by Will Stafford
LSU Sports Information
LSU’s Jamaal James and LaTavia Thomas did not line up on the final day of the 2007 Southeastern Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships intending to make history.
But that’s exactly what the duo accomplished on the sultry afternoon of May 13 at Sam Bailey Stadium on the campus of the University of Alabama.
James ? an 800-meter specialist from Trincity, Trinidad ? took his mark in lane No. 3 and sprinted to his second SEC title of the season with an NCAA best time of 1 minute, 47 seconds, establishing a new national junior record in his native country for an athlete under the age of 20.
James shattered the 33-year-old record of 1:47.5 set by fellow countryman Horace Tuitt back in March 1974, more than 14 years before James was even born.
“It was overwhelming for me,” James said. “There was too much emotion, to be honest. I was just really excited to win, and only afterwards did I realize it was a national junior record.”
After watching James edge teammate Reuben Twijukye at the tape for the win, Thomas claimed her second 800-meter crown of the season by beating fellow Lady Tiger Tanya Osbourne to the finish line in 2:05.07, giving LSU a 1-2 finish in both races.
The Philadelphia native is currently the seventh-ranked half-miler in the NCAA and the nation’s No. 1-ranked freshman after tuning up for the postseason with a personal best time of 2:04.38 at LSU’s annual Alumni Gold meet at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium on April 21.
Not since the SEC converted all races to metric distances at the outdoor conference meet in 1977 has one school dominated the 800-meter run like LSU has this season.
In fact, this is the first time in 31 years that one school has featured the reigning SEC indoor and outdoor champion in the event on both the men’s and women’s sides.
“We seem to feed off of each other really well,” Thomas said. “The guys race before we do, and it gives me extra confidence to run a good race when I see Jamaal win. When I watched him win again outdoors, I said to myself, ?I can do this. He just did it, and I can do it too.’
“We always pull for each other no matter what. I think it’s important for us to do that as friends and as teammates.”
Building Relationships
While headlining one of the elite middle distance squads in all of collegiate track and field, both James and Thomas share a unique relationship as the nation’s top freshmen in their sport.
Much of their chemistry is developed in practice as they come together at the same time each afternoon to train under the direction of distance coach Mark Elliott.
“Our group is one of the most close-knit on the team. We’re like a big family,” James said. “We’re always cracking jokes and other things. We try to push each all the time in practice or in meets. We just want to be the best.”
There is little doubt that the support they give each other has been instrumental in the success they’ve enjoyed this season. But perhaps the most important relationship that must be fostered to ensure long-term success is between an athlete and his or her coach.
Elliott ? a four-time All-American distance runner for the Tigers in 1989-90 ? was influential in luring the duo to Baton Rouge as a part of the program’s signing class a year ago.
Thomas signed with the Lady Tigers over a scholarship offer from UCLA, while James spurned offers from conference rivals South Carolina and Tennessee to ink with the Tigers.
“I had never thought of LSU until Coach Elliott started recruiting me,” Thomas said. “I had no idea that I would come here. He’s a laid-back coach, but he knows what he wants from each of us. I just felt that he could do more for me in the 800, and I felt that I could progress better here.”
James agreed, citing Elliott’s laid-back personality and his track record of developing All-Americans in the middle distances as just two of the reasons that he chose LSU.
“He’s a great coach,” James said. “He’s very easy-going, but he gets serious when it’s time for business. I also like how he gives us our space. He’s not in our face all the time. Some coaches will scream at athletes after a race, but he gives us time to cool down before he speaks to us.”
But even Elliott would agree that little screaming is necessary when coaching athletes with the talent and intelligence of his young freshmen.
“It’s easy to look good as a coach when you have those two,” Elliott said. “They deserve all the credit because they’re the ones out there running. I just try to prepare them the best I possibly can. They make it pretty easy on me sometimes.
“LaTavia is very competitive and doesn’t like to lose, but she also takes losing in stride and works even harder. Jamaal has an intellect with this sport that is hard to teach. He’s a very smart kid for such a young age and knows there’s still a lot more that he needs to get done.”
If what they’ve accomplished in their rookie seasons is any indication, the relationship they share with Elliott is sure to flourish over the course of the next three years.
Running With a Purpose
Speed kills.
It’s an old clich?, but one that has proven to be true time and time again. It makes even more sense in a sport where the person with the fastest time is crowned champion at the end of a race.
