All Sports Schedule
Six Lady Tigers Earn All-America Honors at NCAA'sSix Lady Tigers Earn All-America Honors at NCAA's

Six Lady Tigers Earn All-America Honors at NCAA's

Six Lady Tigers Earn All-America Honors at NCAA’s

EUGENE, Ore. – With LSU’s athletes turning in six All-American performances in Saturday’s women’s finale at Hayward Field, a youthful team of Lady Tigers piled up 15 points on the final day of the competition and 26 points for the meet to earn an 11th-place team finish in their season finale at the 2015 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Underclassmen accounted for all 15 points scored on the final day of the women’s championship as the Lady Tigers were led by a fifth-place finish from their All-American 4×100-meter relay team.

Junior Chanice Chase then highlighted a trio of sixth-place finishes with a personal-best performance in the 100-meter hurdles as she was followed in the event by freshman Daeshon Gordon in eighth place. Freshman Aleia Hobbs followed with sixth place in the 100-meter final and sophomore Nataliyah Friar soared to sixth place in the triple jump, while sophomore Jada Martin added an eighth-place finish in the 200 meters.

Oregon completed the team championship sweep on the weekend as the Duck women scored 59 points to win just their second NCAA Outdoor team title all-time and their first in 30 years since 1985. Kentucky earned its best NCAA finish with 50 points for second place, while defending champion Texas A&M followed in third place with 47 points and Arkansas rounded out the trophy spots in fourth place with 43 points.

Rounding out the Top 10 teams were Georgia (41) in fifth place, Florida State (35) in sixth place, USC (34) in seventh place, Florida (32) in eighth place, and Texas (28) and Kansas State (28) in a tie for ninth place.

“I thought we competed hard this week. Overall, I’m pleased with the kind of effort we got from everybody,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver following the meet. “We just have to get more bullets into the meet in the preliminary rounds, and once we get here, we have to be prepared to get after it from the very start.

“But, you know, we’ve got a young squad. When you look at the kind of things we were able to do here this week, is very exciting for the future. I thought our freshman and sophomore classes have progressed well in this season. Now that they’ve got that experience behind them, it’s important that they really focus themselves over the summer and next fall to take a big step forward when we come back in 2016.”

Just like the Tigers did in Friday’s finale of the men’s competition, the Lady Tigers put points on the board in the first final of Saturday’s women’s championship when they sprinted to the finish line in 43.69 seconds in a fifth-place finish in the 4×100-meter relay. It marked the 30th time in 31 seasons for the Lady Tigers to line up in the NCAA relay final.

Running with a team of sophomore Rushell Harvey on the leadoff leg, Hobbs on the second leg, Martin on the third leg and freshman Mikiah Brisco on the anchor leg, the Lady Tigers brought the stick home in 43.69 for an All-American fifth-place finish behind the likes of national champion Florida (42.95), runner-up Texas A&M (43.08), third-place USC (43.27) and fourth-place Texas (43.38) in the event.

Rounding out the field were Purdue in sixth place with a time of 44.55 and Ole Miss in seventh place with a time of 44.64, while Oregon was disqualified for passing out of the zone at the second exchange.

After earning her first career All-America honor running the second leg of LSU’s 4×100-meter relay team, Hobbs then stepped onto the track in her first career NCAA 100-meter final and sprinted to the finish line with a windy 11.16 (+3.1) for sixth place nationally. She became the first Lady Tiger freshman since Takeia Pinckney placed fourth at Hayward Field in 2010 to qualify for the national final in the 100-meter dash.

The women’s 100-meter final proved to be a tight race to the tape as Oregon’s Jenna Prandini (10.96w) edged Texas’ Morolake Akinosun (10.97w) for the title with Kentucky’s Dezerea Bryant (11.01w) trailing well back in third place. USC’s Ky Westbrook took fourth in 11.11w, while Texas A&M’s duo of Aaliyah Brown (11.14w) was fifth and Jennifer Madu (11.45w) was eighth with Kentucky’s Keilah Tyson placing seventh in 11.21w.

