BATON ROUGE -- With an NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the long jump at 25 feet, 3 ½ inches already under his belt entering Friday’s competition at the LSU Twilight Invitational, LSU senior Jeremy Hicks was well on his way to making his first career appearance in the event at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships to be held next month. After all, Hicks entered the meet ranked No. 12 nationally with an indoor personal best of 25-3 ½ set in a runner-up finish at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York back on Feb. 6. But the Houston native all but locked up his spot in the national meet on his very first jump with a new seasonal best and indoor personal best of 25-8 ¾, improving his NCAA provisional mark by more than five inches and catapulting himself to No. 4 on the NCAA list this season. Hicks, who also moved into a tie for the No. 7 spot on LSU’s all-time indoor performance list, missed an NCAA automatic qualifying mark in the event by only a ½ inch with his winning leap. With Hicks’ effort, the Tigers are now poised to have two long jumpers competing at the NCAA Indoor Championships as junior Will Coppage owns the nation’s No. 6 jump this season after he won the long jump at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational with a lifetime best of 25-7 ¼. The NCAA meet is set for March 13-14 at the Gilliam Indoor Stadium in College Station, Texas. “I felt really good today during my whole series,” Hicks said. “I thought all three jumps were big improvements from what I had been doing all season. My preparation in practice this week was a big reason why. We changed up a couple of things this week. Coach (Todd) Lane worked a lot on my speed on the approach and also some things on my landing. It all felt great today. “I really thought I was going to come in here and jump 26 feet today. I think I’ve got that in me. I need to continue to work on my technique, and I’ll be ready for the postseason.” Freshman Michael Lauro kicked off the afternoon’s festivities by winning the weight throw with a new personal best and NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 66-5 ¾. Lauro is now the NCAA’s 15th-best performer in the 35-pound weight throw this season after eclipsing his previous personal best by more than three feet with the No. 4 performance all-time at LSU. A trio of Lady Tigers also improved existing NCAA provisional qualifying marks during Friday’s action. Senior Andrea Linton won the long jump with a mark of 20-3 ½, while junior Katelyn Rodrigue won the pole vault with a clearance of 12-11 ¾ and sophomore Tenaya Jones set a new seasonal best in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.33 seconds in the preliminary round. Other notable personal bests set at the LSU Twilight include freshman Marcus McGehee clearing 16-8 ¾ in the pole vault and freshman Brieanna Kennedy throwing the 20-pound weight 54-4. “I thought we saw some big improvements from our field event people today, especially our pole vaulters and weight throwers,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “And what else can you say about Jeremy Hicks in the long jump. His performance is one that will very likely get him into the NCAA meet. He’s beginning to show some real consistency for us heading into the postseason.” The Tigers and Lady Tigers will kick off the postseason next weekend as they travel to the Nutter Field House in Lexington, Ky., to compete in perhaps the strongest conference meet in the nation as the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships are scheduled to run Feb. 27-March 1.