FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Just as she did at the SEC Indoor Championships two weeks ago, LSU’s Nataliyah Friar saved her best jump for last when she soared to a lifetime personal best of 21 feet, 0 inches to capture the NCAA Indoor bronze medal in the women’s long jump and put the Lady Tigers on the scoreboard at the 2015 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships.
When stepping onto the runway for her final attempt in eighth place in the competition thanks to her jump of 20-2 ½ in the third round of qualifying, Friar hit the board and landed a distance of 21-0 into the pit to climb into third place overall and earn her first career All-America honor while scoring the Lady Tigers’ first six points of the weekend.
Friar earned her place on the medal podium alongside Oregon’s NCAA Indoor Champion Jenna Prandini (21-10) and Kentucky’s NCAA Indoor Silver Medalist Sha’Keela Saunders (21-5 ¼) in the final standings.
Following Friar in the remaining scoring positions in Friday’s women’s long jump were Texas Tech’s Shanice Stewart (20-10 ½) in fourth place, Kentucky’s Kenyattia Hackworth (20-8 ½) in fifth place, Kansas State’s Akela Jones (20-7 ¼) in sixth place, Georgia’s Chanice Porter (20-7) in seventh place and Arkansas’ Tamara Myers (20-3 ¾) in eighth place in the competition.
Friar actually held the third position following the first round of jumps with her opening mark of 20-0 ¼, but dropped to sixth through two rounds after fouling her second jump and taking seventh place into the final by improving to 20-2 ½ in the third round. It marked the second-straight season in which she qualified for the NCAA Indoor final in the long jump while finishing in ninth place as a freshman in 2014.
The Wentzville, Missouri, native drew motivation from her missed opportunity as a freshman when she was one place short of earning All-America honors with a jump of 20-1 ¾ for ninth place in her NCAA debut.
Friar was bumped into eighth place by Myers, who moved up three spots from ninth place into sixth place with her best jump of the day at 20-3 ¾ on the opening jump of the fourth round. That’s where Friar remained going into the final round of jumps as she was unable to improve on her first two attempts in the final with marks of 19-11 ¾ in the fourth round and 18-6 ½ in the fifth round.
Friar’s All-America status was sealed when Mississippi State’s Erica Bougard failed to improve upon her position in ninth place on her final attempt while finishing with a mark of 20-2 ½, just one centimeter short of Friar in a closely-contested final. Perhaps relieved of the pressure with her first career All-America honor already in the bag, Friar followed with a career-best jump of 21-0 on her final attempt to clinch the bronze medal.
Walking back toward the benches where her fellow competitors were watching the competition, Friar erupted in emotion when she saw her career-best mark of 21-0 flash across the result board nearby.
“I didn’t know if I wanted to cry, didn’t know if I wanted to jump up and down, just scream. I don’t know. That’s like one of the most amazing feelings to know that I hit finally 21 feet,” Friar exclaimed after the meet. “I was determined not to be ninth again like last year. That hurt so much last year to come that close (to scoring). I knew this year I would be an All-American.
“When I saw that Erica (Bougard) stayed in ninth after her last jump, that just took so much pressure off of me. I knew I would be an All-American regardless. That last jump, I just cleared my head and I said, ‘You know what, jump. Just go out there and jump. Nataliyah, you know you’ve got 21 feet in you, so let’s go out there and get it done.’”
Friday’s performance was déjà vu for Friar, who only qualified to compete in the women’s long jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships this weekend when she jumped her previous lifetime PR of 20-9 ¾ for her sixth and final attempt to earn a fourth-place finish at the SEC Indoor Championships on Feb. 27. That mark awarded her the No. 11 seed of the 16 competitors in the field in Friday’s long jump competition.
With her performance on Friday night, Friar became the 13th Lady Tiger all-time to earn indoor All-America honors in the women’s long jump, and the first in seven seasons since Andrea Linton in 2008. She also became LSU’s first 21-foot long jumper since Tina Harris in 2005 while moving up three spots into the No. 7 position on LSU’s all-time indoor performance list in the event.
