BATON ROUGE – Lady Tiger senior Tori Bliss said she wanted to “go out with a bang” in her final appearance at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium on Saturday, and she did just that by smashing her own outdoor school record and breaking the 32-year-old stadium record with an NCAA-leading throw in the shot put to headline this year’s LSU Invitational.
Already well in the lead with a top throw of 57 feet, 1 inch in the second round of qualifying, Bliss put the title out of reach with a lifetime personal best of 60-8 on her fifth attempt to eclipse the school record of 57-5 ½ she set at Arizona’s Jim Click Shootout back on April 11 and take down the Bernie Moore Track Stadium record of 59-2 set by Arizona’s Meg Ritchie during the 1983 season.
The reigning NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor silver medalist in the shot put, Bliss overtook Southern Illinois’ Raven Saunders (59-9 ¾) and Missouri’s Jill Rushin (57-9 ¾) for the NCAA’s No. 1 ranking in 2015.
She was one of six LSU athletes on the afternoon either improving their position in the Top 10 of the NCAA rankings this season or crack the NCAA’s Top 10 for the first time in 2015, while lead the Tigers and Lady Tigers to a sweep of the men’s and women’s team titles at the second-annual LSU Invitational in their regular-season finale.
The No. 8-ranked Lady Tigers defended the team title they won at the inaugural LSU Invitational a year ago while racking up 146 points in 18 events contested during the meet. The No. 20-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide finished runner-up with 134 points, followed by the No. 3-ranked Florida Gators in third place with 93 points, the Miami Hurricanes in fourth place with 87 points and Ole Miss Rebels in fifth place with 84 points.
After finishing runners-up a season ago, the No. 2-ranked Tigers tallied 158 points on the afternoon to win the men’s team title, while No. 9-ranked Alabama followed closely behind in second place with 148 points and No. 3-ranked Florida trailed in third place with 105 points. Rounding out the men’s team scoring were Ole Miss in fourth place with 75 points and Miami in fifth place with 48 points.
But it was Bliss stealing the headlines with her record-setting performance on Senior Day. By throwing a lifetime best of 60-8 to win the women’s shot put title, she not only etched her name in the LSU record books as the school-record and stadium-record holder in the event, but she also became the No. 9-ranked shot putter outdoors in NCAA history with her effort.
Bliss set her previous lifetime best of 60-7 ¼ in the event in a silver-medal-winning performance at the NCAA Indoor Championships back in March, ending her final indoor season as the No. 8-ranked collegian in history indoors. She has now eclipsed the 60-foot mark on four occasions in her final season with the Lady Tigers.
Rounding out Saturday’s field were Miami’s Tiffany Okieme (52-2) in second, Alabama’s Haley Teel (51-0) in third, Florida’s Lloydricia Cameron (48-5 ½) in fourth and Miami’s Precious Ogunleye (48-5 ½) in fifth.
“My warm ups were going out pretty far, but in the competition, it didn’t work that great,” Bliss said. “I had to kind of get off to the side, and give myself a little pep talk and say, you know, ‘It’s the last time you’ll get to throw in a competition at Bernie Moore in an LSU uniform. You’ve got to do something. It’s Senior Day, you’ve got to go out with a bang!’ I just told myself, ‘Buck up and let’s get it done.’ Fortunately I did that.”
Tori Bliss is the new #NCAA leader in the women’s shot put for 2015 as she threw 60-8/18.49m today! #LSUInvite pic.twitter.com/2lFeMV1NXP
— LSUTrackField (@LSUTrackField) May 2, 2015
A native of Portage, Indiana, Bliss has certainly been one of the most dominant athletes in collegiate track and field between the 2015 indoor and outdoor seasons. She has won 10 of the 11 shot put competitions she’s entered this season, including all four outdoors with wins at the Jim Click Shootout (57-5 ½), LSU Alumni Gold (57-2) and Penn Relays (56-5 ¾) already under her belt before Saturday’s victory.
She looks to rectify her only blemish on the season by winning the NCAA Outdoor title after finishing as the NCAA Indoor Silver Medalist in the women’s shot put for her only defeat of the campaign.
“With where my training is at, weight workouts, throwing reps and different things like that, to be at that mark right now is great,” Bliss added. “We’ve still got a lot of season left, the meets are so spread out. We’ll get some weeks off in between meets now, so to be out over that mark at this point with so much time left, I feel like I’m in a good spot right now.”
While Bliss may have set the field alight with her performance, LSU’s middle distance runners certainly set the pace on the track while turning in three NCAA Top 10s between the men’s and women’s finals.
Sophomore Morgan Schuetz raced to the third-fastest time nationally this season with her winning run of 2 minutes, 3.12 seconds to take the tape in the women’s 800 meters over Ole Miss standout Brooke Feldmeier (2:03.86), Miami’s Taneisha Cordell (2:05.00) and Alabama’s Kimberley Ficenec (2:05.84) in one of the most hotly-contested races of the afternoon. Schuetz slashed nearly four seconds from her previous outdoor PR of 2:06.86 set at the Jim Click Shootout and moved into the No. 8 spot on LSU’s all-time performance list with her second victory of 2015.
Senior Julian Parker and sophomore Blair Henderson followed with PRs of their own in the men’s 800 meters as Henderson posted the NCAA’s No. 7-ranked time at 1:47.03 and Parker added the NCAA’s No. 10-ranked time at 1:47.33 to finish in third place and fourth place, respectively, in the event. Alabama’s Alex Amankwah (1:45.91) and Ole Miss’ Craig Engels (1:46.13) claimed the top two spots in the race.
With their efforts on Saturday afternoon, Henderson moved up four spots to No. 6 and Parker cracked the Top 10 for the first time at No. 9 on LSU’s all-time outdoor performance list in the men’s 800 meters.
