JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The LSU women’s track and field team closed out their final day of action at the NCAA East First Round on Saturday, hosted by North Florida at Hodges Stadium. The women punched nine tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Championships on day four, bringing the total to 12 entries in Eugene for the women.
The day opened up with the women’s discus throw that saw sophomore Leah Acosta and freshman Princesse Hyman compete. Acosta reached a distance of 50.33 meters (165-1) on her first toss, but was unable to finish in the top 12 after the four flights were finished. Hyman was able to toss a near personal-best mark of 55.11 meters (180-9) to finish as the top thrower in the first three flights and the No. 6 thrower on the day in the East. This will be the freshman’s first NCAA Championship appearance after skipping the indoor season.
Up next on the day was the women’s triple jump with two Tigers, seeing Machaeda Linton jump out to a new outdoor PR on the way to punching her ticket. Linton reached a distance of 13.25 meters (43-5.75) on her second jump, putting her at No. 10 in LSU performance-list history. The junior skipped her third and final leap as she had already locked her spot to Oregon, finishing fourth overall in the East.
First running of the event for the women came at 5 p.m. local, as the women’s 4×100-meter relay took on heat two of the East. The team of Linton, Nasya Williams, Aniyah Bigam and Tima Godbless clocked a new season-best time of 42.85 seconds to finish second in their heat and third overall in the East. This came minutes after Linton took her final jump of the afternoon to punch her first ticket of the day.
Godbless came back an hour later and was able to punch a second ticket to Oregon, this time in the 100 meter. The current World Leader in the event clocked a time of 11.11 seconds (+2.3 m/s) to finish third in her heat and earn the auto-qualifying spot. She will look to improve on her WL and PR of 10.91 seconds that she set on Thursday as the season nears the finish line.
Next up was another Nigerian in Ella Onojuvwevwo who clocked a season-best 50.99 seconds to win her heat. The junior finished third overall behind two Georgia quarter milers. The outdoor meet in two weeks will mark the sixth time Onojuvwevwo has competed at the highest-level meet in collegiate athletics.
The women’s 800 meter went as many in attendance expected: a Michaela Rose win in dominant fashion. The senior clocked her second 1:58 of the season with 1:58.91, winning her heat by nearly three seconds. In collegiate history there have been six instances of a woman going sub-1:59, Rose holding four of those six times, including her PR of 1:58.12.
Saturday’s final-individual event for the Tigers came with Bigam and Godbless appearing in the 200-meter quarterfinals. Both Tigers took on heat three, Godbless taking second in the heat with a time of 22.68 seconds (+1.4 m/s). Bigam was close behind as she took the third and final auto-qualifying spot of the heat with 23.07 seconds. The event mark Godbless’ third ticket of the day and Bigam’s second.
The women’s 4×400-meter relay closed out the day for LSU, consisting of Onojuvwevwo, Rose, Williams and Garriel White. The Tigers got out hot with splits of 50.68 and 51.35 from Onojuvwevwo and Rose. Williams kept the Tigers in first with her split of 53.83, but the Tigers fell to fourth in the heat with a SB of 3:29.55. The time was good enough to finish 11th overall and earn their way to Eugene.
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