BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Junior Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake sprinted to a season-opening personal best in the 200 meters and junior Jordan Moore and sophomore Mikiah Brisco each added seasonal bests to become the NCAA’s No. 2-ranked performers in their respective events to headline Friday’s opener at the Conference Clash Power Five Invitational.
Lady Tiger junior Jada Martin added an NCAA Top 10 time of her own in the women’s 200-meter dash to highlight a successful day of qualifying for the Tigers and Lady Tigers at the Birmingham Crossplex.
In six qualifying events on the track between the men’s and women’s teams, the Tigers and Lady Tigers turned in 12 heat-winning performances in the 60-meter hurdles and 60-meter and 200-meter dashes with eight athletes advancing to Saturday’s finals where they will look to put the Southeastern Conference on the scoreboard.
“Today was a positive step forward for our team,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “We’re still at that stage of the season where many of our athletes are opening up and competing in their events for the very first time, so to see some of the performances we did today was encouraging. Tomorrow gives us another opportunity to get just a little bit better as we progress through the season.”
Just one week after opening his indoor season with a personal best of 6.72 in the 60 meters at LSU’s Bayou Bengal Invitational, Mitchell-Blake emerged as an early-season candidate for All-America accolades in the 200 meters when he sprinted crossed the finish line in 20.89 seconds to take the tape in the first heat and advance to Saturday’s final with the top time of the day.
Mitchell-Blake, who entered the meet with a previous indoor personal best of 20.98 set in his sophomore season in 2014, slashed nearly one tenth of a second from his best in his first 200-meter race of 2016.
That performance moved Mitchell-Blake into the No. 2 spot in the NCAA rankings for the 2016 season and into the No. 7 place on LSU’s all-time indoor performance list in the event. Only Tulsa’s Bryce Robinson has run a faster 200 meters than Mitchell-Blake this season with his national-leading 20.86 at the Arkansas Invitational just one week ago.
Mitchell-Blake was one of five Tigers to cross the finish line as heat winners in Friday’s 200-meter qualifying as he will be joined in the final by juniors Michael Cherry and Tremayne Acy. Cherry clocked an indoor best of his own at 21.13 for the third-fastest qualifying time of the day, while Acy added the sixth-fastest time at 21.26 to cross the finish line first in his heat.
Other Tigers taking the tape in their 200-meter heats were junior Tinashe Mutanga with a time of 21.45 to win the ninth heat and senior Fitzroy Dunkley with a time of 21.54 to win the seventh heat of the event.
Acy advanced to Saturday’s finals in both sprint events as he also qualified on time in the men’s 60-meter dash with a run of 6.79 to finish runner-up in the first heat. Despite coming up short of a spot in the final for the 200-meter dash, Mutanga sprinted to a heat victory in the sixth heat of the 60 meters with a time of 6.81 to earn automatic qualification into the final for the second-straight weekend.
While Mitchell-Blake led the way with one of the NCAA’s leading performances in the men’s 200 meters, Martin clocked a season-opening 23.48 to win the first heat of women’s qualifying for the NCAA’s No. 7-ranked performance of 2016. Martin’s 23.48 proved to be the third-fastest qualifying time of the night as she was one of four Lady Tigers to win their preliminary races.
Senior Kiersten Duncan nearly matched her indoor personal best with a season-opening 24.09 to cross the finish line first in the sixth heat and just miss out on a spot in the final as the ninth-place finisher overall. Junior Travia Jones equaled her indoor best of 24.47 from a week ago to win the ninth heat, while junior Ka’Lynn Jupiter following with a winning run of 25.12 in the 12th heat of the qualifying round.
LSU’s freshmen duo of Rachel Misher and Kortnei Johnson were impressive in their first ever 200-meter races on a banked track as Misher placed third in the fourth heat with a time of 24.14 and Johnson was second in the fifth heat with a time of 24.17 to finish in 12th place and 13th place, respectively, in the event.
Junior All-American Rushell Harvey added a seasonal best of 24.25 to take third place in the third heat, while junior Christian Brennan also broke 25 seconds with a run of 24.89 for third place in the 11th heat.
Like Mitchell-Blake in the final qualifying event of the night, Moore and Brisco both emerged with the fastest qualifying times of the day early on to climb into the No. 2 spot in the NCAA rankings. Moore moved up one spot to No. 5 on LSU’s all-time indoor performance list with his seasonal-best time of 7.76 to win the second heat of the men’s 60-meter hurdles, while Brisco won the second heat of the women’s 60-meter dash in her season-opening run of 7.26 to advance as the top qualifier in the event.
Also cracking LSU’s Top 10 performance list indoors during at the Conference Clash Power Five Invitational on Friday night were the members of the men’s distance medley relay team as sophomore Jack Wilkes, senior Cyril Grayson, junior Blair Henderson and freshman Dajour Braxton finished runner-up in 9 minutes, 48.63 seconds behind only the winning time of 9:47.12 by the Texas Longhorns.
They became the seventh-fastest DMR team in school history to score three points for the SEC, which finished the day with a 28-21 lead over the other Power Five conferences in the men’s dual meet standings.
The Lady Tigers also clocked one of fastest DMR times in school history in a fourth-place finish in the women’s relay final as the squad of freshman Hollie Parker, sophomore Keterra Harris, sophomore Hannah Deworth and junior Morgan Schuetz finished the race in 11:29.84 for the eighth-fastest time all-time by an LSU women’s team.
Sophomore DC Lipani also scored three points for the SEC with his performance in the men’s 5,000 meters as he finished runner-up to South Carolina’s Andrew Trusty (15:06.21) with a time of 15:21.83 in his first 5k run of the indoor season. Fellow sophomore Ashley Welborn was the top Lady Tiger in the women’s 5,000 meters with her time of 18:13.39 for 11th place.
While the Tigers finished just outside the scoring positions in the men’s weight throw, senior Patrick Geers and junior David Collins both set personal bests as two of the team’s top performers on the afternoon. Collins raised his personal best by nearly one foot with a series-best of 65 feet, 6 ¼ inches in the fifth round en route to a seventh-place finish with the No. 9-ranked performance in school history. Geers trailed in eighth place with his top throw of the day at 65-4 ¼ also in the fifth round of the competition.
Junior Johnnie Jackson was the top Tiger in the men’s weight throw competition as he posted a series-best of 66-5 on his very first throw in qualifying for his second-best throw of the 2016 season.
Also setting a personal best with her performance in Friday’s opener was sophomore Danielle Phillips, who dropped her PR by one tenth of a second in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.46 to place 16th overall. The Cocoa, Florida, native has now run a personal best in the sprint hurdles in each of her three appearances in 2016 with times of 8.58 at the Purple Tiger Invitational and 8.56 at the Bayou Bengal Invitational.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers will be back in action at the Conference Clash Power Five Invitational on Saturday as the action gets underway at 11 a.m. CT in the field events followed by the first finals on the track at Noon. The competition runs through the 4×400-meter relays with the women running at 3:45 p.m. followed by the men at 4:05 p.m.