BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – After both running the NCAA’s No. 2-ranked times in their events in Friday’s qualifying, juniors Jordan Moore and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake took one step further in Saturday’s finals as they both clocked NCAA-leading personal bests to headline the inaugural Conference Clash Power Five Invitational at the Birmingham Crossplex.
Moore was crowned champion in the men’s 60-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 7.69 seconds in the first final of the day, while Mitchell-Blake followed late in the afternoon with a lifetime best of his own of 20.57 to win the men’s 200-meter title to also become the 2016 world leader in the event.
The Tigers’ reigning NCAA Outdoor Champion 4×400-meter relay team also emerged as an early-season favorite to win the NCAA Indoor crown with their national-leading time of 3 minutes, 5.77 seconds as senior Cyril Grayson, junior LaMar Bruton, junior Michael Cherry and senior Fitzroy Dunkley finished more than a half second ahead of the Texas Longhorns.
Their performance highlighted a weekend in which the Tigers and Lady Tigers combined for eight NCAA Top 10s, five LSU all-time Top 10s and 16 indoor personal bests in two days of action in Birmingham.
The Tigers were instrumental in the Southeastern Conference winning the men’s team title by a score of 91-74 over the other Power Five conferences. The SEC came up just one point short in the women’s team scoring with an 85.5-84.5 defeat.
“We’re already starting to see performances from our athletes that will get them into the NCAA meet, and that’s very encouraging for us at this early stage,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “Our men’s team today especially took a big step forward with what those guys were able to get done on the track. We’re hoping to be even better the next time we come here for the NCAA Championships.”
Moore is off to a flying start to his junior season with the Tigers while emerging as an early season NCAA-title contender and All-American candidate in the wake of his NCAA-leading performance on Saturday.
Just one day after clocking his fastest 60-meter hurdles as an LSU Tiger with the top time in qualifying at 7.76 on Friday night, Moore returned to the track at the Birmingham Crossplex on Saturday for what is sure to be the first of two appearances this season and cruised to victory over his Southeastern Conference rivals.
Moore fired out of the blocks and lit up the straightaway with a national-leading time of 7.69 to finish exactly two tenths of a second ahead of South Carolina’s Isaiah Moore in second place at 7.89 and Gamecock senior teammate Dondre Echols in third place with a time of 7.91. Alabama’s Angelo Goss also broke eight seconds in the final with a run of 7.95 for fourth place in the event.
By posting a lifetime best of 7.69 in the final, Moore tied as the second-fastest 60-meter hurdler in the program history and overtook the previous NCAA-leading time of 7.71 from Syracuse standout Freddie Crittenden III’s set just one week ago. He trails only Barrett Nugent’s school record of 7.55 while tying former NCAA Indoor finalist Ryan Fontenot on LSU’s all-time indoor performance list.
Moore, who ran a seasonal best of 7.80 in his debut season with the Tigers a year ago, set his previous personal best of 7.70 during his true freshman season with the TCU Horned Frogs back in 2014.
“I’m usually coming out of football season right around this time of the season, so it’s harder to get going,” Moore said. “It maybe took me three or four meets to get going. I’ve got a good base now and dropped some weight from what I was running at last year. I’m just feeling really good. I honestly feel like I’m going to have a great season for myself as well as the program. Coach Shaver believes in me. We’ve created a bond since I have been here. When we get out to the track, it’s time to do what we’ve got to do.”
While the Birmingham Crossplex will also be the host site of the 2016 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships later this year, Moore said that thought hadn’t crossed his mind while running this week.
“Honestly, I didn’t even know the NCAA meet was going to be here, as crazy as that might sound,” Moore said. “I don’t even look at the schedule too much until maybe the week of a meet. I just try to focus on what it is I have to do week-by-week to get ready to run. I am glad that it’s here. It’s a fast track. Hopefully it will come together at that time like it did this weekend.”
Mitchell-Blake was not to be outdone when he stepped onto the track for the final in the men’s 200 meters after advancing with the top time in Friday’s qualifying with an indoor PR of 20.89. He slashed three tenths of a second off that season-opening performance with a lifetime best of 20.57 to beat Tennessee’s Christian Coleman (20.70) to the finish line.
It was the fastest 200 meters run by an LSU Tiger indoors in three seasons when former All-American Aaron Ernest ran his indoor personal best of 20.56 as a sophomore in 2013. Mitchell-Blake eclipsed an NCAA-leading time of 20.86 previously held by Tulsa’s Bryce Robinson while becoming the fourth-fastest 200-meter sprinter indoors in school history and the world’s fastest man in the event for the 2016 season.
Not only that, but Mitchell-Blake also smashed former Jackson State star and World Championship bronze medalist Anaso Jobodwana’s 3-year-old Birmingham Crossplex facility record of 20.65 set in 2013.
