FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – While stepping onto the track for his final 400-meter race indoors as an LSU Tiger, senior Vernon Norwood forever etched his name in the record books as he was crowned the NCAA Champion in the event after running an indoor personal best of 45.31 seconds in Saturday’s finale at the 2015 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Norwood sprinted into history as he became the 10th-fastest 400-meter runner indoors in collegiate history as the third LSU Tiger in program history to capture the NCAA Indoor title in the event. His victory sparked the Tigers to their ninth top-10 team finish in 10 seasons at the NCAA Indoor Championships since 2006.
Norwood was not the only Tiger to earn All-America honors in the 400-meter dash as the NCAA Indoor Champion as senior Quincy Downing also claimed All-America accolades with a fifth-place finish in the final. Fellow senior Aaron Ernest added his second career All-America honor in the 200 meters with a fourth-place finish as their 19 points tied the Tigers for seventh place in the final men’s team standings.
The Tigers improve their standing at this year’s NCAA Indoor Championships after tying for eighth place with 18 points scored in the event held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, during the 2014 indoor season.
The Oregon Ducks defended their NCAA Indoor team championship on the men’s side in emphatic fashion by scoring 74 points in two days of competition. Florida followed well back in second place with their 50 points ahead of Arkansas in third place with 39 points, Texas A&M in fourth place with 33 points and Texas Tech in fifth place with 31 points to round out the Top 5 of the men’s race.
The Lady Tigers also returned to the Top 10 of the team standings for the 13th time in 14 seasons dating back to the 2002 campaign as they ended in a tie for ninth place with 18 points for the weekend. They were led by another school-record-setting performance by senior Tori Bliss in scoring the NCAA Indoor silver medal in the women’s shot put and freshman Mikiah Brisco securing her first career All-America award by taking home a fifth-place finish in the 60-meter final at Arkansas’ Randal Tyson Track Center.
The Arkansas Razorbacks dethroned five-time defending champion Oregon to win their first ever national championship on the women’s side with a winning score of 63 points for the weekend. Oregon trailed far back in second place with 46.5 points, followed by Georgia in third place with 37 points, Florida in fourth place with 36 points and Kentucky in fifth place with 35 points.
“I’m so very proud of the way our athletes stepped out there and competed throughout this meet, and to bring home two top-10 team finishes says a lot about their preparation and mindset coming into the weekend here at NCAA Indoors,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “I’m especially proud that our teams improved both their number of points and the final placement from a year ago at this championship.
“This is a great springboard for our program as we move straight into the outdoor season. Our athletes can take a lot of confidence from this weekend as they prepare themselves for an exciting outdoor season.”
Not since Xavier Carter in 2006 had an LSU Tiger been crowned the NCAA Indoor Champion in the men’s 400 meters before Norwood stepped onto the 200-meter oval at the Randal Tyson Track Center for the first race in the two-section final on Saturday night. He took his mark in lane No. 5 alongside Downing in lane No. 3 and Florida’s duo of Arman Hall in lane No. 4 and Najee Glass in lane No. 6.
As they hit the 100-meter mark and raced around the first turn, it was actually Glass who took the lead at the break ahead of Norwood in second place and Downing in third place with Hall dropping out of the race after pulling up with an apparent injury. Glass held a narrow advantage through 250 meters, but that’s when Norwood made his moved and sprinted past Glass on the backstretch, extending his lead to five meters down on the home straightaway and through the finish line to take the tape in 45.31 ahead of Glass (45.77) and Downing (46.13).
Norwood might have just become the 10th-fastest collegian in history to run the 400 meters indoors, but he knew a second finals heat was to come that featured Texas A&M’s duo of defending NCAA Indoor Champion Deon Lendore and Bralon Taplin as two of the quickest quartermilers worldwide competing throughout this 2015 indoor season.
