Brittani Carter's initial foray into high jumping was nothing to get excited about.

"I began doing high jump my 10th grade year," Carter said. "I didn't start off too good at first. I think my highest jump was like 5-4. I wasn't really into track at the time. I was just doing it for fun, but eventually I turned out to be good at it. I just broke out my junior season. I started jumping 5-8, 5-10, and it took off from there."

Her success led to attention from colleges, prompting Carter to boost her work ethic.

"When the college letters started coming in, I was like, 'OK, this is something I probably need to take seriously,'" she said.

While coaches around the country competed to sign Carter, who finished her high school outdoor career ranked second in the nation, one school held the inside track to her commitment.

"I used to live here when I was younger," said Carter, who later moved to Missouri City, Texas. "My dad would always bring me to LSU track meets. I really liked the feel of it, and it was closer to home, too."

Her freshman year produced four indoor meet titles and two outdoor wins, but she failed to qualify for the NCAA Championships as she adapted to her new surroundings and competing at the collegiate level. Her tie for third place at the SEC Outdoor Championship led to a Freshman All-SEC selection and showed her a glimpse of what she could achieve during her career at LSU.

The 2009 season proved to be a breakthrough year for Carter as she emerged as one of the NCAA's best high jumpers. She became the first Lady Tiger in more than a decade to clear 6-0, a mark which she achieved on four different occasions. She also earned All-America honors during the indoor and outdoor seasons after recording consecutive top-five finishes at the NCAA Championships.

"I was well-adjusted by the time my sophomore year came around," Carter said. "I was experiencing a lot of new things as a freshman, so I just wasn't really adjusted yet. As a sophomore, I felt a lot more comfortable in the things I was doing, things the coaches were asking me to do, and I was just able to take it from there."

But there was still room to grow. She finished the season without a championship title, despite receiving a pair of All-SEC honors with second-place finishes in both SEC meets.

She kicked off the 2010 season with a new motivation, and it showed immediately in her performance.

In her very first meet of the season at the New Mexico Invitational, Carter cleared a personal-record height of 6-0 ¾, which is less than one inch off the LSU indoor school record in the high jump. The jump also met the automatic qualifying standard for the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, securing her place in the competition to be held this weekend in Fayetteville, Ark.

But a lingering knee injury held her out of LSU's three meets following the New Mexico Invitational, and she entered the SEC Indoor Championships having only jumped once this season.

Carter showed no ill effects from the injury or time off as she cleared her first three heights with ease before jumping 5-11 ¼ on her second attempt, giving her the SEC title that she just missed out on the year before.

"It felt really good. It felt like a big accomplishment," Carter said. "I think if I had been healthy enough to compete in those other meets, I would have had a good shot at breaking the (school) record. But I didn't really feel too big a difference because of the time off."

Her victory at the SEC Championships came at the Randal Tyson Track Center at the University of Arkansas, the same facility that will play host to the NCAA Indoor Championships this weekend. But she says having already won at the site two weeks ago won't provide much of an edge over her competition.

"It doesn't matter because when you go to NCAAs, it's a whole different game," Carter said. "I'm really going to have to bring my 'A' game. My goal is just to jump better than I've been jumping. I always want to try to do better. I don't have any specific goals, just to keep improving."

In regards to her competitors, Carter said she doesn't shy away from looking at what heights they've been clearing. If anything, she said, it just adds fuel to her fire when she knows she'll have to improve upon her mark, which ranks No. 5 in the NCAA entering the meet.

"I look it up. I know that a couple have jumped 6-3, so there's a lot of competition out there," Carter said. "I like to see what I will be going up against."

Carter said there's no doubt in her mind that she can reach heights that she's struggled with in past meets, and she's focusing on improving areas in which she struggles.

"I feel like I'm there physically, but when I get up to those heights I need to be able to focus more and not try to scare myself about the height I'm jumping," she said.

She will need that focus if she hopes to improve upon the third-place finish she earned at the NCAA meet as a sophomore a year ago.

"I know I can do it," Carter said. "I just need to keep working hard."