BATON ROUGE – Lady Tiger senior All-American Kenyanna Wilson took advantage of her final opportunity to qualify for the NCAA Championships during Friday’s LSU NCAA Indoor Qualifier at the Carl Maddox Field House while adding her name to LSU’s postseason roster in the 60-meter dash.
Wilson, who entered the weekend with a 2011 seasonal-best time of 7.29 seconds set at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational back on Feb. 5, cruised to an NCAA qualifying time of 7.26 in the prelim round of the event in the opening event on the track during Friday’s competition.
Not only that, but she matched her performance in the final with a clocking of 7.26 to claim the 60 meters title and become the nation’s 12th NCAA automatic qualifier in the event this season.
The two-time NCAA Indoor All-American will join the like of junior teammate Semoy Hackett (7.24) for the 60-meter prelim at the national meet next weekend as she seeks her third-straight All-American honor in the sprint. Wilson placed third nationally in 2009 before taking fifth place in 2010.
Junior Kyron Blaise also put himself in a position to compete in the long jump at the national meet with a new indoor personal-best performance on Friday afternoon. After entering the meet with a 2011 best mark of 24 feet, 11 ¾ inches set back in LSU’s season opener at the Purple Tiger Invitational on Jan. 15, Blaise jumped 25-6 ¼ on his second attempt to move into the No. 14 position on the NCAA list this season.
In fact, Blaise recorded four marks above his seasonal best entering the meet with jumps of 25-0 ½ on his first and sixth attempts and 25-4 on his fourth attempt of the competition. Blaise is already qualified to the national meet in the triple jump with a top mark of 53-8 ¼ set last weekend at the SEC Indoor meet.
While senior Ross Roubion is likely to miss the qualifying cut for next week’s NCAA Championships, he managed to shatter his personal record in the men’s 35-pound weight throw in Friday’s opening event.
On his fourth throw of the competition and first attempt of the final, Roubion unleashed a personal-record throw of 67-0 ½ en route to a third-place finish in the competition. That performance also moved Roubion into the No. 21 spot on the NCAA list for the 2011 indoor campaign and into the No. 4 spot on LSU’s all-time indoor performance list in the weight throw event, raising his previous PR of 64-6.
Junior Keyth Talley was also impressive during the men’s 60-meter final as he followed his 6.78 qualifier in the preliminary round with a new seasonal-best time of 6.68 to capture the men’s event crown.
Other LSU athletes who enjoyed personal-best performances during Friday’s last chance qualifier include sophomore Thomas Reinecke (17-0) and senior Kyle Rose (16-6) in the men’s pole vault, and sophomore Whitney Johnson in the women’s long jump (19-0) held during the afternoon.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers are sure to be in the national championship picture next week as they head to the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium in College Station, Texas, to compete in the 2011 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships scheduled to run March 11-12 at Texas A&M University.
Through Friday’s action at the LSU NCAA Indoor Qualifier, the teams have combined for 17 qualifiers to the NCAA Championships, including nine automatic qualifiers for the men and eight automatic qualifiers for the women. In addition, LSU features 14 other performers who rank among the Top 20 nationally with their respective events as they are in position to earn an at-large berth into the NCAA Championships.