FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – In perhaps the most anticipated final in Saturday’s finale at the Razorback Invitational, LSU’s Vernon Norwood and Florida’s Najee Glass stepped onto the track in the final heat of the men’s 400-meter dash and turned in the world’s fastest race of the 2015 indoor season to headline the action at Arkansas’ Randal Tyson Track Center.
The Southeastern Conference rivals proved to be the class of the field while emerging as the two fastest 400-meter sprinters in the NCAA and World rankings for the 2015 season as they also lined up in the heat along with Notre Dame’s 2014 NCAA Indoor finalist Christopher Giesting and Florida’s All-American Hugh Graham, Jr.
For Norwood, it meant taking his first steps toward a return to the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships while making his season debut in the event as the reigning NCAA Indoor silver medalist.
With Norwood opening his season with a blistering run of 45.56 seconds, it was Glass who took the tape with his winning run of 45.34 in the first of what is sure to be many battles throughout the 2015 season between the two NCAA-title hopefuls. Giesting (45.973) edged Graham, Jr. (45.976) at the finish line by only three one-thousandths of a second to bag the bronze medal with an official time of 45.98.
The Tigers were impressive with their performance in Saturday’s 400-meter sections with LSU’s senior All-American Quincy Downing rounding out the Top 5 of the final event standings in fifth place overall with his best time of the season at 46.27 to win the eighth heat. Downing’s 46.27 catapulted him into the Top 10 of the NCAA rankings for 2015 as the nation’s No. 7-ranked performer in the event.
Also clocking seasonal bests were junior Darrell Bush with a time of 47.11 in the eighth heat for ninth place and junior Fitzroy Dunkley with a personal-best time of 47.42 to win the sixth heat in 11th place overall.
But it was Norwood who picked up right where he left off a season ago in his season opener as he came up just shy of matching his indoor PR of 45.39 set in a silver-medal-winning finish at the SEC Indoor meet in 2014. He went on to score the NCAA Indoor silver medal to cap his junior season indoors before adding SEC Outdoor silver and NCAA Outdoor bronze medals in the 400 meters as one of the NCAA’s leading performers.
Norwood highlighted a weekend in which the Tigers and Lady Tigers produced four event wins, 21 indoor personal bests and seven performances that rank among the NCAA’s Top 16 for 2015.
“It was another positive step forward for both of our teams here in Arkansas this weekend,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “I am very pleased with the approach shown by our athletes to each meet to this point. It’s important that we continue to progress in the coming weeks so we are where we need to be when we make it back here for the NCAA Championships.”
The Lady Tigers feature arguably the nation’s most dominant athlete to this point of the season in shot put standout Tori Bliss, and the senior NCAA-title contender made it a perfect 4-for-4 to start the season with her fourth-straight shot put title in Saturday’s finale at the Razorback Invitational. Bliss opened with a throw of 57 feet, 1 ½ inches on her very first throw of the competition and never looked back as she brought home the win by more than four feet ahead of Oklahoma’s Chamaya Turner (52-8).
With her opening throw of 57-1 ½ on Saturday, Bliss now owns five marks that are better than any other shot putter in the nation as she has also thrown marks of 56-8 ¾ and 57-2 ¾ at the LSU Indoor Invitational, 56-4 ½ at the Auburn Indoor Invitational and her current indoor school record and national-leading 57-4 ¾ at Kentucky’s Rod McCravy Memorial Track & Field Meet a week ago.
While Bliss is establishing herself as an NCAA-title favorite during her senior season, Lady Tiger freshman Daeshon Gordon is emerging as one of the nation’s top young talents in her rookie campaign this season.
After qualifying as the top Lady Tiger in Friday’s preliminary round of the women’s 60-meter hurdles with her time of 8.53, Gordon was crowned champion in the event on Saturday afternoon with back-to-back PRs for her first collegiate victory. She won the second semifinal heat with a time of 8.40 before edging Purdue’s Devynne Charlton (8.31) and Notre Dame’s Jade Barber (8.32) in the final with a best of 8.30.