And true to form, the Aggie teammates battled one another through the finish line, but Norwood was confirmed as the new NCAA Indoor Champion when Taplin (45.55) and Lendore (45.81) fell short of his effort.
A native of Morgan City, Louisiana, Norwood found himself very much in a similar position as he did a year ago when he won his heat in 45.46, only to watch Lendore run away with the national title with a time of 45.21 in the following heat. LSU’s NCAA Indoor Silver Medalist and NCAA Outdoor Bronze Medalist from 2014 would not be denied his championship this time around in his final NCAA Indoor Championship.
“I just felt that I executed better than I did last year being in that same position,” Norwood said of his victory. “It just shows that the work and the execution I did and the preparation I had helped me to come out here on top. Being in the same position a year ago was really nerve-racking for me. I was really upset that I didn’t put it out there in the first heat.
“This meet, I just came out here with the right preparation. It started with the prelims, I got out and did what I had to do to make the final. Then I came out in the final, executed well and came out on top. You can kind of tell by how they run the first 200 (in the second heat) if it’s going to be fast or whatever. When they came through the first time (at 200 meters) and I saw the time, I thought I had a good chance.”
While Norwood took his place on the top spot of the podium with a winning personal best and the second-fastest time in school history at 45.31, he was followed in the 400-meter final by Taplin (45.55) in second place, Glass (45.77) in third place, Lendore (45.81) in fourth place and Downing (46.13) in fifth place as his Tiger teammate also raced to an indoor best for his first All-America honor in the indoor 400-meter dash. Rounding out the field were Texas’ Zack Bilderback (46.49) in sixth and Illinois’ DJ Zahn (46.69) in seventh.
In his final 400-meter race indoors as an LSU Tiger, Norwood came up just three one-hundredths of a second short of Xavier Carter’s 9-year-old indoor school record of 45.28 set the same year he was also crowned the NCAA Indoor Champion in the event. Former Tiger standout Alleyne Francique also captured the NCAA Indoor title in the event for the first time in team history in 2002.
“It’s a confidence booster for me,” Norwood said. “I ended the indoor season on a good note and am going outdoors on a good note. We’re just going to keep working hard throughout the rest of this season.”
Just two weeks after being crowned the SEC Indoor Champion at 200 meters for the second time in his collegiate career, Ernest wrapped up the scoring for the Tigers while claiming his second career All-America award in the event with a fourth-place finish overall, clocking 20.76 to finish runner-up to Tulsa’s Bryce Robinson (20.75) by the narrowest of margins in the first heat.
Baylor’s Trayvon Bromell nearly set a collegiate record when he took the tape in 20.19 in the second heat to take home the title, followed by USC’s NCAA Indoor Silver Medalist Andre De Grasse in second place with his time of 20.26. Robinson secured the bronze medal in 20.75, followed by Ernest (20.76) in fourth place, Florida’s Dedric Dukes (20.85) in fifth place, Clemson’s Tevin Hester (20.86) in sixth place, Texas A&M’s Shavez Hart (20.89) in seventh place and TCU’s Sam Watts (21.01) in eight place in the field.
Bliss provided the spark for the Lady Tigers on the final day of these NCAA Indoor Championships as she smashed her own indoor school record with each of her final two throws in the women’s shot put, capturing her second career All-America honor and making history as the Lady Tigers’ top finisher nationally indoors in program history as the 2015 NCAA Indoor Silver Medalist in the event.
Bliss opened with a strong throw of 56-9 ¼, but trailed Southern Illinois’ Raven Saunders early in the competition after the Saluki freshman took the first-round lead with her opening throw of 57-10 ¼.
The Lady Tiger All-American then improved with back-to-back throws of 56-10 ¼ in the second round and 58-0 ½ in the third round, but remained on Saunders’ heels after the NCAA Indoor debutant extended her lead with an improved throw of her own at 59-9 ½ on her third attempt of the qualifying round.
