EUGENE, Ore. – The No. 4-ranked LSU Tigers opened up their 2015 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships with an outstanding day of qualifying in Wednesday’s semifinal rounds as they advanced five individuals and two relays into national finals to run Friday afternoon at Hayward Field on the campus of the University of Oregon.
NCAA Indoor Champion Vernon Norwood set the pace with the fastest time of the day in the 400-meter dash, while fellow seniors Quincy Downing (400 hurdles), Aaron Ernest (200 meters) and Joshua Thompson (110 hurdles) and sophomore Tremayne Acy (200 meters) each earned their lanes in national finals as they will run for All-America honors in Friday’s finale of the men’s competition.
The Tigers also posted two of the fastest semifinal times of the day while advancing to the NCAA finals once again in both the 4×100-meter and 4×400-meter relay to highlight Wednesday’s opener.
“Our guys did just about everything they needed to do to give themselves a chance to compete for the top places in this meet here in a couple of days,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver after watching his team earn a spot in the final in the 4×400-meter relay in the day’s final event. “There are a lot of points on the board to be scored, and you have to give those guys credit for going out and competing very well today.”
Norwood arrived in Eugene this week looking to complete the NCAA title sweep in the men’s 400-meter dash as the reigning NCAA Indoor Champion in the event, and he showed just why he lined up as a title favorite in his final collegiate competition as the top qualifier from Wednesday’s semifinal heats with the fastest time of the day at 45.42 seconds.
Norwood was pushed all the way to the finish line by Oregon’s hometown favorite Marcus Chambers (45.43) as he edged the Duck sophomore by the narrowest of margins by one one-hundredth of a second to move into Friday’s final as the top seed. He also beat the heat-winning time of 45.43 by Texas A&M’s defending NCAA Outdoor Champion Deon Lendore in the semifinal round.
Also running in the 400-meter final on Friday will be Florida’s Najee Glass (45.49), North Carolina’s Ceo Ways (45.49), Texas’ Zack Bilderback (45.53), Illinois’ DJ Zahn (45.87) and Alabama’s Steven Gayle (45.93).
“I came off the bend in a pretty good position and just tried to finish strong,” Norwood said of his race to the finish line with Chambers. “He (Chambers) had the crowd here cheering him on, and he finished strong, but I just couldn’t lose focus. I knew I had to finish strong with a fast time so I could get a good lane for the final in a couple of days.”
Norwood warmed up for his race in the 400-meter semifinal by leading the Tigers into the national final of the 4×100-meter relay as he lined up as the second leg on LSU’s foursome that also featured Thompson on the leadoff leg and 200-meter finalists Acy on the third leg and Ernest on the anchor leg in the second heat.
The Tigers took flew out of blocks in Wednesday’s semifinals as they raced to the finish line in 38.92 seconds to secure their spot in the national final of the 4×100-meter relay for the 16th-straight season.
Eight times an NCAA Champion in the 4×100-meter relay in program history, the Tigers will run for a ninth on Friday after taking second place in the second semifinal heat with the fourth-fastest time of the day at 38.92 as they finished just a split-second behind Florida’s 38.91 to win the heat. TCU (38.65) and Texas A&M (39.11) were the other heat winners in the sprint relay semifinals.
Also advancing to the men’s sprint relay finals were Arkansas (38.78), Southern California (39.09), Alabama (39.23) and Illinois (39.39). The Tigers, who’ve set a seasonal best of their own at 38.78 already this season, will run for their first NCAA 4×100-meter relay title since the 2012 season in Friday’s final scheduled to run at 6:35 p.m. CT.
Like Norwood, both Acy and Ernest were outstanding in Wednesday’s qualifying as they not only posted personal bests in their semifinal heats of the 100-meter dash, but each earned a lane in the 200-meter final with a pair of qualifying performances. Ernest earned a spot in the NCAA 200-meter final for the third time in his four seasons with the Tigers, while Acy advanced for the first time in his career.
Acy lit up the track with yet another personal best as he drafted off of Florida’s Dedric Dukes (20.03) to finish runner-up in the third heat with the fifth-fastest time of the day at 20.17 (+1.8). His performance dropped a personal best of 20.25 he last set in the national quarterfinals at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds and made him the third-fastest 200-meter sprinter in school history. By eclipsing his personal best by nearly one tenth of a second, Acy overtook both Richard Thompson (20.18) and Rohsaan Griffin (20.21) for the No. 3 spot on the school’s all-time list.
“I just really keep shocking myself. I think the 100 is my race, but I keep dropping my time in the 200,” Acy said after running yet another personal best. “I’m not complaining about that at all. Being a short sprinter, your best race is usually the 100 meters because it is a shorter race, but I’m running well in the 200 right now. Once I didn’t qualify for the 100, I just had to get ready for the 200.”
