BATON ROUGE – Saturday’s LSU Alumni Gold meet marked the outdoor season opener for LSU’s 2015 NCAA Indoor Champion Vernon Norwood in his favored 400-meter dash, and the Tiger sprint star turned in the NCAA’s fastest time in his debut with a blistering personal record of 44.44 seconds to take the title at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium.
Norwood was crowned a national champion in his last 400-meter race before Saturday’s outdoor opener when he sprinted to an indoor PR of 45.31 in the final at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships back on March 14. His 44.44 to take the title at the LSU Alumni Gold laid down the gauntlet to his rivals as he emerged as a true NCAA-title threat for the 2015 outdoor season.
It proved to be the fastest 400-meter race by an LSU Tiger in nine seasons when former LSU standout Xavier Carter was crowned the 2006 NCAA Outdoor Champion with a time of 44.53 in the national final.
Norwood took control of the race around the very first turn, surged ahead of the pack on the backstretch, extended his lead over teammates Fitzroy Dunkley and Cyril Grayson at the 250-meter mark and never looked back as he powered to the finish line in 44.44 to become the NCAA’s fastest 400-meter runner for the 2015 season.
The reigning NCAA Outdoor Bronze Medalist in the event, Norwood opened up his outdoor season by eclipsing the previous NCAA-leading time of 44.89 set by Texas A&M’s Bralon Taplin at the 36th Sun Angel Classic at Arizona State University last Saturday. He also trails only the seasonal-best time of 44.31 by 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist Kirani James as the world’s fastest 400-meter runner this spring.
Dunkley followed Norwood across the finish line with a lifetime personal best of his own as he clocked 46.34 for second place, while Grayson followed in third place with a time of 46.47 just one week after smashing his career-best with a seasonal best of 46.23 at the Jim Click Shootout held last weekend at the University of Arizona. LSU now features five of the NCAA’s Top 20 400-meter runners for the 2015 season.
Only Derrick Brew’s Southeastern Conference and school-record time of 44.29 separates Norwood’s 44.44 from the top of the school’s all-time rankings in the event as he will now look to threaten that mark in 2015.
“It’s always on my mind,” Norwood quipped of one day setting LSU’s school record over 400 meters. “I think about the school record a lot. I want to leave as one of the best 400 runners that’s ever been here. I’m here to help our team score as many points at SECs and nationals, and if I can make that kind of history in doing that, that’s what I want to do before I leave here after this season.”
Norwood talked about the importance of getting off to such a fast start in his final outdoor season with the Tigers to help set up what is sure to be a historic final season in Baton Rouge for the Morgan City native.
“I felt I had that kind of time in me, but I was surprised to run that in a season opener,” Norwood said. “We put in a lot of hard work as a group in training, and it’s nice to see that hard work paying off. I kind of knew for my first 120 (meters) that I needed to go, I was already pressing at that time. Even with the wind coming down the homestretch, I just wanted to finish it off strong. Keep my chin up, pump my arms and just hammer it down. That’s what I did, I just executed a great race to help set me up for the rest of the year.”
But Norwood didn’t slow down there as he and Grayson teamed with senior Quincy Downing and junior Darrell Bush in wrapping up the LSU Alumni Gold meet with a win in the men’s 4×400-meter relay. Norwood split 45.3 on the third leg and Grayson anchored in 46.0 to help lead the Tigers clock the third-fastest relay time in the NCAA this season at 3 minutes, 2.79 seconds to take the tape ahead of Arizona’s 3:07.04.
Downing was among six other Tigers and Lady Tigers cracking the Top 10 of the national rankings with their performance during Saturday’s competition as he cruised to victory in the men’s 400-meter hurdles.
Like Norwood, Downing took control of the race early on and powered through the finish line in a personal-best time of 49.91 to take the title by more than two seconds over New Orleans’ Constant Pretorius (52.00) in the sixth-fastest performance nationally this spring. Downing’s 49.91 also moved him up one spot into the No. 6 position on LSU’s all-time performance list in the event.
The reigning NCAA Outdoor Bronze Medalist in the men’s 400-meter hurdles, Downing eclipsed his previous best of 49.97 set in the final at the 2014 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships a year ago.
Two other Tigers cracked the NCAA’s Top 10 in victory on Saturday afternoon when sophomore Jordan Moore beat senior teammate Joshua Thompson to the finish line in the first heat of the men’s 110-meter hurdles and sophomore Tremayne Acy outlasted Nike sprinter Justin Walker to the tape in the first heat of the men’s 200-meter dash.
Moore turned in a personal-best performance of his own when he crossed the finish line in 13.67 (+1.3) ahead of Thompson’s second-fastest time of the season at 13.77 for the NCAA’s fourth-fastest hurdle time from the 2015 outdoor season. Moore, a sophomore transfer from TCU, smashed his previous best of 13.72 set during a freshman season in Fort Worth in which he was crowned the 2014 Big 12 Outdoor Champion.