Elliott, who has spent the last 14 years coaching athletes on the proper execution of the half mile, said that speed is what separates Jamaal James and LaTavia Thomas from the rest of the pack.
“You’ve got different kinds of half-milers,” Elliott said. “These two are speed-oriented half-milers. You have a lot of things to work with when you have speed. If the race is slow and comes down to a kick, they’ll be in it. If the race is fast, then they’ll also be in it because of their speed.
“Speed is always the common denominator that you want to have in most events, but especially in the 800. If it comes down to a kick, I know they’ll be in it.”
James agreed that while having exceptional speed is his greatest strength, he also tries to execute the same strategy every time he steps on the track and that his strategy will change as he moves from the indoor season to the outdoor season.
The Trinidadian actually had to learn to run indoors when he first set foot on campus in the fall as his home country does not sponsor indoor track and field.
What James learned is that running indoors is all about getting out quickly and establishing good position near the front of the pack in the first lap. He learned that lesson the hard way as he fell and did not finish his first indoor race at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York.
He followed that with a trip to the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark., where he had his foot stepped on and ran the last 100 meters of the race minus one shoe.
Despite these early struggles, James rebounded to win the indoor conference title in a time of 1:49.08 while returning to the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville to earn his first career All-America honor with a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships on March 10.
“Indoor is more tactical,” James said. “You have to really execute your race well because you’re out of the race if you make one mistake. I went through some trials and tribulations and really came along after that. It just took some getting used to because we don’t run indoor back home.”
James makes it no secret that he feels more at home running the half mile during the outdoor season as opposed to the indoor season.
In this race, which is run in two laps on a 400-meter oval as opposed to the four laps required indoors on a 200-meter track, he wants to get out of the blocks hard and sit on the leader in third or fourth place before allowing his speed to blow away the competition in the last 200 meters.
That strategy was executed to perfection at the SEC Outdoor Championships last weekend en route to clocking the fastest time in the NCAA this season at 1:47.00.
“That’s my strategy always,” James said. “It’s what has worked for me for a long time now.”
Exceeding Expectations
The Lady Tiger program is known for producing some of the nation’s top 800-meter runners year in and year out with Marian Burnett (2002) and Neisha Bernard-Thomas (2004) winning national titles in recent years.
Thomas is sure to follow in their footsteps and carry on the tradition if the success she’s enjoyed in her first season at the Division I level is any indication.
“I guess I didn’t really know what to expect, but I didn’t think I would come in here and have this kind of success in my first year,” Thomas said. “The bar has now been raised and I’ll probably be held to a higher standard. I just want to stay focused and go out and do what I can do.”
James is looking to establish a tradition of his own as the Tigers have never seen an athlete win a NCAA title in the 800 meters in the 108-year history of the program.
“We can be just as good in the 800 as the women,” James said. “All it takes is for one or two people to come in and do something good for everybody to start talking about this school. I think recruits will now want to come here and see how it is at LSU in the 800.”
If anyone can help these phenomenal freshmen achieve their goals, it is Elliott.
Elliott ? a Caribbean transplant himself from Spanish Town, Jamaica ? has seen many world-class half-milers during the course of his 14 years in the coaching profession. But he believes both James and Thomas have what it takes to be considered among the SEC’s best.
“I didn’t see this coming, especially with the conference that we have and the tradition that we have in the 800 meters both men and women,” Elliott said. “We recruited them to make an impact on the team, but not to be winning this early.
“If they keep progressing and stay focused and try to keep everything in perspective, they’ll probably be regarded as two of the best that have ever come though this conference. That’s really saying a whole lot because there have been a lot of very good ones.”
But first, the tandem must advance from this weekend’s NCAA Mideast Regional to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, Calif., a little more than three weeks from now.
The Lady Tigers are the nation’s top-ranked team for the fifth straight week as they are the favorite to win their 25th NCAA team title in the program’s storied history. They are coming off of their first SEC outdoor championship since the 1996 season.
“Right now, my goal is to get to nationals and place,” Thomas said. “We have a great shot at winning a national championship this year, and it’s important for me to score for my team at the most important meet of the year.”
James echoed those feelings as he leads the nation’s second-ranked men’s team into the final two meets of the season in search of its seventh national title in program history.
“I’m looking to make it to the national meet,” James said. “I just want to make it to the national meet and get that secured this weekend. When that’s done, I hope to go in there and do something good for my team and help us win a national championship.”