JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The No. 8-ranked Lady Tigers opened up the 2015 NCAA East Preliminary Rounds on Thursday with a trio of qualifiers into the national semifinals to be held in Eugene, Oregon, in two weeks with seniors Tori Bliss and Annie Simoneaux and sophomore SEC Champion Rebekah Wales leading the charge at North Florida’s Hodges Stadium.
Bliss, the reigning NCAA Outdoor Silver Medalist in the women’s shot put from a year ago, earned her spot in the national semifinals for the second-straight season with a new Hodges Stadium record while setting her sights on a title challenge in Eugene as the NCAA’s leading shot putter for the 2015 outdoor season.
Just two weeks after being crowned the SEC Champion in the women’s javelin, Wales also advanced to the NCAA semifinals for the second year in a row thanks to a personal best on her one and only throw of the day. Simoneaux set a personal best of her own to claim a top-five finish and advance to the national semifinals for the first time in her collegiate career with the Lady Tigers.
They are the first to join LSU’s squad making the trip to Oregon’s Hayward Field for the semifinal and final rounds of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships that will be held June 10-13.
In addition, 15 Tigers and Lady Tigers have given themselves an opportunity to punch their ticket to Eugene in Friday’s quarterfinals while advancing through the first round of qualifying in Thursday’s opener at Hodges Stadium. The Tigers qualified eight quarterfinalists on the track, while the Lady Tigers qualified seven athletes of their own into the second day of the competition.
The Top 12 finishers in each open and relay event at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds in Jacksonville this weekend will advance to the national semifinals in their respective events in Eugene in two weeks.
“This is exactly the kind of start we needed to have on the first of what will be five days of these NCAA Championships,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “We got off to a fast start in the early throws and continued that into the afternoon when we were able to get onto the track for the first time. I thought we really did a great job of keeping the momentum going throughout the day today.
“We saw three qualifying performances today, and we’ll be looking to add even more when we line it up again tomorrow. It’s all about just taking it one day at a time here in Jacksonville and then on to Eugene.”
Wales became LSU’s first national semifinalist of the weekend when she stepped onto the javelin runway and let loose a personal best on her very first throw of the third flight as the spear sailed 179 feet, 11 inches on the infield of Hodges Stadium to give the SEC Champion an early lead. She passed her final two throws and settled for second place in the event after Virginia Tech’s Irena Sediva threw 185-8 in the second round.
Wales has certainly made a habit of getting off to a fast start in recent meets as she also threw her previous personal record of 177-1 on her first attempt at the SEC Championships on May 16 that held up for the win at Mississippi State’s Mike Sanders Track Complex. Her opening throw of 179-11 on Thursday moved her into the No. 6 spot in the NCAA rankings for 2015 ahead of the national semifinals.
The West Monroe native also surpassed former Lady Tiger All-American Cheryl Coker (179-1) on the school’s all-time Top 10 performance list as the No. 2-ranked javelin thrower in school history with her 179-11. Wales might trail Laverne Eve’s 28-year-old school record of 204-9, but her throw is the best by a Lady Tiger since the IAAF adopted its new implement specs in 1999 that remain a feature of today’s javelin.
“I knew I only had three throws, so I knew I had to get one off the bat,” Wales said of the new format that allows just three attempts in the field events at this year’s NCAA Prelims. “I’ve always thrown my best later in a competition, but just these last few meets it’s been my first throw. It takes a lot of the pressure off and calms the nerves to get one right off the bat.
“Coach (Derek Yush) just told me to stop after that. I’ve never passed a throw before, so it was different. It felt kind of good because there was no stress on me after that,” Wales added about getting off to a fast start once again on Thursday. “I’m going to hit it, I’ll hit it (180 feet). That’s where I really want to be next time.”
Simoneaux will join her sophomore teammate in the women’s javelin competition at Hayward Field in two weeks after setting a personal best of her own in a fifth-place finish in Thursday’s qualifying. She entered into the Top 12 of the event standings while matching her PR of 163-9 on her second attempt in the third flight to move into seventh place overall. Simoneaux then cracked the Top 5 overall on her final attempt with a mark of 165-6 to establish a new career best and advance to the semifinals with a fifth-place finish.
Simoneaux’s 163-9 in the second round equaled the previous PR she set in a fifth-place finish at the SEC Championships nearly two weeks ago when she totaled four points for the Lady Tigers in the event. She eclipsed that effort with a mark of 165-6 on her final throw on Thursday to become the NCAA’s No. 20-ranked javelin thrower for the 2015 outdoor season.
Two other Lady Tigers also competed in the women’s javelin in Thursday’s opener as junior Doren Welch threw a seasonal best of 154-6 for 16th place and junior Mayme Cook threw 147-2 for 29th place.
Like Wales, Bliss opened the women’s shot put event with her best throw of the day as she uncorked a throw of 57-9 ¾ to outclass the rest of the field with the top mark of the afternoon among the 48 competitors for this year’s NCAA East Preliminary Rounds. She smashed the Hodges Stadium record with her performance while eclipsing the previous facility mark of 57-0 ¾ set by Purdue’s Dani Bunch at last year’s prelims.