Acy raced to the fastest 200 meters under all conditions of his athletic career when he crossed the finish line in a wind-aided 20.51 (+2.6) ahead of Walker in second place in 20.57 in the first heat. Acy emerged from the meet as the No. 7-ranked performer nationally while eclipsing his previous wind-aided best of 20.90. Bush also clocked a wind-legal personal best of 21.30 (+1.5) for seventh place in the event.
Also cracking the NCAA’s Top 10 in his outdoor season opener on Saturday was senior All-American Aaron Ernest, who fired out of the blocks alongside three-time Olympic silver medalist Richard Thompson and posted a new wind-legal PR of 10.14 (+1.0) for third place in the men’s 100-meter dash as the top collegian in the field. Thompson took the tape with a time of 10.04, followed by Walker in second place in 10.12 and Ernest back in third place with the No. 7-ranked time in the NCAA this season. The Tiger senior eclipsed his previous best of 10.17 that he twice set as a freshman in 2012.
The Tigers’ 4×100-meter relay team continued its momentum when Thompson, Norwood, Acy and Ernest teamed for a winning run of 39.11 ahead of Meridian Community College in second place at 39.94.
Sophomore Jada Martin and freshman Aleia Hobbs set the pace for the Lady Tigers on the afternoon when they turned in personal bests of their own in an impressive 1-2 finish in the women’s 100-meter dash. Martin outlasted her teammate to the finish line with a career-best of 11.34 (+0.1) to rank No. 5 nationally this season, while Hobbs followed in second place with a PR of 11.40 for the NCAA’s No. 9-ranked time this spring.
The Lady Tigers actually swept the top three spots on the medal podium in the women’s 100-meter dash with freshman Mikiah Brisco bagging the bronze in 11.49. While joining with the women’s 200-meters champion Rushell Harvey (23.88w), the Lady Tigers’ team of Harvey, Hobbs, Martin and Brisco won the women’s 4×100-meter relay in 43.88 ahead of Louisiana Tech’s 44.79 for second place.
Like Martin, two other Lady Tiger sophomores were crowned event champions Saturday afternoon with personal-best performances as Morgan Schuetz clocked 4:22.83 to win the women’s 1,500 meters and Nataliyah Friar soared 20 feet, 7 ¼ inches (+2.0) to win the women’s long jump title. Schuetz’s 4:22.83 to win the 1,500 meters also made her the eighth-fastest Lady Tiger all-time in program history in the event.
Senior Rodney Brown made it a perfect 5-for-5 to start his senior season outdoors when he nearly matched his seasonal best with a winning throw of 208-3 in the men’s discus title late in the afternoon.
Brown remains the only collegian to eclipse the 200-foot mark in the men’s discus this season, and he has done so in each of his five appearances with wins at the Louisiana Classics (207-11), Texas Relays (209-8), Battle on the Bayou (203-3) and Jim Click Shootout (200-6) ahead of Saturday’s LSU Alumni Gold. His NCAA-leading mark of 209-8 is nearly 10 feet farther than Cornell’s Stephen Mozia’s 199-10 in the national rankings.
Also defending their home turf with event wins on Saturday afternoon were senior Tori Bliss (57-2) in the women’s shot put, senior Philip Primeaux (15:09.33) in the men’s 5,000 meters, senior Julian Parker (1:49.32) in the men’s 800 meters and the Lady Tigers’ 4×400-meter relay (3:35.18) with a team of Daeshon Gordon, Martin, Travia Jones and Chanice Chase.
Jones and Gordon each added personal bests in their individual events with Jones running 54.15 in the women’s 400 meters and Gordon clocking 58.60 in the women’s 400 hurdles at this year’s LSU Alumni Gold.
Other LSU athletes recording PRs during the competition included senior Bryan Mutell (15:45.35) in the 5,000 meters; junior David Collins (206-5) in the hammer throw; sophomore Blair Henderson (3:46.52) in the 1,500 meters; freshmen Jack Wilkes (1:50.66), Matthew Rhorer (1:52.19) and Hannah Deworth (2:11.22) in the 800 meters; freshman Christian Johnson (9:20.38) in the 3,000 steeplechase, freshman Jonathan Nelsen (15-7 ¼) in the pole vault and freshman Marvalyn Vernon (126-4) in the discus throw.
“It really was an outstanding day across the board for both of our teams,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver of the performance of his teams at the LSU Alumni Gold meet. “We saw some performances today that are as good as you’ll see at this level this season. We’ve really set ourselves up for a strong finish to the regular season with just two meets to prepare for the championship season.”
With this year’s LSU Alumni Gold now in the books, the Tigers and Lady Tigers will make their annual trip to Philadelphia next weekend to compete as part of the 121st running of the Penn Relay Carnival that will be held April 23-25 at historic Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania. They will then wrap up the 2015 regular season the following weekend when they host the LSU Invitational on May 2.