COLLEGE STATION, Texas – LSU sophomore Kimberlyn Duncan certainly lived up to her billing as the world’s No. 1-ranked performer in the 200-meter dash during Friday’s opening day of competition at the 2011 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships as she was crowned this year’s NCAA Indoor champion in the one-lap sprint in dramatic fashion.
After opening with an easy 22.97-second performance in winning her preliminary heat, Duncan qualified for Friday’s two-section NCAA final along with Lady Tiger teammate Semoy Hackett (23.05).
That’s when Duncan, who hails from the Houston suburb of Katy, Texas, made sure that her homecoming would be one to remember as she cruised to the finish line in 22.85 ahead of Baylor’s Tiffany Townsend (22.90) in the first finals section. She then celebrated her 200-meter national championship after watching Texas A&M standout Jeneba Tarmoh win the second section with a second-place time of 22.88.
With her victory Friday night at Texas A&M’s Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium, Duncan snapped a drought of eight seasons without an NCAA Indoor 200-meter title by the Lady Tigers as LSU great Muna Lee was the last to accomplish the feat with back-to-back championships in 2002 and 2003.
Duncan is actually the fourth Lady Tiger sprinter in the program’s storied history to take home the NCAA Indoor 200-meter crown as she also joins the likes of Dawn Sowell (1989) and Peta-Gaye Dowdie (1999).
The Lady Tigers actually picked up 13 total points in the 200-meter final as Hackett clocked 23.21 for the final to earn a sixth-place finish overall with a third-place finish in the second finals section.
“I could never have imagined something like this at the beginning of the season. I’ve worked so hard here this season, and I’m just so thankful to my coaches who have helped put me in this position,” Duncan said following her victory. “I really wasn’t even nervous watching the second race. It took a lot out of me with my race that I wasn’t even thinking about it. I knew I ran the best race that I could run tonight.
“When you get to this level, everyone is capable of winning it. You just have to go out there and run what you did to get here to put yourself in that position. That’s something that Coach (Dennis) Shaver is telling us all the time. I knew I was ready and prepared to do that here tonight.”
Duncan really proved herself as an emerging star in the 200-meter dash as she broke the 23-second barrier for the first time in her career indoors or outdoors with her gold-medal winning performance in the events final at the SEC Indoor Championships. That’s when she clocked the world’s leading time this season and the world’s fastest indoor 200-meter time in three years with a personal record of 22.78.
“Competing at the SEC Championships really gets you ready as an athlete to perform at your best here for the NCAA Championships. I think that has had a lot to do with my success,” Duncan said. “When you are running at SECs, you know you’re competing against the same people you’ll run against at this meet.”
The Tigers featured a first-time All-American of their own in the 200-meter dash Friday evening as junior Horatio Williams scored the first points of the meet for the men’s team with an impressive fourth place on the first day of competition to give the men’s team five points on the scoreboard.
Williams, who lined up in the preliminary rounds ranked No. 11 in the field with a seasonal best of 20.83, recorded back-to-back indoor personal bests by following the fourth-fastest time of the prelim round at 20.77 with the fourth-fastest time of the final at 20.68 en route to his first career All-America honor in the purple and gold. His performance ranks No. 3 on LSU’s all-time indoor list in the event.
Williams finished runner-up to Florida State’s Maurice Mitchell (20.41) in the first of two sections, while Oklahoma’s Rakieem Salaam (20.41) won the second section to take home the men’s 200-meter title.
Two members of the LSU jumps group also added to the team’s point total during Friday’s competition as senior Brittani Carter earned her fourth career All-America honor in the women’s high jump and senior Zedric Thomas earned his third career All-America honor in the men’s long jump.
Carter added to her resume as arguably the premier performer in the high jump in the illustrious history of the Lady Tiger program while clearing a height of 6 feet, ½ inches on her first attempt to solidify her third place finish in the event and add six points to the women’s count. That performance matched a career-best third-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships during her sophomore season in 2009.
Carter has now received All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships in each of the last three seasons, while she also boasts one outdoor All-America honor in 2009. No other Lady Tigers high jumper has won more than two All-America honors during their LSU career.
And as he did during both the indoor and outdoor season in 2010, Thomas drew All-America accolades in the long jump with a seventh-place after jumping 25-6 ¼ on his third attempt of the competition.
The Lady Tigers wrapped up Friday’s action in third place overall with 19 points in women’s team race as they trail only Oregon (26) and Texas (23) in the standings. The Tigers scored seven points for the day for a 15th-place finish with only six of 17 events scored as both BYU and Florida State are tied atop the men’s team standings with 24 points apiece. Minnesota follows in third place with 14 points.
LSU remains in contention for a strong finish at this year’s NCAA Indoor Championships with the Tigers owning seven scoring opportunities and the Lady Tigers having five scoring opportunities on Saturday.
“I’m very proud of the effort and the way our kids competed today,” Shaver said. “This event will always have its ups and downs. We saw some tremendous individual performance today from our kids, especially Kimberlyn Duncan in winning a national championship. We also had a great day of qualifying today. Our athletes have put us in a position to finish strong in both of the team races tomorrow.”
Also during Friday’s preliminary action, five LSU athletes qualified for NCAA finals to race on Saturday afternoon in both the 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles.
Freshman Jasmin Stowers will have an opportunity to earn her first career All-America honor on Saturday after finishing runner-up in her prelim heat with a time of 8.15 for the sixth-fastest time overall during the qualifying round. The final of the women’s 60-meter hurdles are set to run at 5:20 p.m. CT.
Junior All-American Barrett Nugent will follow in the final of the men’s 60-meter hurdles at 5:30 p.m. as he clocked the fourth-fastest time during Saturday’s action at 7.75 en route to a second-place finish for his prelim heat. Nugent was also an NCAA Indoor All-American in the 60-meter hurdles a season ago with a fourth-place finish in his first career appearance at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Following their All-America performance in the 200-meter dash Friday night, Hackett and Williams have a chance to pick up their second All-America honor of the weekend with an appearance in the finals heats of the 60-meter dash scheduled to begin with the women’s race at 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Hackett set a new lifetime personal best of 7.22 to win her qualifying heat ahead of Lady Tigers teammate Kenyanna Wilson, who also set a new personal record with a matching prelim time of 7.22. The two were separated by just eight one-thousandths of a second in the final results of the preliminary round.
Williams was the last qualifier into the men’s 60-meter final after crossing the finish line in 6.66 to earn a third-place finish in his heat with the eighth-fastest time of the evening.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers will continue Saturday’s action at the 2011 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships at 3:30 p.m. CT with the first field events followed by the first events on the track at 5:20 p.m. There will be live streaming video of the competition at www.ESPN3.com.