Ernest, who earned a career-best fourth-place finish in the NCAA final of the 200 meters a year ago, will run for yet another All-America honor in the event after qualifying with the eighth-fastest time in the field to the final as he took second place in the first heat with a wind-legal run of 20.35 (+1.7).
Baylor’s Trayvon Bromell (20.03), USC’s Andre De Grasse (20.09) and Beejay Lee (20.31), Clemson’s Tevin Hester (20.14), Auburn’s Kahlil Henderson (20.29) and Florida State’s Kendal Williams (20.30) also qualified.
Earlier in the day, Acy opened with a wind-legal PR of 10.16 (+1.7) for fourth place in the first heat and Ernest followed with a PR of 10.12 (+1.4) for fourth place in the third heat of the 100-meter semifinals. Ernest’s run of 10.12 earned him 11th place overall, while Acy trailed closely behind with his time of 10.16 for 12th place overall in the semifinal round of the 100 meters.
“I ran a PR in the 100, so at the end of the day, I can’t be too mad because I ran the fastest time I ever ran in my life. I knew I had to bounce back in the 200 after that,” Ernest said of his 100-meter race. “In my 200, after about 30 or 40 meters I kind of slightly rolled my ankle, so I came around the turn maybe fourth or fifth. For me, that’s pretty bad coming off the turn that far behind.
“My senior year, I knew I couldn’t stop. I knew if I could get top two I’d be fine to make it to the next round. That couldn’t be my last individual race in my career. I couldn’t let it end like that here.”
Not only did he leadoff the Tigers to a berth into the sprint relay final, but Thompson also earned a lane in his first career NCAA final in the sprint hurdles as he advanced automatically as the second-place finishers from the third semifinal heat. Needing a top-two finish to assure himself of qualification, Thompson clocked a wind-legal 13.66 (+0.3) to finish runner-up to Texas’ Spencer Dunkerley-Offor (13.58) in the third heat.
Thompson will run for his first and second career All-American honors on Friday night as he also advanced to the sprint hurdle final with Arkansas’ Omar McLeod (13.08w), Oregon’s Jonathan Cabral (13.49w), Clemson’s Justin Johnson (13.52), Houston’s Isaac Williams (13.56w), Iowa’s Aaron Mallett (13.56w) and Savannah State’s Cameron Hall (13.61).
LSU sophomore Jordan Moore also lined up in the NCAA semifinals for the first time as an LSU Tiger as he just missed advancing to the final on time with a wind-aided run of 13.57 (+2.6) in the first heat.
Moore actually ran the sixth-fastest time among all the competitors of the semifinal round with his second-fastest time of the season under all conditions, but was the third-fastest hurdler finishing outside the top two places in the three heats. He placed fifth in the first heat as the top-two finishers in each heat and the next two fastest semifinalists outside the top two advancing to the final on time.
The Tigers will feature finalists in both hurdle events after Downing also advanced in the 400-meter hurdles for the second year in a row. The reigning NCAA Outdoor Bronze Medalist in the event clocked the third-best time of the day at 49.64 for second place in the second heat to give himself an opportunity to claim All-America honors once again in his senior season.
Downing will look to improve on his third-place national finish from a year ago against the likes of Kansas’ Michael Stigler (48.88), Florida’s Eric Futch (49.63), Illinois’ David Kendziera (49.64), Boise State’s Jordin Andrade (49.67), Texas A&M’s Gregory Coleman (49.70), Pittsburgh’s Desmond Palmer (49.97) and South Carolina’s Jussi Kanervo (50.28).
Downing followed by leading off the Tigers to a heat-winning run in the 4×400-meter relay in the last event of the day as they took the tape in 3 minutes, 4.73 seconds with the second-fastest time of the round.
With Downing joining junior Fitzroy Dunkley on the second leg, junior Cyril Grayson on the third leg and Norwood on the anchor leg, the Tigers finished exactly one second ahead of Ohio State (3:05.73) in the race with the second-fastest time among the three heat winners. Florida clocked 3:04.11 as the fastest qualifier of the semifinal round, while Texas A&M won the second heat in 3:05.21.
Also advancing to Friday’s final in the men’s 4×400-meter relay were BYU (3:04.94), Mississippi State (3:05.15), Arkansas (3:05.37), Illinois (3:05.63) in what should be an exciting race to end the men’s competition.
“It comes down to working hard all year to get ready for this week. We got through today healthy, so that was great for us,” Norwood said of he and his teammates running as many races as they did Wednesday in the semifinal rounds. “To go from event to event like that with such little time in between with this new schedule, it shows how well we prepared for this meet. We got through, and that’s what mattered most.”
The No. 8-ranked Lady Tigers will take their turn in the semifinal rounds at the 2015 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Thursday as they will compete for the first time beginning at 6 p.m. CT with a qualifying round of the women’s 4×100-meter relay. Thursday’s events will be televised on ESPNU at 6 p.m. CT followed by coverage on ESPN at 7:30 p.m. CT.