Baptiste Highlights Final Day at Tyson Invitational

 

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Junior All-American Kelly Baptiste has punched her ticket to the NCAA Indoor Championships after clocking automatic qualifying times in both the 60 and 200 meters at the Tyson Invitational at the Randal Tyson Track Center.

Baptiste, who is the nation’s top-ranked sprinter in the 60 meters in the latest Trackwire Dandy Dozen, kicked off her weekend by taking second place in the short sprint with a blistering time of 7.25 seconds in the event finals during the invitational portion of the meet on Friday night.

All-American Courtney Champion of Tennessee nipped Baptiste at the tape with the nation’s top time and the No. 7 time in the world this year with a personal best of 7.21 seconds. Baptiste’s season-best time in the final heat puts her in the No. 2 spot on the national descending order list for collegiate athletes in the event.

The native of Plymouth, Trinidad, followed her stellar performance on Friday night by qualifying automatically for the NCAA Championships in the 200 meters on Saturday with yet another season-best time of 23.30 clocked in both the preliminary and final rounds of the competition.

“Everything is a process in this sport and the first part is just getting there (to the NCAA Championships),” Baptiste said. “I’m glad that I was able to come here this weekend and automatically qualify for NCAAs, so I’m very satisfied with my performance in that regard.

“There are still things that I can do better that will get my times down and allow me to compete when I come back for the NCAA Championships. I’m starting to come around, but I still need to start reacting well, getting up in the set position well and keeping my posture throughout the race. Those are the things that are going to help me run faster over the next few weeks.”

While Baptiste was the only LSU performer to qualify automatically NCAA Championships this weekend at the Tyson Invitational, others like junior hurdles standout Ryan Fontenot put themselves in a position to return to the Randal Tyson Track Center in March by posting strong provisional qualifying marks.

Fontenot closed out the meet by qualifying provisionally for the NCAA meet for the first time in his LSU career with a personal best time of 7.91 in a first-place finish in the consolation final of the men’s 60-meter hurdles. The Baton Rouge native strengthens his grip on the No. 4 spot on the school’s all-time indoor list with his performance.

“You always have those athletes that in the back of your mind as a coach you really want some great things to happen for them,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “They’re steady, are good students, work hard every day at practice and do all of the right things, and Ryan is certainly one of those kinds of student-athletes.

“For him to come into a meet like this and run a 7.91, I’m just really happy for him because I can’t think of anyone who would be any more deserving of it. Even the kids on the team really appreciate a student-athlete like Ryan Fontenot. He’s at a point now in his development where he’s looking to really contribute for us when we move forward and into the SEC meet.”

Junior All-American Sherry Fletcher became the eighth LSU athlete this weekend to post an NCAA provisional qualifying mark as she ran back-to-back personal bests in the women’s 200-meter competition. She followed a 23.56 in the preliminary round with a 23.37 in the finals to take fourth place in the event.

Fletcher was joined on the women’s side by the performance of freshman standout Katelyn Rodrigue, who broke the indoor school record in the pole vault for the third time this season. Rodrigue posted the second-best mark of the day in the event with a personal best clearance of 12-6 ¾, breaking her own school record of 12-5 ½ set at the Lobo Invitational on Jan. 19.

Posting indoor personal best marks seemed to be a theme of both the men’s and women’s squads for the weekend as a quartet of distance runners did just that on Saturday.

Junior Jeff Adolph finished his heat in the college division of the 800 meters in 1:54.93, while fellow half-miler Lindsay Day crossed the finish line in a time of 2:12.41 in the women’s 800 meters. Seniors Kate Accardo and Rachael Graham ran PRs by finishing the women’s 3,000 meters in 10:12.12 and 10:12.78, respectively.

“We’re beginning to piece it together and have three solid weeks to get the teams prepared for when we come back here in March,” Shaver said. “It was really good to see some of the jumpers making big contributions this weekend, seeing the middle distance people jumping in there and doing some good things for us, and also seeing the progression of some of our sprinters.”

The teams return home this week to host the LSU Twilight at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse on Friday before preparing for the SEC Championships at the Nutter Fieldhouse in Lexington, Ky., from Feb. 23-25. Fans will have the opportunity to see these elite athletes in action as ESPN2 will broadcast the Tyson Invitational on a tape-delay basis on Sunday from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

“An important part of our preparation over the next few weeks is the SEC Championships, which in many ways is a very challenging mini NCAA meet in a lot of the events,” Shaver said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun and we’re certainly looking forward to the championship season. We’ve got to do the right things from here on out and I think the kids will do that.”