“That was just a tremendous effort, some pretty good racing from those guys today,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver of the performance of his team’s middle distance runners. “Certainly by Morgan Schuetz to run a big personal best like that. While it wasn’t really, in my opinion, unexpected, it’s great to see it happen. She’s had a really great season for us and our team.
“Then both Julian Parker and Blair Henderson got in the right kind of race. This is the second time that I think they’ve been in races where they really needed to step their game up to be competitive, and I felt like they have done it both times. It’ll be interesting to see as we go into the postseason to keep all those people going and contributing.”
The Tigers have featured many of the nation’s leading 400-meter sprinters throughout the 2015 outdoor season, and they were among the top performers once again at the LSU Invitational on Saturday afternoon.
In a race that featured the likes of Alabama’s Steven Gayle and Florida’s Arman Hall along with LSU’s quartet of Quincy Downing, Fitzroy Dunkley, Darrell Bush and Cyril Grayson, there was no doubt that the men’s 400-meter dash would feature one of the tightest races to the finish line of the afternoon. Downing edged Gayle (45.77) at the tape with a lifetime personal best of 45.70 with the seventh-fastest time nationally this spring in the event. Downing is also the NCAA’s No. 7-ranked 400-meter hurdler with a PR of 49.91 to his credit.
Dunkley followed Downing (45.70) and Gayle (45.77) across the finish line in third place with a lifetime best of his own at 45.92 to rank No. 10 nationally this spring and eclipse his previous PR by more than four tenths of a second when he ran 46.34 at the LSU Alumni Gold two weeks ago. Bush followed in fifth place with a time of 46.20, and Grayson trailed in sixth place with a time of 46.45 in the race.
Like Downing, Lady Tiger junior Chanice Chase entered Saturday’s LSU Invitational as the nation’s No. 7-ranked performer in the 400-meter hurdles on the women’s side, and she strengthened her position at No. 7 in a victory as she crossed the finish line with a seasonal-best time of 57.09 to take the tape by nearly one second ahead of Miami’s Kelsey Balkwill (57.96).
Two Lady Tiger freshmen posted personal bests in the event as Daeshon Gordon followed in third place at 58.14 and Kymber Payne trailed in fifth place at 58.46 with their best performances in an LSU uniform. Gordon even emerged as one of the 10 fastest Lady Tigers all-time as he PR of 58.14 moved her into the No. 9 spot on the school’s all-time performance list and into the No. 20 position in the NCAA rankings for 2015.
Saturday’s competition also saw LSU senior and 2015 NCAA leader Rodney Brown put his run of six-straight wins on the line against Alabama’s defending NCAA Champion Hayden Reed in the men’s discus competition. Just as he has done throughout his final season with the Tigers, Brown emerged victorious with a resounding victory over his SEC rival with a winning throw of 207-6.
With Reed finishing well back in second place with a series-best throw of 197-3, Brown won his seventh-straight discus title of 2015 as he added the title of LSU Invitational Champion to victories at the Louisiana Classics (207-11), Texas Relays (209-8), Battle on the Bayou (203-3), Jim Click Shootout (200-6), LSU Alumni Gold (208-3) and Penn Relays (213-4).
Brown remains the NCAA’s leading discus thrower this season by more than six feet over Virginia’s Filip Mihaljevic (207-1) thanks to his school-record mark of 213-4 at the Penn Relays a week ago.
“(Hayden Reed) is really good, and for Rodney to win that again here and keep his undefeated season going is pretty exciting for him,” Shaver said of his senior discus standout. “I think Rodney has thrown over 200 this year in every meet, and that’s not an easy thing to accomplish. It’s that kind of consistency we need from him as we go into the championship season.”
Bliss, Downing and Schuetz were not the only athletes to take home event titles with personal bests on the afternoon as Lady Tiger freshman Aleia Hobbs was also crowned an event champion at the LSU Invitational in the fastest race of her collegiate career. Hobbs cut through a headwind of -0.5 meters per second and crossed the finish line in 11.39 to beat freshman teammate Mikiah Brisco (11.47) to the finish line for the title. Hers was a performance that beat her previous PR of 11.40 from the LSU Alumni Gold on April 18.
Brisco matched her wind-legal PR and seasonal best in the event as her 11.47 clocking was good enough for second place to Hobbs in the race. Brisco also ran 11.47 in her debut at the Battle on the Bayou on April 4.
The Tigers took home two other event championships on the afternoon when their team of senior Joshua Thompson, senior Vernon Norwood, sophomore Tremayne Acy and senior Aaron Ernest took the tape for the men’s 4×100-meter relay with a run of 39.11 in the first event of the afternoon session and senior Philip Primeaux crossed the finish line first in the men’s 5,000 meters with a time of 14:47.34.
Other LSU athletes setting personal bests at this year’s LSU Invitational included seniors Philip Dempsey (3:54.46) in the 1,500 meters and Bryan Mutell (15:39.12) in the 5,000 meters; junior Travis Pope (15:10.28) in the 5,000 meters; sophomores Briana Kelly (5-7 ¼) in the high jump, Jonathan Pitt (50-5 ¼) in the triple jump and Cameron Robichaux (16-3 ¼) in the pole vault; and freshmen Keterra Harris (24.81) in the 200 meters, Christian Johnson (3:53.44) in the 1,500 meters, Matthew Rhorer (1:51.41) in the 800 meters and Marvalyn Vernon in both the discus (130-10) and hammer (133-9) throws.
With the 2015 regular season now in the books, the Tigers and Lady Tigers will now prepare for the start of the championship season in just under two weeks as they will soon make their trip to Starkville, Mississippi, to compete at the 2015 SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships running over three days from May 14-16 at Mississippi State’s Maddox Track at Spencer Stadium.