Those watching the competition were treated to one of the most exciting finishes to an event at this year’s NCAA Indoor Championships with Bliss and Saunders trading shots in the final two rounds while outclassing a loaded field stepping into the ring on Friday afternoon. Bliss briefly took the lead in the fifth round of the final when she first broke her own school record with a mark of 60-1 ¼, but Saunders regained her advantage in the following throw with a mark 61-1 ¼ that proved to be the NCAA-title-clinching throw in the women’s shot put competition.
Bliss had one final opportunity to strike gold as LSU’s first ever NCAA Champion in the shot put event when she stepped into the ring on her sixth and final throw of the afternoon. While she came up six inches short of matching Saunders’ winning throw of 61-1 ¼, Bliss raised her indoor school record once again to 60-7 ¼ to secure her second career NCAA Championships silver medal.
It put an exclamation point onto the end of a record-setting senior season indoors for Bliss as she eclipsed the SEC Championships meet-record throw of 60-1 she set in winning the SEC Indoor crown on Feb. 27.
“I had a goal at the beginning of the season to be over 60 feet indoors, and I did that three different times. To be at my best at the NCAA Championships, I can’t ask for much more than that,” Bliss said. “She (Raven Saunders) is a competitor. Just watching her, I could just see it. You can’t take anything away from her, that was an incredible throw. She was at her best today, I was at my best today and, unfortunately, mine was just a little bit behind hers today. We’ll meet again, so I’m pumped about it.”
It truly was a two-horse race for the women’s shot put title as Bliss finished more than three feet ahead of Oregon’s bronze medalist Brittany Mann, who vaulted herself into the medal places with a throw of 57-1 with her final attempt of the competition. Bliss added the NCAA Indoor silver medal on Friday afternoon to the NCAA Outdoor silver medal she took home to wrap up her junior season in 2014.
Rounding out the shot put scorers were Wisconsin’s Kelsey Card (56-7 ¼), Missouri’s Jill Rushin (56-7 ¼), Harvard’s Nikki Okwelogu (56-6), Kent State’s Danniel Thomas (56-4 ¾) and Rice’s Claire Uke (56-2 ¾).
Brisco rounded out the scoring for the Lady Tigers on the weekend when she sprinted to the finish line in 7.25 to claim a fifth-place finish and earn her first career All-America honor in her NCAA Championship debut as she added four points toward the team’s final total of 18 points for the meet. Her performance helped the Lady Tigers improve upon their total of 16 points and finish of a tie for 12th place from a season ago.
After qualifying seventh overall with a personal best of 7.23 in Friday’s preliminary round, Brisco lined up in lane No. 1 in her first NCAA final with a first All-America honor just 60 meters away. She closed strong to cross the finish line in 7.25 for fifth place, following Alabama’s defending champion Remona Burchell (7.12), USC’s Ky Westbrook (7.21), Oregon’s Jasmine Todd (7.22) and Jenna Prandini (7.24) across the finish line. Rounding out the eight finalists were Florida’s Shayla Sanders (7.26), Kentucky’s Dezerea Bryant (7.27) and Texas A&M’s Aliyah Brown (7.32).
Brisco’s All-American performance wrapped up the scoring for the Lady Tigers as they sealed a ninth-place finish in the final women’s team standings with their 18 points scored in two days of action in Fayetteville.
After earning her first career All-America honor as the NCAA Indoor Bronze Medalist in the women’s long jump while jumping a lifetime best of 21-0 on Friday night, Lady Tiger sophomore Nataliyah Friar just missed an opportunity to compete in her first NCAA final in the triple jump on Saturday as she jumped a series-best of 42-4 on her third attempt to finish in 10th place overall in qualifying.
Friar has certainly established herself among the NCAA’s elite jumpers during her sophomore season indoors as her mark of 42-4 on Saturday is her second-best triple jump performance of her collegiate career.
