videos will be posted as they become available.