BATON ROUGE - The LSU jumps crew asserted its early season dominance in Saturday's opener at the Purple Tiger Invitational as senior All-American Zedric Thomasand sophomore Damar Forbes battled one another in a fierce competition for the long jump title at the Carl Maddox Field House.
The two Tiger long jumpers became LSU's first NCAA Championships qualifiers of the season with their performance as they earned their spot in this year's indoor finale that will run from March 11-12 at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium on the campus of Texas A&M University. In all, 14 LSU athletes enjoyed personal-best performances in their 2011 season opener with many putting themselves in a position to join both Forbes and Thomas at the NCAA Championships. "With what we were able to do here at the Maddox Field House, I thought we had a great season opening meet," said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. "Our athletes showed a great competitive spirit here today as we look to improve each meet and prepare ourselves for the championship meet. It is a great starting point for our teams as we really look to turn up the level of competition next weekend at Texas A&M." After Forbes jumped out to an early lead with an indoor personal-best mark of 25 feet, 7 ¼ inches with his first jump of the afternoon, Thomas showed the form that earned him indoor All-America honors a season ago with a mark of 25-8 ¾ in the second round of jumps to move to the top of the leaderboard. The duo again traded spots in the competition as Forbes sailed to a new lifetime personal best with a jump of 26-3 on his second attempt before Thomas took the Purple Tiger Invitational crown with a lifetime best of his own at 26-3 ¾ in the third round. Each passed his three jumps in the final. With their efforts, both Thomas and Forbes eclipsed the NCAA automatic qualifying standard of 25-11 as they wrapped up the competition ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the NCAA in the early part of the season. "It did not really surprise me because I did it last year," said Thomas, thinking back to his season-opening jump of 26-3 in the Purple Tiger Invitational a year ago. "I started off really well last year but dropped off during the outdoor season. I just need to keep improving and jumping at this level each week." Following LSU's performance in the men's long jump, the Tigers and Lady Tigers scorched the track this afternoon with debut performances that are sure to secure a spot in the NCAA Championships field. After earning a selection to the Bowerman Award Preseason Watch List earlier this week, junior transferSemoy Hackett nearly met the NCAA automatic qualifying standard with a winning time of 7.28 seconds in the final of the 60-meter dash. Hackett, who opened with a time of 7.35 in her LSU debut in the prelim round, now ranks in a tie for 10th place on LSU's all-time indoor performance list in the event. Fellow junior Horatio Williams, another member of LSU's highly-touted 2010 recruiting class, enjoyed a personal-best performance in the men's 60-meter dash as he took the title with a winning time of 6.61 that now ranks him in sole possession of third place on the school's all-time men's indoor performance list. Williams, who entered the meet with a personal record of 6.75 in the event, posted back-to-back PRs with a time of 6.73 in the preliminary round before sprinting to the finish line in 6.61 in the final. "I'm kind of in shock right now. I wasn't expecting to come out here and run that fast so early," Williams said. "Coach (Shaver) has been telling me that I was ready to run fast if I could just execute my race and stay relaxed. But I've got to keep working hard and go out and do it in the big meets." Senior Ross Roubion kicked off the Purple Tiger Invitational by winning the men's weight throw with an indoor PR of 63-8 ¼ that ranks No. 7 on LSU's indoor performance list. Senior Gabriel Mvumvure ended the meet with a No. 7 ranking of his own on LSU's all-time list with his PR of 6.72 in the 60-meter final. The Lady Tigers were also impressive in the weight throw competition, including a fourth-place finish by freshman Karen Henning with a new PR and No. 8-ranked performance all-time at 56-1 and a fifth-place finish by fellow freshman Denise Hinton with a PR and No. 9-ranked performance all-time at 55-4 ¾. A pair of Tiger pole vaulters also set new indoor personal records with clearances at 17-3 after senior Josh Dominguez and junior Marcus McGehee finished 1-2 in the event with the No. 8 mark in school history. Other LSU athletes who enjoyed personal-best performances on Saturday include senior Kyle Rose in the pole vault (16-5 ½), junior Danielle Martin in the 20-pound weight throw (53-9 ¾), sophomore Kimberlyn Duncanin the 60-meter dash finals (7.40), sophomore Whitney Johnson in both the long jump (18-5) and triple jump (37-10 ½) and freshman Lynnika Pitts in the triple jump (40-5). On deck for the Tigers and Lady Tigers is a trip to College Station, Texas, next weekend where they face Texas A&M in a much anticipated early season dual meet between national championship contenders that will be held Jan. 22 at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.