DES MOINES, Iowa – The Lady Tigers had their first opportunity to step onto the track for the finals of the 2011 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Friday night at Drake Stadium, and sophomore Kimberlyn Duncan led the charge as she has done all season long with a silver-medal winning national runner-up finish in the women’s 100-meter dash final.
The Lady Tigers actually picked up a big 12 points in the event to lead the scoring on the meet’s third day in Des Moines as senior Kenyanna Wilson was the fifth-place finisher in this year’s national final.
After qualifying for her first career NCAA final in the event with a wind-legal personal record of 11.22 in the semifinal round, Duncan lowered her PR again in the final with a blistering 11.09 to score eight points in a thrilling finish. Oklahoma’s Candyce McGrone finished just a split-second ahead of Duncan clocking 11.08 at the finish line to take home the national championship.
Duncan appeared to be running in sixth place through the first 50 meters of the race, but she closed strong down the stretch and nearly caught McGrone from behind at the finish line for the victory. Wilson got out very well and held on for a fifth-place finish after running her wind-legal seasonal best of 11.22.
Duncan has made her name as the NCAA’s most dominant 200-meter specialist this season, but is quickly earning a reputation as the premier dual sprinter with her late-season surge in the 100-meter dash.
“I’m more mentally prepared this year to come here and perform. I wasn’t really able to do that a year ago as a freshman,” Duncan said. “That’s something that the coaches have helped me with tremendously since last year. I thought I could get in there and maybe finish in the top three. I just tried to stay focused on the way I know how to run. These are some great sprinters, but I just tried to stay focused on my race.
“Being in second place is a wonderful feeling for me. Last year, I didn’t even think I would be here. But I know I’m ready to go and can compete with any of the athletes out here.”
With their performance, Wilson became an All-American for a seventh time in her collegiate career while Duncan picked up her third career All-America accolade in the event. The duo will open Saturday’s event by leading the Lady Tigers in the finals of the 4×100-meter relay at 12:03 p.m. CDT.
Duncan will have an opportunity to win a national championship during Saturday’s finale during the 2011 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships as she is the favorite to win the 200 meters after clocking a wind-legal PR of 22.39 in the semifinal round on Thursday to grab the No. 1 seed.
In the wake of the 100-meter final, sophomore Charlene Lipsey lined up in her first career NCAA final in the 800-meter run and responded with a personal best of her own en route to a fourth-place finish.
Lipsey ran a great two-lap race as she remained patient while pacing herself within steps of the early race leaders in Tennessee’s Chanelle Price and Oregon’s Anne Kesselring.
After holding steady in fifth place coming off the final turn in the last 100 meters of the race, Lipsey sped past Yale’s Kate Grace to finish in the fourth position and score the first five points in NCAA competition of her collegiate career. Lipsey’s personal best of 2 minutes, 3.73 seconds finished behind only Kesselring (2:02.15), Oklahoma State’s Natalja Piliusina (2:02.16) and Price (2:03.02) in Friday’s final.
Lipsey actually set two personal bests this week in the 800 meters, as she followed a 2:03.96 in qualifying on Wednesday with her lifetime best of 2:03.73 on Friday evening. She entered this year’s semifinals with a previous PR of 2:05.05 that she set in her 2011 season opener at the LSU Invitational on April 2.
“They didn’t even have me making the final, so coming in fourth and scoring the points that I did is going to make a difference,” Lipsey said. “I had a little bit left. She (Kate Grace) was close enough for me to catch, so that gave me the motivation to try to get a better place. I am so happy that I made the final today and I didn’t come in eighth. It’s a really great feeling for me to end it like this.”
Junior Rachel Laurent wrapped up the scoring for the Lady Tigers with her pole vault performance, as she earned her third career All-America honor and first outdoors with a seventh-place finish.
After opening the competition with a first-attempt clearance at 12 feet, 9 ½ inches, Laurent cleared the bar at 13-1 ½ on her third attempt, 13-5 ¼ on her first attempt and 13-9 ¼ on her third attempt to take seventh place in the competition and score two points for the Lady Tigers. She adds her first ever NCAA Outdoor All-America honor to indoor accolades won as a freshman in 2009 and as a sophomore in 2010.
In what proved to be a difficult day for vaulting, the competition was suspended for about an hour starting at 6:35 p.m. CDT due to severe lightning in the area. After Laurent cleared 13-1 ½, she would not jump at 13-5 ¼ for the first time for about 1 hour, 15 minutes due to the delay.
Senior Melissa Ogbourne added a 13th-place finish in the triple jump in her final collegiate competition as she jumped a series-best of 41-8 ¾ on her third attempt of the qualifying round.
The Lady Tigers took a hit in the final women’s 400-meter hurdles when Cassandra Tate was disqualified after running out of her lane on the homestretch. It initially appeared that Tate had scored four points with a fifth-place finish as she clocked 56.04 in a downpour at Drake Stadium. But it was ruled that Tate ran in the inside lane on the straightaway after lining up in Lane 6 to start the race.
The Lady Tigers wrapped up Friday’s competition with 20.5 points for seventh place in the team standing as they trail Oregon (33), Oklahoma (29), Stanford (25), Texas A&M (23), Southern Miss (21) and Texas (21) heading into Saturday’s championship finale scheduled to run from 12-2 p.m. CDT.
LSU will have three scoring opportunities on the women’s side on Saturday afternoon as they line up with the 4×100-meter relay at 12:03 p.m. and both Duncan and junior Semoy Hackett take the track in the 200-meter dash final at 12:41 p.m. to wrap up the scoring for the Lady Tigers.
Despite not having a scoring opportunity on Friday evening, the Tigers will take their 17 points won from the long jump and hammer throw into Saturday’s competition as they currently sit in eighth place in the team standings. The Tigers follow Florida State (29), Virginia Tech (28), Florida (28), BYU (25.5), Texas Tech (24), Stanford (24) and Texas A&M (22).
The Tigers will compete with six scoring opportunities in the finale with senior Zedric Thomas and junior Kyron Blaise starting it off with their appearance in the men’s triple jump at 11:05 a.m.
On the track, the Tigers will line up in the 4×100-meter relay at 12:11 p.m., junior Horatio Williams is set to run in the 200-meter dash at 12:49 p.m., junior Barrett Nugent will race in the 110-meter hurdles at 1:16 p.m. and the team will wrap up the meet with an appearance in the 4×400-meter relay at 1:50 p.m. in what is sure to be an exciting conclusion to this year’s NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Saturday’s action will also feature a live television broadcast by CBS as fans nationwide can tune in from 12-2 p.m. to see the Tigers and Lady Tigers in action in the 2011 season finale.