BATON ROUGE – Northwestern State junior Aaron Williams probably punched his ticket to the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships Friday evening at the LSU Twilight meet with a winning 52-4 ½ triple jump that ranks 10^th nationally.
 
With one more series of last-chance meets and conference championships remaining across the country, but NSU wrapping up its regular season schedule after the Southland Indoor Championships earlier this week, Williams had a personal best, indoors or outdoors.
 
The leap raised his national ranking from 33^rd to 10^th. The top 16 marks will head to the NCAA Championships next month.
 
"I will be shocked if he's not heading to nationals. (Assistant coach) Wes Miller looked it up, and that mark got to the national meet each of the last five years," said NSU head coach Mike Heimerman. "He had a really impressive series, just looked great. Now we just wait to see if he stays in the top 16, and we believe he will."
 
Williams, from Duson and Acadiana High School, swept the long and triple jump championships Monday and Tuesday at the Southland Indoors. He focused on the triple Friday, although his long jump ranking (29^th) was slightly higher.
 
His first attempt was a foul, his second was an at-the-time first-place 51-1 ¾ and he hit the big jump on his third jump.
 
The national meet is March 14-15 in Fayetteville, Ark. Last year, Williams' twin brother Emmanuel won All-America honors with a fourth-place finish in the long jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque after sweeping the Southland horizontal jump titles. He will compete outdoors this season after being redshirted indoors.
 
Two Lady Demon competitors didn't improve their season bests Friday at LSU. Rechelle Bessard was second in the weight throw at 62-2 ¼ while Keona Jackson was fifth at 56-7 ¼.
 
In the shot put, Bessard was third (45-5 ¼) and Jackson, the Southland Indoors champion, forth at 42-9 ½.
 
"Shelly (Bessard) had two monster throws but fouled in the weight throw. Keona was just out of gas today. It was a very long shot for either of them to do well enough to get to nationals, but we wanted to give them the opportunity after each of them had great indoor seasons," said Heimerman.
 
The NSU outdoor season will begin March 14 at McNeese.