FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- All it took was a hop, skip and a jump for junior Andrea Linton to punch her ticket to the NCAA Indoor Championships as she automatically qualified in the triple jump on the final day of competition at the Tyson Invitational.
Linton, who entered the meet with a seasonal best mark of 43 feet, 4 ¼ inches, obliterated her previous indoor personal best with a leap of 44-0 to take fourth place in the championship flight.
With her performance, Linton boasts the NCAA’s fourth best mark in the triple jump with just three weeks remaining in the season as she seeks her first indoor All-America honor in the event after earning a pair of outdoor All-America honors in each of the last two seasons.
“I hear my coaches talk about it all the time, but consistency is very important in this sport,” Linton said. “I’m showing that each week. I try to focus myself each time I get ready to compete to do my best. Now that we’re getting close to the championship meets, everyone is going to have their best effort. It’s important for me to do the same each week.”
In addition to securing her place in the triple jump field at the NCAA Championships, Linton is also a strong provisional qualifier in the long jump after posting a new indoor personal best of 20-5 ¼ on Friday afternoon at the Randal Tyson Track Center.
“The triple jump is my best event and it’s the one I love the most, but I’ve been showing a lot of improvement in the long jump,” Linton said. “There are still things I can do to get better in both. I really need to work on improving my landing. My run is very good right now, but I need to put in a lot more work on my landing phase to jump even farther.”
After Linton secured her spot in the NCAA meet, the men’s distance medley relay took one step closer by setting a new school record in the event with a time of 9 minutes, 35.31 seconds.
The foursome of senior Elkana Kosgei (1,200 meters), sophomore Armanti Hayes (400 meters), sophomore Jamaal James (800 meters) and sophomore John Kosgei (mile) were strong NCAA provisional qualifiers after finishing runner-up to the squad from Texas that set a new collegiate record in the event with a time of 9:25.97.
The previous school record in the DMR stood for nearly two years when the Tigers recorded a time of 9:41.04 at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in 2006.
“That was a big performance from our guys on the DMR,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “We could have probably run a little bit faster and gotten an automatic time if we were able to run with Texas, but they ran a time that will probably get them into the NCAA meet.”
The Lady Tigers added two new NCAA provisional qualifiers on the final day of the competition as senior Juanita Broaddus and junior Nickiesha Wilson recorded provisional times in the prelims of the women’s 200-meter dash.
Broaddus stepped onto the track in the first heat of the preliminary round and recorded a new indoor personal record as she raced around the track in 23.64 seconds to qualify fourth for the event final. Wilson followed in the second heat with a provisional qualifying time of her own at 23.96 in her first ever 200-meter race as a Lady Tiger.
Senior Michael Hendry and junior Mallory Thompson also enjoyed personal best performances on the final day of the competition as Hendry won the championship section of the men’s 800-meter run with a time of 1:51.02 and Thompson cleared the 12-foot barrier in the pole vault for the first time in her career with a mark of 12-0.
Like Linton, this marks the second day in a row that Hendry has recorded a new indoor personal best after winning the championship section of the mile with a time of 4:05.03 on Friday evening.
“I’m really happy for Michael and what he was able to accomplish this weekend,” Shaver said. “He was one of the guys on the team that had a really outstanding meet. To PR yesterday in the mile and come back and do it again today says a lot about his mindset coming into the meet.
“And really, I think both teams got some things accomplished at this track meet. We qualified a few more people into the NCAA meet, but there were still some things I felt like we could get accomplished at this meet that we didn’t. You’re only going to be as good as your last track meet, and we need to refocus ourselves and improve as we head into the championship season.”
The Tigers and Lady Tigers return to Baton Rouge next weekend to play host to the LSU Twilight Invitational on Friday night before making the return trip to the Randal Tyson Track Center for the SEC Indoor Championships beginning Feb. 29.