The Lady Tigers relied on youth to return them amongst the NCAA’s elite in 2015 as they cracked the Top 10 by tying for ninth place at the NCAA Indoor Championships before ending the season with an 11th-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships with their performance. In all, eight Lady Tigers turned in All-American performances over the course of the season while seven of those athletes reached All-America status for the first time in their collegiate careers.
All eight of those All-Americans make their return to the squad in 2016 as LSU will once again challenge for top honors at the SEC and NCAA Championships. Chanice Chase returns as the only senior All-American in the squad, while other All-Americans in juniors Nataliyah Friar, Rushell Harvey, Jada Martin and Rebekah Wales; and sophomores Mikiah Brisco, Daeshon Gordon and Aleia Hobbs hope to make 2016 a season to remember in Baton Rouge.
Eighth in a 10-part series previews a talented squad of women’s middle distance and distance runners that are sure to compete for honors in 2016.
Women’s Middle Distance & Distance
The 2015 season saw the emergence of Lady Tiger sophomore Morgan Schuetz as one of the NCAA’s leading middle distance runners as a two-time NCAA semifinalist in the 800-meter run and two-time All-SEC performer in both the 800 meters and distance medley relay while helping to lead the team in the championship meets.
Schuetz slashed nearly four seconds from her lifetime best 800-meter performance over the course of the 2015 indoor and outdoor seasons while becoming one of the fastest Lady Tigers in history.
A product of nearby Parkview Baptist High School in Baton Rouge, Schuetz twice came up just one place short of advancing to her first career NCAA final in 2015 when she placed ninth overall in the national semifinal at the NCAA Championships during both the indoor and outdoor seasons. In fact, she was the sixth-fastest runner in qualifying in her debut at the NCAA Indoor Championships a year ago, but was denied a position in the final due to the advancement rules in place for the championship.
Schuetz turned in a new indoor personal best in her semifinal heat at the NCAA Championships when she crossed the finish line in sixth place in the race with the sixth-fastest time overall for 2 minutes, 4.54 seconds to close out the 2015 indoor season as the sixth-fastest Lady Tiger to ever line up in the event indoors in team history.
She also enjoyed the best 800-meter performance of her career at the SEC Indoor Championships two weeks before when she placed fourth overall with a time of 2:04.87 to finish just outside the All-SEC places.
Schuetz carried that momentum into the outdoor season when she scored the victory in each of her first two 800-meter races of the spring at Arizona’s Jim Click Shootout and the LSU Invitational meet held almost one month later. It was at the LSU Invitational where she smashed her lifetime best with a run of 2:03.12 to become the No. 8-ranked Lady Tiger in history to line up in the event outdoors.
Schuetz added her second All-SEC honor of her sophomore season when she raced to a career-best third-place finish in the 800-meter final at the SEC Outdoor Championships and finish as the SEC Outdoor Bronze Medalist in the event. Her run to the NCAA semifinals featured a time of 2:03.93 she clocked in the quarterfinal round at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds.
Also an accomplished miler in her time with the Lady Tigers, Schuetz kicked off her sophomore season with a blistering personal best of 4:43.64 as the top collegian in the event at LSU’s Indoor Invitational to get off to a fast start in her 2015 campaign. She then lowered her best mile time to 4:43.52 at the Razorback Invitational three weeks later to rank No. 6 in school history in the event.
Schuetz actually anchored the Lady Tigers to an All-SEC second-place finish in the distance medley relay at the SEC Indoor Championships a year ago with a strong mile leg as she was crowned an SEC Silver Medalist with Andria Aguilar (1,200 meters), Kiersten Duncan (400 meters) and Danielle Avery (800 meters) in the event.
The Lady Tigers are sure to challenge for All-America honors in the DMR in 2016 as they return Duncan and Avery to the squad along with Schuetz and welcome recruits Erika Lewis and Hollie Parker into the program.
Avery, who hails from Naples, Florida, clocked her lifetime best of 2:12.60 in the 800 meters during the indoor season a year ago. She also owns an outdoor PR of 2:12.84 set during her time at Naples High School before arriving in Baton Rouge. Another Lady Tiger looking to factor into the DMR will be Keterra Harris, who returns for her sophomore season with bests of 55.71 in the 400 meters and 2:16.00 in the 800 meters.
The future is certainly very bright for the Lady Tigers in the middle distance and distance events after signing Parker and Lewis to National Letters of Intent during the 2015 recruiting cycle as they even continue to make strides under third-year LSU assistant coach Khadevis Robinson leading the group.
A native of Cambridge, England, Parker proved to be one of the top young talents in Europe prior to her arrival in Baton Rouge as she signed with PRs of 2:08.47 in the 800 meters and 4:27.66 in the 1,500 meters. Lewis, who joined the Lady Tigers following a standout career at Waukee High School in West Des Moines, Iowa, is also an accomplished middle distance prospect with personal bests of 2:12.38 in the 800 meters and 4:40.73 in the 1,500 meters as she also steps onto the track in the purple and gold for the first time in 2016.
Also returning to the squad in 2016 for her redshirt sophomore season is Ashley Welborn, who ranks among the Top 10 runners in the indoor 5,000 meters in team history. Welborn lettered for the Lady Tigers in her true freshman season in 2014 while running the 5,000 meters at the SEC Indoor Championships that year. Her personal best of 17:59.28 run at the 2014 Aggie Invitational ranks her No. 9 on LSU’s all-time indoor performnace list in the event.