The Tigers featured a balanced attack while taking home the fourth-place team trophy from the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships a season ago after also earning a top-10 team finish with a tie for eighth place nationally during the 2014 indoor season. Leading the way were nine All-Americans in such event areas as the sprints, hurdles, relays and throws as the Tigers again cemented their position as one of the top teams in collegiate track and field.
They will follow that formula for success again in 2014 as they return seven of their nine All-Americans from last year to help fuel a national championship run during the 2015 campaign. Led by the likes of seniors Aaron Ernest, Vernon Norwood, Quincy Downing, Rodney Brown and their powerful relay teams as NCAA title contenders, the pieces are in place for the Tigers to contend for their first national championship since the 2004 season.
Second in a 10-part series previews the men’s hurdlers competing during the 2015 season.
Men’s Hurdles
Not only do the Tigers return a stable of All-Americans in the sprints from a season ago, but they also feature a national championship contender in the hurdles as Cleveland, Ohio, native Quincy Downing returns for his senior season as one of the NCAA’s elite talents in the 400-meter hurdles in the wake of an outstanding 2014 season.
A converted 400-meter runner, Downing shifted his focus to the 400 hurdles full-time for the first time a year ago while emerging as one of the NCAA’s top performers in the event.
After earning an eighth-place finish in the final of the 400 hurdles at the SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships last spring, Downing took his performance to another level in NCAA competition with back-to-back personal bests of 50.54 in the first round of qualifying and 50.49 in the national quarterfinals at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds. That effort took him to the national semifinals in the event for the first time in his career at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships held last June in Eugene, Oregon.
Downing smashed his lifetime best by clocking of 49.97 in the national final to emerge as the NCAA Outdoor bronze medalist for the 2014 season, becoming the first LSU Tiger to capture All-America honors in the event since Isa Phillips was crowned NCAA Champion in 2007.
Downing will look to carry that momentum into his senior season in 2015 as he eyes All-America honors once again while challenging the nation’s elite as an NCAA title contender.
He also returns for his finale in an LSU uniform as a national champion in the 4×400-meter relay after running the second leg on the Tigers’ foursome that captured the NCAA Indoor crown for the fourth time in school history a season ago. A six-time All-American, Downing will again team with the likes of senior Vernon Norwood and juniors Darrell Bush and Cyril Grayson as defending national champions in the event this spring.
The Tigers will also feature depth in the sprint hurdles this season as they welcome senior Joshua Thompson and junior Joshua Lamers back to the team in the wake of their most successful season with the program in 2014.
Thompson was an NCAA semifinalist in the 110-meter hurdles a year ago as he will look to contend for All-America accolades in his final season with the Tigers in 2015. He clocked a PR of 13.77 in the national quarterfinals at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds to earn his spot in the semifinal round at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene.
An NCAA quarterfinalist in the event for the first time in his career, Lamers proved to be one of the SEC’s top 110 hurdlers as a sophomore last spring when he advanced to the conference final and took seventh place overall in his debut at the SEC Outdoor Championships. He wrapped up the 2014 season with a wind-legal personal best of 13.95 in the event.