Bliss will now head to Eugene as a true national championship contender in the women’s shot put as the NCAA’s top-ranked shot putter for 2015 with a career-best throw of 60-8 to her credit this spring.
“It’s always a plan to come out and get a qualifying mark on the first throw and just relax a little bit,” Bliss said of the importance of getting a big mark under her belt on her first throw. “This meet sometimes kind of has the potential to mess with people’s heads just because a lot of times you’re just going out there and trying not to mess up instead of going out there and competing as best you can.
“I’m glad I was able to do it on my first throw and get through to the next round. Now I’m going to try to get through in the discus and get back to work. It’s another big day, so I need to do what I can for us again.”
As Bliss posted her qualifying performance in the shot put ring nearby, the Lady Tigers kicked off the day’s action on the track with the first round of qualifying in the women’s 400-meter hurdles as they advanced a trio of NCAA hopefuls to Friday’s quarterfinal round. Junior Chanice Chase took the tape in the first heat with the eighth-fastest time of the day at 57.52 seconds, while freshman Daeshon Gordon trailed in third in the heat and 18th place overall with a time of 58.54. Freshman Kymber Payne nabbed the final quarterfinal spot with a time of 59.19 for fourth place in the final heat.
Senior Quincy Downing followed by racing to the fastest qualifying time of the day in the first round of the men’s 400-meter hurdles when he cruised to an easy victory in the sixth and final heat of the afternoon with a time of 50.35. Downing eyes All-America honors again this season as the reigning NCAA Outdoor Bronze Medalist in the event.
The Lady Tigers were a perfect 3-for-3 in first-round qualifying in the women’s 100-meter dash as they were led by a 1-2 finish by freshmen Aleia Hobbs (11.43) and Mikiah Brisco (11.44) in the fourth preliminary heat in the second-fastest and fourth-fastest times of the day. Sophomore Rushell Harvey advanced on time as she clocked 11.66 for fifth place in the same heat and 22nd place in the opening round.
Senior Aaron Ernest and sophomore Tremayne Acy both turned in heat-winning runs of their own in the first round of the men’s 100-meter dash with Acy clocking 10.24 (+0.2) to win the first heat with the third-fastest time of the day and Ernest posting 10.32 (+0.3) to win the sixth heat with the seventh-fastest time of the day.
Their qualification meant that each of LSU’s five sprinters lining up in Thursday’s preliminary round earned a lane in Friday’s quarterfinals with a top-12 finish being the goal to advance to the NCAA semifinals.
The Tigers continued their momentum in the 400-meter dash when senior Vernon Norwood and juniors Fitzroy Dunkley and Cyril Grayson each advanced to the quarterfinal round. Norwood clocked the fourth-fastest time of the day at 46.03 and Dunkley added the 15th-fastest time of the day at 46.53 to win their respective heats, while Grayson ran 46.99 to earn the final qualifying spot on time.
The teams later wrapped up Thursday’s qualifying by advancing all three runners into the quarterfinal round of the 800 meters to finish the day with a total of 15 first-round qualifiers on the track.
Sophomore All-SEC runner Morgan Schuetz turned in the third-fastest qualifying time overall at 2 minutes, 5.32 seconds to win the third preliminary heat of the women’s 800 meters. Senior SEC Champion Julian Parker (1:48.48) and sophomore Blair Henderson (1:48.78) were also automatic qualifiers into Friday’s quarterfinals with third-place finishes in their heats in the men’s 800 meters.
“Our athletes have prepared themselves very well to perform at their very best at this time of the season, and you could really see that with the level of performance we saw today,” Shaver said about his team’s prep for the NCAA Championships. “We’ve competed extremely well as a team really throughout the season. We just need to maintain that level of performance and that level of consistency each day.”
In other action, senior Jeremy Tuttle kicked off Thursday’s action for the Tigers by finishing in 17th place in the men’s hammer throw competition with his top mark of the day at 207-0 on his second attempt.
In addition, junior Darrell Bush wrapped up the day in 25th place overall in the first round of the men’s 400-meter dash with a time of 47.03 in the qualifying round, while sophomores Ka’Lynn Jupiter (59.23) and Bryiana Richardson (1:00.48) finished in 26th place and 39th place, respectively, in the women’s 400-meter hurdles.
The 2015 NCAA East Preliminary Rounds continue on Friday morning as Bliss will compete in LSU’s first event of the day in the women’s discus throw beginning at 11 a.m. CT. The action will continue in the afternoon for the field events beginning at 3:30 p.m. followed by the first events on the track at 4 p.m. Flash Results will provide live results throughout the meet online at http://flashresults.com.
Fans can also receive live updates and behind-the-scenes coverage of the Tigers and Lady Tigers competing in Jacksonville this weekend by following both @LSUTrackField on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lsutrackfield and Instagram at http://instagram.com/lsutrackfield and by liking LSU Track & Field’s Facebook page at http://facebook.com/lsutrackfield.
LSU’s Qualifiers for the NCAA Championships Semifinals in Eugene, Oregon
Note: All times and marks were achieved this weekend at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds
Lady Tigers
Name, Event, Time/Mark (Place)
Tori Bliss, Shot Put, 57-9 ¾ (1)
Annie Simoneaux, Javelin, 165-6 (5)
Rebekah Wales, Javelin, 179-11 (2)