Not only did Friar put the Lady Tigers on the scoreboard with their first six points of the meet, but the teams combined for four finalists on the track in Friday’s qualifying action at the Randal Tyson Track Center.
Like Friar, Lady Tiger freshman Mikiah Brisco will have an opportunity to earn her first career All-America honor this weekend when she lines up in the championship final of the women’s 60-meter dash in her nationals debut. Brisco sprinted to the finish line with a personal best of 7.23 seconds for fourth place in the first preliminary heat and seventh place overall in Friday’s qualifying round. Her time of 7.23 eclipsed her previous best of 7.26 set during her senior season at Baton Rouge Magnet High School and moved her into a tie for the No. 8 spot on LSU’s all-time performance list in the event.
Brisco will line up alongside seven other finalists on Saturday afternoon with Kentucky’s Dezerea Bryant (7.15), Oregon’s Jenna Prandini (7.15), Alabama’s Remona Burchell (7.16), Oregon’s Jasmin Todd (7.17), USC’s Ky Westbrook (7.19), Florida’s Shayla Sanders (7.23) and Texas A&M’s Aliyah Brown (7.29) also advancing from the qualifying round.
Three Tigers also earned their places in Saturday’s sprint finals as senior Aaron Ernest qualified for the NCAA Indoor final in the men’s 200-meter dash for the second time in his career and seniors Vernon Norwood and Quincy Downing both advanced to the final in the men’s 400-meter dash to lead the charge for the Tigers.
The 2015 SEC Indoor Champion at 200 meters, Ernest will look to challenge for his first career NCAA title and second career All-America honor in the event after running the fourth-fastest time of the day at 20.71 for his second place in the second preliminary heat. Ernest closed strong to finish runner-up to USC’s Andrea De Grasse (20.55) in the heat and advance to Saturday’s final.
LSU sophomore Tremayne Acy just missed joining Ernest in the 200-meter final as he sprinted to the finish line in 21.01 for third place in the third heat and 12th place overall in the qualifying round.
Baylor’s Trayvon Bromell took the tape in the first heat with the fastest time in the round at 20.23, while Tulsa’s Bryce Robinson (20.70), Texas A&M’s Shavez Hart (20.74), Florida’s Dedric Dukes (20.74), Clemson’s Tevin Hester (20.77) and TCU’s Sam Watts (20.77) rounded out the finalists in the men’s 200 meters.
Norwood and Downing lined up alongside one another in the third qualifying race of the 400 meters, and both earned their spot in Saturday’s final as Norwood won the section with a time of 46.00 followed by Florida’s Arman Hall in 46.18 and Downing in 46.30. Other finalists include Texas A&M’s Bralon Taplin (45.64) and Deon Lendore (45.92), Florida’s Najee Glass (46.11) Texas’ Zack Bilderback (46.17) and Illinois’ DJ Zahn (46.20).
The Lady Tigers nearly added two other finalists to their three scoring opportunities on Saturday night as sophomores Jada Martin and Morgan Schuetz were the ninth-place finishers in their respective prelims.
Martin sprinted to the finish line in 23.38 for second place in the first qualifying heat and ninth place overall in the preliminary round of the women’s 200-meter dash, a run that came up a mere one one-hundredth of a second short of grabbing the eighth and final qualifying spot into the final.
Schuetz clocked the sixth-fastest 800-meter time of the day with a lifetime personal best of 2 minutes, 4.53 seconds, but fell just short of also advancing to her first career NCAA final due to the advancement rules with the women’s 800 meters. With only the top three finishers in each of the two heats earning automatic qualification and the next two fastest runners advancing on time, Schuetz was on the outside looking in as she ran 2:04.53 for sixth place in the second heat with each of the top seven runners in the section recording faster times than the winner of the first heat.
With their performance in Friday’s opener, the Tigers will have four scoring opportunities and the Lady Tigers will have three scoring opportunities when they return to the Randal Tyson Track Center on Saturday in the final day of competition at the 2015 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships. The action gets underway at 3:45 p.m. CT in the field events followed by the first finals on the track at 6:50 p.m.