A native of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and one of the nation’s top hurdle recruits in the Class of 2014, Gordon slashed two tenths of a second off of her previous personal best in the event after lining up in the first round of qualifying on Friday with a seasonal best of 8.50. Her winning run of 8.30 in the final moved her into a tie for the No. 13 spot in the NCAA rankings this season.
Two other Lady Tigers lined up alongside Gordon in the 60-meter hurdles final with senior Mariah Georgetown clocking 8.55 for sixth place and freshman Mikiah Brisco running 8.73 for seventh place. Brisco was runner-up to Gordon in the second semifinal heat while running a personal-best time of her own at 8.42.
Just one day after being crowned the women’s long jump champion at this year’s Razorback Invitational, Lady Tiger sophomore Nataliyah Friar soared to a lifetime personal best of 42-0 ¾ to bring home a bronze medal as the third-place finisher in the triple jump final. Friar actually jumped consecutive PRs of 41-7 ¼ in the fifth round and 42-0 ¾ in the sixth round to follow behind the All-American duo of Florida’s Ciarra Brewer (44-6 ¾) and Arkansas’ Tamara Myers (43-11 ¾) and emerge as the NCAA’s No. 13-ranked triple jumper for the 2015 season.
Lady Tiger freshman Bria Druilhet jumped an indoor personal best of her own at 39-0 ½ in the second round of qualifying to take 12th place in the event after jumping a PR of 18-11 ¾ in the long jump on Friday.
Also cracking the Top 16 of the NCAA rankings to currently position herself for a berth into the NCAA Indoor Championships was sophomore middle distance standout Morgan Schuetz, who scored the silver medal as a runner-up to Notre Dame’s Molly Seidel (4:42.76) in the women’s invitational mile. Schuetz ran a career-best time of 4 minutes, 43.52 seconds to rank No. 16 among collegians this season.
Adding a victory while turning in a personal-best performance in the men’s college 800 meters was Tiger freshman Jack Wilkes as he dominated the field with a lifetime best of 1:50.86. Wilkes, who signed with LSU with a previous PR of 1:52.15 during his prep career at Bossier City’s Airline High School, took the tape in the third section ahead of Texas A&M’s Gaines Kinsey (1:51.11).
Other Tigers following Wilkes with personal bests of their own were sophomore Matthew Rhorer with a time of 1:52.93 for eighth place and sophomore Joseph St. Cyr with a time of 1:53.82 for 10th place.
In other finals, sophomores Tremayne Acy and Jordan Moore each took home bronze medals as Acy sprinted to the finish line in 6.73 for third place in the men’s 60-meter dash and Moore clocked a seasonal-best time of 7.89 for third place in the men’s 60-meter hurdles. Senior Joshua Thompson trailed Moore across the finish line in the hurdle final with a time of 7.94 for fourth place overall.
Freshman Aleia Hobbs led a trio of Lady Tigers lining up in the final of the women’s 60-meter dash as she followed a qualifying run of 7.39 in the semifinal round with a personal best of 7.33 in the final for fourth place in the event. Brisco followed in fifth place in the 60-meter final with a time of 7.37, while sophomore Jada Martin clocked 7.40 for seventh place in the event.
Sophomore distance standout Chaiss Matthews was the only LSU athlete to crack the Top 10 of the school’s all-time indoor performance list with her efforts on Saturday afternoon as she opened up the events on the track by running 10:01.99 for 18th place overall in the women’s 3,000 meters. That performance moved her up two spots into the No. 8 position on LSU’s all-time indoor performance list in the event.
Other Tigers and Lady Tigers setting indoor personal bests during Saturday’s finale at the Razorback Invitational include the sophomore trio of Travia Jones (55.68), Bryiana Richardson (55.69) and Ka’Lynn Jupiter (56.69) in the 400-meter dash; freshman Hannah Deworth (2:15.50) in the 800-meter run and freshman DC Lipani (8:37.67) in the 3,000 meters.
With two days at the Razorback Invitational now in the books, the Tigers and Lady Tigers have reached the midway point of their 2015 indoor season as they will head back on the road next weekend to compete during the New Mexico Collegiate Classic running Feb. 6-7 at the Albuquerque Convention Center.