Much will be written heading into the 2015 season about which Lady Tigers will step up to fill the void left behind by the departures of such All-Americans as Denise Hinton, Lynnika Pitts, Jasmin Stowers and Nikita Tracey from last year’s squad. After all, they formed a senior class that accounted for 16 All-America selections during their respective careers in Baton Rouge that was capped with a sixth-place team finish during the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships to end the 2014 season.
But the Lady Tigers return the likes of NCAA Outdoor shot put silver medalist Tori Bliss and All-American hurdler Chanice Chase, as well as national hopefuls Nataliyah Friar, Jada Martin, Rebekah Wales and one of the nation’s top recruiting classes to reload for another NCAA run in 2015.
Ninth in a 10-part series previews a talented squad of jumpers who look to lead the Lady Tigers during the 2015 season.
Women’s Jumps & Multis
The Lady Tigers have built a strong tradition in the jumps featuring some of the nation’s premier performers at the collegiate level year in and year out, and rising sophomore Nataliyah Friar is looking to step up and fill the shoes left by departing All-Americans Lynnika Pitts and Keri Emanuel in the wake of a tremendous debut season in 2014.
Pitts and Emanuel were instrumental in leading the Lady Tigers to top finishes at the SEC and NCAA Championships over the past two seasons while combining for four All-American and three All-SEC honors during the 2013 and 2014 seasons.
Pitts enjoyed her most prolific season with the Lady Tigers a year ago as her senior season was highlighted by winning the NCAA Indoor bronze medal and earning an NCAA Outdoor fourth-place finish in the triple jump as one of the nation’s top performers in the event. The double SEC bronze medalist set personal bests of 44 feet, 0 ¾ inches indoors and 44-1 ¾ outdoors in her final season.
Likewise, Emanuel captured All-America honors during the 2013 indoor season as the sixth-place finisher nationally in the triple jump. It was a season in which she also jumped her lifetime personal best of 44-2 as the SEC Indoor silver medalist in the event.
Friar will look to carry the torch left by Pitts and Emanuel as she enters her second season in the program as a star on the rise for the Lady Tigers in 2015.
In her debut season in 2014, Friar was an NCAA Indoor finalist and NCAA Outdoor semifinalist in the long jump as one of the nation’s top young talents in the event. After qualifying for the NCAA Indoor Championships with a lifetime best of 20-8 during the regular season, Friar earned a ninth-place finish in her first career national final to highlight a strong first season at the collegiate level.
Friar also proved to be one of the SEC’s top performers in the long jump during the 2014 season as she totaled seven points for the Lady Tigers with her efforts at the SEC Championships. She followed a fifth-place finish at the SEC Indoor meet with a sixth-place finish at the SEC Outdoor meet in the event.
A heralded prospect from Holt High School in Wentzville, Missouri, Friar also jumped a personal best of 41-3 ¾ in the triple jump in her first season with the Lady Tigers a season ago.
Shanice Hall also returns to the squad for her junior season as a former NCAA qualifier in the high jump during her collegiate career when she competed in the high jump at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds as a freshman in 2013. She owns a personal best of 6-0 ¾ in the event that she set in her prep career at Wolmer’s Girls in her native Jamaica.
The Lady Tigers are also a scoring threat in the multi-events as Therese Jernbeck makes a return as one of the SEC’s top performers in the pentathlon and heptathlon during her collegiate career.
A product of Stockholm, Sweden, Jernbeck returns for her junior season as a former SEC scorer in the pentathlon in her debut appearance at the SEC Indoor Championships in 2013 when she scored an indoor personal best of 3,864 points to rank No. 8 in school history in the event. Jernbeck also owns a PR of 5,324 points in the heptathlon that was set at the 2011 European Junior Athletics Championships.
Joining the Lady Tiger program for the first time in 2015 are two elite jumps prospects as rookies Bria Druilhet (Sugar Land, Texas) and Danielle Phillips (Cocoa, Florida) helped form one of the top classes in the country last spring.
Druilhet is a former Texas Class 5A state triple jump champion during her prep career at Stephen F. Austin High School where she set PRs of 41-1 wind-aided and 40-5 ¾ wind-legal in the event. Likewise, Phillips is a former Florida Class 2A state champion in both the long jump and triple jump during her four seasons at Rockledge Senior High School where she jumped bests of 20-5 ½w and 38-3 in the events.