NAMPA, Idaho – While she might have entered this year’s meet as the NCAA’s No. 2-ranked performer in the 200-meter dash for the 2012 season, LSU junior Kimberlyn Duncan defended her national title with a record-setting performance to highlight Friday’s opener of this year’s NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships being held at the Jacksons Indoor Track.
Duncan defended her NCAA Indoor 200-meter gold medal after racing to a new indoor personal record in the national final, finishing more than two tenths of a second ahead of the rest of the field with her time of 22.74 seconds to emerge with the world’s No. 1 ranking for 2012.
Duncan’s run in the final shattered the previous Jacksons Indoor Track facility record of 23.01 established by Texas sophomore Allison Peter in the qualifying round held Friday evening.
While Peter won the second section of the 200-meter final with a time of 22.95, the Longhorn star was off the pace set by Duncan’s 22.74 in winning the 200 meters title. Texas A&M freshman and previous world leader Kamaria Brown won the NCAA Indoor bronze medal with her time of 23.05 in the final.
Duncan lined up in Lane 5 in the first finals section with Brown running to the outside in Lane 6. She was running even with Brown 50 meters into the race and blew away the Aggie freshman around the final turn to win the race and put the pressure on the finalists running in the second section.
With the win, Duncan becomes just the second Lady Tiger in program history to win back-to-back NCAA Indoor titles in the 200-meter dash, joining LSU great Muna Lee as the last to accomplish the feat with her consecutive victories in 2002 and 2003. Duncan also closed the gap on Lee’s indoor school record run of 22.49 as her winning time of 22.74 remains the No. 2-ranked performance in program history.
The Bowerman Award favorite extended her impressive streak of 14-straight victories in 200-meter finals against collegiate competition dating back to the 2011 indoor campaign.
“It feels great to come out here and win it again and score those 10 points for my team,” Duncan said after her victory. “I’ve been using the 60 all season to work on my start for the 200. That was the key for me today. Coach (Dennis) Shaver always tells me I need to get out hard so I don’t have to work as hard in the last part of the race. I feel like I did that very well today to get the victory.”
Duncan has also given herself an opportunity to score even more points for the Lady Tigers after securing a spot in her first career NCAA final in the 60-meter dash with her performance on Friday.
She finished runner-up in the third qualifying heat as her time of 7.28 was the sixth-fastest time of the day in the preliminary round of the women’s 60-meter dash. She’s now in position to claim her seventh career All-America honor in just the last two seasons as the NCAA’s leading dual sprinter.
With Duncan’s performance, the Lady Tigers finished the first day of competition at this year’s event tied for fifth place in the women’s team standings with six of the 17 events scored.
While Duncan scored the first 10 points of the championship for the No. 3-ranked Lady Tigers, the No. 4-ranked Tigers added 10 points of their own during Friday’s opening day of competition led by the second-place finish in the long jump by junior All-American Damar Forbes.
Forbes won his second career NCAA Championships silver medal with a second-place finish in the men’s long jump as he finished with a series-best mark of 26 feet, 2 ¾ inches on his third jump of the day.
Forbes opened with an impressive jump of 25-9 ½ on his first attempt to take the early lead, before he was passed by Texas standout Marquise Goodwin with his top mark of 26-2 ¼ in the second round of jumps at the top of the standings. Forbes then reclaimed first place in the third round of with a best of 26-2 ¾ in the first flight as he awaited the results from the second flight of jumpers.
That’s when he was passed again by Kendall Spencer of New Mexico as the Lobo junior soared 26-3 ¼ in the third round of jumps in the second flight to leapfrog Forbes by just two centimeters for first place. Spencer shattered his personal best as he did not record another mark better than 25-2 in his series.
Forbes nearly struck gold with his sixth and final jump of Friday’s final, but his effort of 26-1 for the final round came up just short in his bid to capture his first career NCAA long jump title.
It marked the second time in his career that Forbes won a silver medal at the NCAA Championships as he also took second place in the long jump at the NCAA Outdoor meet as a sophomore in 2011 while setting a lifetime personal best of 27-0 and emerging as one of the nation’s premier long jump talents.