In what proved to be another outstanding weekend for the Tigers and Lady Tigers at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships, the teams brought home one NCAA event title, one NCAA silver medal, six All-America honors, one school record and six indoor personal bests that were either new or improved performances on LSU’s all-time Top 10 performance list for the indoor season.
With the 2015 indoor season now in the history books, those Tigers and Lady Tigers not competing at the NCAA Indoor Championships this weekend will look toward the start of the outdoor season straightaway as the teams travel to nearby Lafayette, Louisiana, on March 20-21 to compete at this year’s Louisiana Classics being held at the Ragin’ Cajun Track Stadium.
Place, Women’s Team, Score
1, Arkansas, 63
2, Oregon, 46.5
3, Georgia, 37
4, Florida, 36
5, Kentucky, 35
6, Texas, 33
7, Baylor, 27
8, Stanford, 20
9, LSU, 18
9, Southern Illinois, 18
11, Providence, 16
12, Texas Tech, 15
12, USC, 15
12, Clemson, 15
15, Missouri, 14
15, Texas A&M, 14
17, Alabama, 13
18, Wisconsin, 12
18, Kansas State, 12
18, Akron, 12
21, Duke, 11
21, Arizona State, 11
21, Miss State, 11
24, Florida State, 10
24, Michigan State, 10
26, Washington, 9
26, North Carolina, 9
28, Oklahoma State, 8
28, UCLA, 8
30, Georgetown, 7
30, Notre Dame, 7
32, North Carolina St., 6
32, Michigan, 6
32, Illinois, 6
32, Coppin State, 6
32, Columbia, 6
32, North Dakota St., 6
38, Vanderbilt, 5
38, Iona, 5
38, Tennessee, 5
41, Auburn, 4
41, UMKC, 4
41, Minnesota, 4
41, Virginia Tech, 4
45, Maryland, 3.5
46, Harvard, 3
46, Kent State, 3
46, New Mexico, 3
49, BYU, 2
49, Villanova, 2
49, Arizona, 2
52, Rice, 1
52, Penn State, 1
52, Miami, 1
52, Texas State, 1
52, Mississippi, 1
Place, Men’s Team, Score
1, Oregon, 74
2, Florida, 50
3, Arkansas, 39
4, Texas A&M, 33
5, Texas Tech, 31
6, Texas, 25
7, LSU, 19
7, TCU, 19
9, USC, 16
9, Iowa State, 16
9, Akron, 16
12, Penn State, 15
13, Oklahoma State, 14
13, Nebraska, 14
15, Buffalo, 12
15, Georgia, 12
17, Tennessee, 11
18, Minnesota, 10
18, Tulsa, 10
18, Baylor, 10
18, Wisconsin, 10
22, Georgetown, 9
23, Illinois, 8
23, Montana State, 8
23, Monmouth, 8
23, Eastern Michigan, 8
23, Virginia, 8
28, Virginia Tech, 7
28, Mississippi, 7
28, Colorado, 7
31, New Mexico, 6
31, Arizona State, 6
31, Hampton, 6
31, Louisville, 6
31, UTEP, 6
31, Purdue, 6
31, Marquette, 6
38, Washington, 5
38, Miss State, 5
38, BYU, 5
38, Kennesaw State, 5
38, Florida State, 5
38, Alabama, 5
38, Clemson, 5
38, Kentucky, 5
46, Auburn, 4
46, Missouri, 4
46, Villanova, 4
46, Indiana State, 4
46, Northern Arizona, 4
51, South Florida, 3
51, North Carolina, 3
51, Cincinnati, 3
51, Kent State, 3
51, Iowa, 3
56, Southern Illinois, 2.5
57, Duke, 2
57, Syracuse, 2
57, DePaul, 2
57, Michigan State, 2
61, East Carolina, 1.5
62, South Dakota, 1
62, Indiana, 1
62, Kansas, 1
62, Michigan, 1
62, UCLA, 1
62, Rice, 1
62, N. Carolina A&T, 1