The Tigers later wrapped up the meet with their third NCAA-leading performance of the afternoon when Grayson, Bruton, Cherry and Dunkley teamed to run their seasonal best of 3:05.77 to finish ahead of runner-up Texas with the second-fastest time in the country this season at 3:06.36. Tennessee was well back in third place with a time of 3:09.70 to win the second heat.
“Some of our guys are really firing right now, and that’s really a testament to the job they’re doing in training and preparing themselves to compete in each meet,” Shaver said. “There’s only so many opportunities that these athletes have to put themselves in a position to qualify for the NCAA meet, and it’s great to see so many taking advantage of those chances this early in the season.”
While Moore kicked off Saturday’s finale with a win in the 60-meter hurdles, junior Cameron Robichaux won LSU’s second event title of the afternoon with his first collegiate victory in the men’s pole vault after a third-attempt clearance at 16 feet, 8 ¾ inches. He was just shy of matching his lifetime best of 16-10 set just one week ago in a runner-up finish during the Bayou Bengal Invitational.
Robichaux advanced in the competition with a third-attempt clearance at his opening height of 15-9 before a first-attempt clearance at 16-2 ¾. He was the only vaulter in the meet to clear the bar at 16-8 ¾ before going out with the bar resting at 17-2 ¾. Robichaux joined Tennessee’s Jake Blankenship as the only competitors jumping at 17-2 ¾, but the Volunteer All-American failed to clear his opening height.
In other sprint finals held Saturday afternoon, Lady Tiger sophomore Mikiah Brisco scored the silver medal as the runner-up in the women’s 60-meter dash with a time of 7.28 and Tiger junior Tinashe Mutanga took the seventh position in the men’s 60 meters with a time of 6.99. Brisco clocked 7.28 in the final after running a season-opening 7.26 in Friday’s qualifying as she finished runner-up to Texas All-American Morolake Akinosun, who took home the title with her winning run of 7.26 on Saturday afternoon.
Like Brisco, junior teammate Jada Martin emerged as one of the NCAA’s leading sprinters with her performance at the Conference Clash Power Five Invitational while placing third in the women’s 200 meters.
After advancing as the third-fastest qualifier in Friday’s preliminary round with a time of 23.48 in her first 200-meter race of the season, Martin dropped her time to 23.46 in Saturday’s final for third place behind only an NCAA-leading sprint of 22.88 by Tennessee’s NCAA leader Felicia Brown for the win and a run of 23.23 by Lady Volunteer teammate Kali Davis-White for second place.
Martin left the Birmingham Crossplex as the NCAA’s No. 6-ranked sprinter in the 200-meter dash this season as she eyes her first career All-America honor indoors in her third season with the Lady Tigers.
Martin also anchored the Lady Tigers to the ninth-fastest time in the NCAA this season in the women’s 4×400-meter relay as she teamed with senior Chanice Chase, freshman Rachel Misher and junior Travia Jones in a sixth-place finish with a time of 3:37.63 in the second heat of the final event of the competition. They finished three seconds off the pace by Texas’ winning time of 3:34.36 in the first heat.
Saturday’s finale at the Conference Clash Power Five Invitational was also highlighted by a top-10 performance nationally by junior All-American Nataliyah Friar as the reigning NCAA Indoor Bronze Medalist opened her season with a jump of 20-5 for third place in the long jump. Friar was third behind Alabama’s Quanesha Burks (22-0 ¼) and Florida State’s Der’Renae Freeman (20-10) with the NCAA’s No. 10-ranked jump in 2016.
Four of LSU’s 800-meter runners walked off the track at the Birmingham Crossplex with indoor personal bests to their credit, led by Tiger sophomore Jack Wilkes breaking 1:50 for the first time in his career with his race of 1 minute, 49.79 seconds for fourth place in the men’s final. Hannah Deworth (2:11.93), Keterra Harris (2:15.30) and Erika Lewis (2:15.45) also ran indoor PRs for the Lady Tigers.
Other LSU athletes setting personal bests on the day were sophomore Kymber Payne (56.41) in the 400 meters, sophomore Da’Quan Bellard (23-9) in the long jump and freshman Dajour Braxton (8:28.38) in the 3k.
In Saturday’s distance races, junior Blair Henderson clocked 4:11.17 for 13th place in the men’s mile and freshman Hollie Parker ran 4:57.58 and junior Morgan Schuetz posted 9:45.79 for a pair of 11th-place finishes in the women’s mile and 3,000 meters, respectively.
With the 2016 indoor season now in full swing, the Tigers and Lady Tigers will be back on the road next weekend with their first of three trips to the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where they’ll get going at the Razorback Invitational running Jan. 29-30. They will also compete at the Tyson Invitational and SEC Indoor Championships at the Randal Tyson Track Center in the coming weeks.