FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Senior Jeremy Hicks put an exclamation point onto the end of an outstanding career as he became LSU’s first All-American of the 2009 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a fifth-place finish in the men’s long jump Thursday at John McDonnell Field at the University of Arkansas.
 
Hicks, who earned his second All-America honor of the 2009 season after finishing as the NCAA Indoor runner-up back in March, cemented his status as one of the all-time great long jumpers for the Tigers with a wind-aided mark of 26 feet, 1 ½ inches on his second attempt of the afternoon.
 
In fact, it is the third time that Hicks has earned All-America honors in the long jump for LSU as he also finished seventh in the event at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2007.
 
Hicks actually tied Julian Reid of Texas A&M for fourth place with matching jumps of 26-1 ½ in the competition, but Reid was awarded fourth place based on his second-best jump at 26-1 ½ with Hicks finishing fifth with his second-best jump of 25-6 ¼.
 
“I’m pretty happy with the way I jumped today,” Hicks said. “I haven’t been practicing too much lately because of my (groin) injury, but I felt pretty good today. My practice hasn’t been what I’m used to since SECs. We’ve been taking a week off to rehab and then coming back to practice for a week before competition. It’s been hard for me to find a rhythm lately.
 
“But I did pretty well today. My run up wasn’t what I would like it to be, but I though I competed pretty well today. I definitely wanted to get in there and score some points for my team.”
 
With his fifth-place finish during Thursday’s competition, Hicks scored four big points for LSU’s team score in its only scoring opportunity of the meet thus far. The Lady Tigers will not line up in a final for the first time until Friday as they have yet to score a point in two days of competition.
 
LSU enjoyed an outstanding day of qualifying for the second day in a row as the Tigers and Lady Tigers combined for six qualifiers into NCAA finals to be held on Saturday afternoon.
 
For the Lady Tigers, junior Samantha Henry cruised through two rounds of qualifying in the 200-meter dash to advance to Saturday’s final as she won her preliminary heat with a time of 23.26 in the first round of qualifying before taking second in her semifinal heat with a time of 23.07. She’s also scheduled to run in the finals of the 100-meter dash and 4×100-metrer relay on Friday night.
 
The Lady Tigers also saw a pair of 800-meter runners automatically qualify for the final to be run on Saturday as junior LaTavia Thomas finished second in her semifinal heat in 2 minutes, 3.37 seconds and sophomore Brittany Hall finished third in her semifinal heat in 2:03.73.
 
In what might be the most competitive event at this year’s NCAA Outdoor Championships on the women’s side, Kayann Thompson just missed qualifying for the final with a time of 2:03.99.
 
The LSU women did not stop there as Hall, Thompson, Henry and Thomas teamed in the prelims of the 4×400-meter relay to run a seasonal best and the fastest qualifying time of the evening with a time of 3:31.09 to win their heat. The Lady Tigers have now run 3:31 on three occasions during the outdoor season as they are among the NCAA title favorites in the event.
 
“I don’t know if the women’s team could have done anything more than what they did today in a very difficult day of qualifying,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “I’m very proud with how they competed in giving themselves four more opportunities to score in the track meet. You can’t ask for anything more than that as a coach to see them give it everything they had.
 
“You hate it for someone like Kayann Thompson to run 2:03 and not make the final of the 800. It is a testament to how strong that event is this year. I think it’s the strongest event at this meet.”
 
Junior Richard Jones is also in position to earn All-America honors in the 800 meters after setting a personal best for the second day in a row with a time of 1:47.27 to finish third in his semifinal.
 
Jones returned to the track just over an hour later to run in the qualifying round of the 4×400 relay as he teamed with freshman Robert Simmons, junior Jamar Howard and junior Armanti Hayes for the ninth and final qualifying time of 3:05.09 to advance to Saturday’s final.
 
A pair of LSU hurdlers also advanced to Friday’s semifinal action with freshman Barrett Nugent running the fifth-fastest time of the qualifying round at 13.74 to advance in the 110-meter hurdles and sophomore Tenaya Jones running 13.62 to qualify 15th in the 100-meter hurdles.
 
“I don’t think we’ve done anything to beat ourselves yet,” Shaver said. “As I look at how it stands to this point, we’ve had as much good happen as any team in this meet. Every scoring opportunity that I’ve thought we would have coming into the meet has held up and put themselves in a spot to score for us in the track meet. I am very proud of the way we’ve competed as a team.”
 
LSU will have an opportunity to score big points on Friday as sophomore Walter Henning kicks it off in the final of the men’s hammer throw. Henning qualified for the final with the best throw of Wednesday’s preliminary round at 229-0 as he ranks No. 2 in the NCAA this season with a PR of 235-11 and is a threat to take home a national title in the event.
 
Senior Trindon Holliday also looks for his first career NCAA title in the 100-meter dash Friday as he will line up in the final after qualifying with times of 10.00 in the first round and 10.14 in the semifinal on Wednesday night. He will also anchor LSU’s 4×100-meter relay in Friday’s final.
 
The Lady Tigers will have four scoring opportunities on Friday as Brittani Carter (high jump) and Rachel Laurent (pole vault) will be the first to compete in the field events.
 
Henry will return to the track to run in the final of the 4×100-meter relay after the Lady Tigers put up the second-fastest time of the preliminary round at 43.20, while she is also set to take her mark in the final of the 100-meter dash. She has already run six races in the first meet’s first two days.—-Contact The Daily Reveille sports staff at [email protected]