While Forbes scored eight points with his second-place finish, senior Kyron Blaise scored two points with his seventh-place finish while earning his first career All-America honor in the long jump. Blaise captured a spot in the final with a best of 24-10 in the prelims to move into eighth place after the third round for the second flight. He then popped a 2012 seasonal best in the sixth and final round of jumps at 25-5 ¼ to slide up one spot into seventh place and add another point to his total.
Forbes and Blaise combined to score the first 10 points of this year’s NCAA Indoor Championship for the Tigers as they finished the day in a tie for eighth place in the team standings.
“I feel like I’m the silver king right now,” Forbes said. “My goal is to always win it. I’m disappointed, but he (Kendall Spencer) had the jump of his life today. It’s bittersweet. I’m glad that I’m here at NCAAs and able to compete, but now I’m even more motivated to win it outdoors. I’m looking forward to it.”
Five LSU Track & Field athletes will have an opportunity to take home All-America honors and score big points for the Tigers and Lady Tigers during Saturday’s championship finale after earning their spot in the finals during the preliminary action held Friday evening at the Jacksons Indoor Track.
Also slated to compete for the Lady Tigers on Saturday are junior Charlene Lipsey and sophomore Jasmin Stowers as each is poised to earn a second career All-America honor. Lipsey qualified automatically for the final of the 800-meter run after placing third in the first prelim heat with the fourth-fastest time for the day at 2 minutes, 4.72 seconds. Stowers nearly matched her seasonal-best time with an 8.05 clocking with her fifth-place finish in qualifying for the 60-meter hurdles.
Stowers is in position to earn her second career NCAA Indoor All-America honor in the 60-meter hurdles after taking sixth place in the national final as a freshman in 2011.
Lipsey, who earned a fourth-place finish nationally in the 800 meters at the NCAA Outdoor meet a season ago, advanced to her first career 800-meter final at the NCAA Indoor Championships on Friday.
Senior Barrett Nugent was the top Tiger qualifier during Friday’s action after running the fourth-best time in the men’s 60-meter hurdles with a seasonal-best effort of 7.63. The reigning NCAA champion in the 110-meter hurdles outdoors eyes his first NCAA Indoor crown in the 60-meter hurdles after taking second place in the national final as a junior a season ago.
Tiger junior Caleb Williams qualified for his first career NCAA final in the 400-meter dash after racing to a 2012 seasonal best of his own with an effort of 46.19 to finish in second place in the fourth qualifying heat with the fifth-fastest time of Friday’s preliminary round. Williams will also run on LSU’s contending 4×400-meter relay team during Saturday’s finale of the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Also competing for LSU on Friday were seniors Rebecca Alexander (54.03) with a 12th-place finish and Cassandra Tate (54.08) with a 13th-place finish in the 400-meter dash, junior Shanekia Hall (8.22) with an 11th-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles, junior Takeia Pinckney (7.53) with an 18th-place finish in the 60-meter dash and sophomore Denise Hinton (59-3) with a 16th-place finish in the weight throw.
“We always tell our athletes to approach a meet like this as if it were two separate track meets,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “We did some great things today that will give our teams an opportunity to get in the mix on championship Saturday. It’s now time for us to get ready for another meet tomorrow.
Senior Michael Lauro will be the first Tiger to compete Saturday as the day begins with the men’s weight throw at 5 p.m. followed by the first finals on the track at 7:35 p.m. The 2012 NCAA Indoor men’s and women’s team champions will be honored during a brief awards ceremony at 10:05 p.m. after the running of the 4×400-meter relays in the finale of this year’s championship.
ESPN3.com will provide live streaming video of Saturday’s championship finale from 7-10:15 p.m. CT. NCAA.com and broncosports.com will also provide live video with events not covered by ESPN3.com on Saturday from 11:30 a.m.-7 p.m. on the final day of this year’s indoor season finale.
Fans can receive additional coverage for the Tigers and Lady Tigers competing at the NCAA Indoor meet by liking LSU Track & Field on Facebook and following @LSUTrackField on Twitter.