Editor’s Note: The following is an official press release courtesy of LSU’s athletics department.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The LSU women’s track and field team closed out their first day of competition at the NCAA East Preliminaries on Thursday. The Tigers had one student-athlete punch their ticket to Austin, while 12 new spots have been reserved in the NCAA East quarterfinals for LSU.
Morgan Smalls was the lone Tiger competing for a spot in the NCAA Championships on Thursday. She reached a distance of 6.27 meters (20′ 7″) on her third and final attempt of the night to take 7th in the NCAA East Prelims, punching her ticket for Austin. Smalls will compete again in the high jump on Saturday, looking to go two-for-two this weekend.
Three Tigers qualified for the 100-meter hurdle quarterfinals, tied for the most among schools advancing from the first round. Alia Armstrong led the way cruising to first in her heat with a time of 12.62 (+2.7 m/s). In heat four, Shani’a Bellamy qualified for her third-place finish with a time of 12.98 (+1.9 m/s), while Leah Phillips qualified by time with 13.07 (+1.9 m/s). The women’s 100mH quarterfinals are set to start at 5:15 p.m. CT on Saturday.
The second event of the day for the Tigers was the women’s 1500 meter, which saw Lorena Rangel-Batres advance to her first ever NCAA East quarterfinals. Rangel-Batres clocked a time of 4:22.22 in heat four, giving her a fourth-place finish and the much sought-after Q.
It has been an exciting season to watch senior Thelma Davies go to work in the sprints. The Tiger auto-qualified for the 100-meter quarterfinals after clocking a heat-winning time of 11.21 seconds (+2.1 m/s). Davies also qualified for the 200-meter quarterfinals later in the night, coming in at 22.99 seconds (+3.2 m/s) in the fifth heat. Also qualifying alongside Davies for the 200m quarterfinals was Favour Ofili and Brianna Lyston with times of 22.69 (+3.7 m/s) and 22.75 (+3.2 m/s) respectively.
Additional Women’s Quarterfinal Qualifiers
Michaela Rose – 800m
Cindy Bourdier – 800m
Shani’a Bellamy – 400mH
Garriel White – 400mH