DES MOINES, Iowa – With all but two events in the books for the LSU track and field teams on the second day of competition at the 2011 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, a series of severe thunderstorms in the Des Moines area postponed Thursday’s conclusion until Friday morning as athletes must return Drake Stadium to finish their scheduled events.
As sophomore Damar Forbes was only one jump away from either winning or finishing in second place in the men’s long jump and the men’s 4×400-meter relay was preparing to run in the first of three semifinals, the action was halted at 8:15 p.m. CDT with heavy rain and lightning at Drake Stadium.
As of 10:30 p.m., it was still to be determined as to when the NCAA would resume the competition with a rescheduled start time on Friday morning. Further updates will be made available at NCAA.com.
“There always seems to be a level of adversity you must overcome as a team to reach the goals you set for yourself in a competition like this. It just so happens that this is something that will affect every team here with the goal of winning a national championship,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “It’s unfortunate for sure, but we’ll focus on the things we can control to put ourselves in the best position to compete.
“We’ll come back here ready to go whenever they decide to continue in the morning and finish off what’s been a tremendous day for our teams. Our athletes will be ready to compete.”
The Tigers added their third member to the 27-foot club in the men’s long jump during Thursday’s action, as Forbes was destined for an improbable finish while securing his first career All-America honor.
Forbes actually held the lead in the competition after two flights of qualifying when jumping a wind-aided 26 feet, 9 inches (+2.6) on his third attempt. His prelim performance not only won the first flight, but held up as the top qualifying mark as he prepared for the nine-man final on the Drake Stadium infield.
Forbes was then passed in the fourth round of jumps by Florida State’s Ngonidzashe Makusha (27-6 ¾) in first place and Florida’s Will Claye (26-11) as he prepared to take his first jump in the final.
That’s when Forbes soared 27-0 with a legal tailwind of 0.6 meters per second to overtake Claye and leap back into second place in the competition. His fourth-round jump eclipsed his previous personal record of 26-1 ¾ set in a fifth-place finish nearly one month ago at the SEC Championships.
It also moved Forbes into the No. 3 position on LSU’s all-time outdoor performance list in the men’s long jump, trailing fellow 27-footers John Moffitt (27-9 ½) and Llewellyn Starks (27-0 ½).
After fouling on his fifth attempt, Forbes was preparing for his sixth and final jump of the event in his bid to take home the long jump title over Makusha when a severe thunderstorm delayed the action with heavy rains and frequent lightning strikes near Drake Stadium for the remainder of the evening. The competition halted with just four jumpers needing to take their final attempts in the sixth round.
While Forbes is destined to score some big points for the Tigers when the long jump goes final, the squad picked up its first nine points of the meet when senior Walter Henning and junior Michael Lauro won two All-America honors in the men’s hammer throw in Thursday’s opening event.
Henning, the defending NCAA champion in the event, threw a series-best 226-5 on his final throw for the day to lock up six points with a third-place finish. Lauro added three points with a sixth-place finish when setting a new personal record with a mark of 221-3 on his fourth throw of the competition.
Thursday was the end of an era for the Tigers as Henning made his final throw in a storied career with the program while earning his sixth All-America honor in three seasons in Baton Rouge.
Henning wraps up his collegiate career as a three-time NCAA champion and six-time SEC champion with one of the most prolific careers for a thrower in the history of LSU track and field.
“I nearly threw a seasonal best, so I can’t be too disappointed with that,” Henning said. “The goal was for me to finish in the top three, and I was glad that we were able to get two places. We scored nine points for the team after scoring 10 points in this event last year, so it was almost the same for us. To throw the way I did the entire outdoor season and to throw my best the last three meets, I was excited about that.”
Senior Brittani Carter scored the first points of this year’s NCAA Championships for the Lady Tigers in a fifth career All-America performance in the women’s high jump competition.
In her final appearance for the Lady Tigers, Carter tied for seventh place in the event after clearing the bar at 5-10 ¾ to score 1.5 points for LSU in the team standings. She wraps up her collegiate career as perhaps the most decorated high jumper in Lady Tiger history with five career All-America accolades, including a pair of bronze medal third-place finishes at the NCAA Indoor Championships in 2009 and 2011.
“We saw some tremendous performances in the field events today to help get us on the scoreboard for this meet,” Shaver said. “I’m proud of the way our kids competed today to fight for those finishes. That’s how we need to compete over the next two days to finish this championship with a chance to win.”
Sophomore Kimberlyn Duncan sent shock waves through the rest of the women’s 200-meter field with an impressive performance in leading the Lady Tigers in semifinal qualifying on Thursday evening.
While lining up in the first of three qualifying heats, Duncan blew away the competition to the tune of her wind-legal personal record of 22.39 seconds. That is the second-fastest 200-meter time in the world in the 2011 outdoor season, trailing only a 22.38 run by three-time defending World Champion Allyson Felix. It also makes Duncan the third-fastest performer outdoors in the 200 meters in Lady Tiger history.
Duncan is poised to add the NCAA Outdoor 200-meter title to the NCAA Indoor crown she claimed back in March as she is undefeated in her last six 200-meter finals dating back to the Tyson Invitational indoors on Feb. 12. That includes a sweep of SEC Indoor and SEC Outdoor titles during her sophomore season.
Duncan is also qualified to run in her first career NCAA final in the 100-meter dash on Friday after taking the second-fastest time in Wednesday’s qualifying with another personal best of 11.22.
She will be joined in Saturday’s 200-meter final by junior teammate Semoy Hackett, who placed third for her semifinal heat with the seventh-fastest time of the day at 23.03.
“These last two days are all about doing what you’ve got to do to move on,” Duncan said. “We want to be in those finals. I just tried to come out today and win my heat. That’s all you really try to do when you run a race like that. We were able to get two through to the final like we did in the 100 last night. That’s big if we can take advantage of it and score the kind of points we need to for our team.”
The Tigers added a finalist of their own in the men’s 200-meter dash as Horatio Williams ran away with a victory in the first of three semifinal heats with his wind-legal personal record of 20.44. Williams stood as the fourth-fastest qualifier of the evening after eclipsing his previous legal best of 20.48 in the event.
Fellow junior Barrett Nugent then followed with a qualifying performance in the men’s 110-meter hurdles as he clocked a wind-legal seasonal best of 13.48 to take third place in his heat and fourth place overall.
It is still to be determined if either of LSU’s 4×400-meter relays advance to NCAA finals that will line up on Saturday. The Lady Tigers finished in third place in the second women’s semifinal heat with a time of 3 minutes, 32.88 seconds that was the fastest timed qualifier for the final through two races. The third and final semifinal heat of the women’s 4×400-meter relay will be run Friday to determine the finalists.
The competition was suspended before the Tigers could line up in the first men’s 4×400 relay semifinal of the evening. The Tigers will return to the track on Friday morning in an attempt to qualify for the final.