“It felt great to run today. My start wasn’t that great, but I knew I just had to keep it together and start running,” Hobbs said. “That threw me off a little bit, I had to kind of refocus after that start. That is something I’ve been working on all season, but there’s still a lot of work to do. It was my first (final), so I’m looking forward to getting better from here.”

Martin nabbed her first career All-America honor in the 200-meter dash when she closed out the meet for the Lady Tigers with an eighth-place finish in her first career NCAA final in her sprint specialty.

Martin broke 23 seconds for the third time in as many 200-meter races at these NCAA Championships as she followed a personal-best run of 22.76 in Wednesday’s semifinal round with a 22.97 (+1.9) clocking to finish in eighth place in the final. Bryant bounced back from the 100-meter final to take the 200-meter title in 22.18, followed by Prandini (22.21) in second place Texas A&M’s Kamaria Brown (22.24) in third place overall.

Florida’s Kyra Jefferson matched Kamaria Brown with a time of 22.24 for fourth place while Akinosun trailed in fifth place at 22.52, Aaliyah Brown finished in sixth place at 22.76 and Texas Tech’s Cierra White finished off the finalists in seventh place at 22.94. Like Hobbs, Martin earned her first two All-America honors as a Lady Tiger during Saturday’s championship finale.

As Martin was preparing to run in the 200-meter final, Friar was on the infield nearby locking up her first career All-America finish in the triple jump when she opened the competition with a wind-aided jump of 43 feet, 8 inches (+2.1) in the first round of qualifying before improving with a windy 43-8 ½ (+2.8) in the fifth round of the final to take home a sixth-place individual finish in the event.

Twice an All-American during her sophomore season as the NCAA Indoor Bronze Medalist in the long jump, Friar is now an All-American in both horizontal jumps as she will return as one of the nation’s best in 2016.

Georgia’s Keturah Orji finished off more than two feet clear of the field with a jump of 46-5 ¼ in the second round while being crowned the NCAA’s triple jump champion, while Friar also trailed Auburn’s Marshay Ryan (44-4 ¾), Vanderbilt’s Simone Charley (44-3 ¼w), Columbia’s Nadia Eke (44-2w) and Michigan State’s Tori Franklin (43-10 ¾w).

Saturday also saw Chase run the fastest hurdle race of her collegiate career when she broke 13 seconds for the first time, clearing the 100-meter hurdles in a personal-best time of 12.95 (+1.7) for sixth place in the race and three more points on the board for the Lady Tigers. Gordon followed Chase in eighth place in her first career NCAA final when she crossed the finish line in 13.26.

Chase, who set her previous wind-legal PR of 13.05 in a fourth-place finish in the hurdle final at the SEC Championships on May 16, became the ninth-fastest Lady Tiger to ever run the sprint hurdles to etch her name in the record books of a program world-renown for its performance in the event. She also eclipsed her previous best time under all conditions when she ran a windy 13.04 in qualifying on Wednesday.

Kentucky’s Kendra Harrison won the sprint hurdles in 12.55 seconds, followed by Michigan’s Cindy Ofili in second place with a time of 12.60 and USC’s Dior Hall in third place with a world junior record of 12.74.

“I just remember Coach (Dennis) Shaver saying that I needed to hit the start. I didn’t quite hit the start like I needed to, but I still got out harder than I usually do,” Chase shared. “It helped because I had some very fast people running beside me. I just had to see every hurdle, and off of the last hurdle I just sprinted as fast as I could. I looked up and saw the time and was just happy because it was a PR under 13 seconds.

“It was a surprise to me,” Chase added about qualifying for the final of the 100-meter hurdles instead of her specialty in the 400-meter hurdles. “It was a disappointment not to make the 400 (hurdles) final. Last year in that event I came fifth, so I was hoping to improve my position. I didn’t make it there this year, but I was happy I could bounce back in the 100 (hurdles) and make it there.”

With the Lady Tigers turning in six All-American performances in Saturday’s finale, LSU’s athletes combined for a total of 24 All-America honors during the 2015 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championship here at Oregon’s Hayward Field this week. That also includes Vernon Norwood being crowned the NCAA 400-meter champion and the Tigers’ 4×400-meter relay taking the title in Friday’s men’s finale.