FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Saturday’s finale at the Razorback Team Invitational featured the season debut for LSU’s stable of 400-meter sprinters, and junior Michael Cherry crossed the finish line as an NCAA-title favorite for the event with a NCAA-leading personal best of 45.78 seconds to win the invitational event at the Randal Tyson Track Center.
The Tigers also laid down a marker to the rest of the nation with a collegiate-leading performance in the 4×400-meter relay as they look to following their NCAA Outdoor Championship in the event from a year ago with their second NCAA Indoor title in three seasons in the event this season.
Cherry proved to be the class of the field with an emphatic victory at this year’s Razorback Invitational as he finished seventh tenths of a second ahead of Texas A&M’s Fred Kerley in the first heat.
Cherry edged Arkansas freshman Obi Igbokwe to the break and cut to the rail to seize the advantage through 200 meters of the race before pulling away on the backstretch and around the final turn. Despite grimacing down the homestretch, he held his form and powered through the finish line with an indoor personal best of 45.78 in his first 400-meter race as an LSU Tiger.
That performance was seven tenths of a second faster than Kerley (46.48) in second place, Florida’s Kunle Fasasi (46.68) in third place and Igbokwe (47.61) in fourth place in the first heat of the invitational event.
Cherry was actually among four Tigers to break 47 seconds in their first 400-meter races of the 2016 season as senior Fitzroy Dunkley followed by winning the second heat with an indoor PR of his own at 46.75 to secure fourth place overall. Junior LaMar Bruton also ran a strong 46.87 in his season opener to finish runner-up to Dunkley in the second heat and fifth place overall in the invitational final.
A former Florida State Seminole before his arrival at LSU in the fall, Cherry smashed his previous indoor best of 46.31 set during his sophomore season in Tallahassee a year ago. By running a season-opening 45.78, he is already one of the fastest 400-meter runners indoors in program history as the No. 6-ranked performer on LSU’s all-time indoor list in the event.
Cherry’s 45.78 is also more than six tenths of a second faster than the previous NCAA leader entering the weekend as Southeastern Louisiana’s Dontrell Lyons held the previous mark of 46.43 from a week ago.
Senior All-American Cyril Grayson also lined up in his first 400-meter race of the season in the early sections and clocked a season-opening 46.95 to win the second heat and finish just shy of his indoor PR of 46.93 in the event. Grayson finished second overall in the early sections of the men’s 400 meters behind the heat-winning time of 46.85 by Arkansas’ Jamarco Stephen in the first heat.
“Our guys prepared themselves very well coming into the season and getting ready for this meet, so we’re not surprised to see them run that fast this early in the season,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “I’m not surprised to see them look that strong knowing how they’ve prepared themselves in training to get ready for this weekend. It’s a good sign for those guys as we move forward in the coming weeks.”
After running their first 400-meter races of the season earlier in the day, the Tigers put an exclamation point onto the end of the meet with a dominant performance in the 4×400-meter relay as Grayson (47.23), Bruton (46.06), Cherry (45.30) and Dunkley (45.90) teamed to run a seasonal-best and NCAA-leading time of 3:04.46 to beat Florida (3:08.44) to the finish line by nearly four seconds.
The Tigers trailed the Gators in the NCAA rankings entering the meet after clocking a previous seasonal best of 3:05.77 at the Conference Clash Power Five Invitational last weekend. Their NCAA-leading 3:04.46 today is the fourth-fastest 4×400-meter relay run indoors in school history.
The early sections of the women’s 400-meter dash also produced three indoor personal bests by the Lady Tigers as junior Travia Jones topped the charts with a winning time of 53.83 in the second heat to finish first for the event. Sophomore Kymber Payne followed with an indoor best of 54.66 to win the third heat and finish second overall behind Jones, while redshirt freshman Oksana Lawrence sprinted to an indoor PR of 55.98 this afternoon to finish in 12th place in the heats before the invitational event.
While running the leadoff leg and third leg, respectively, Jones (54.73) and Payne (54.12) teamed with freshman Rachel Misher (54.73) on the second leg and senior Jada Martin (52.63) on the anchor leg to run a season best of 3:35.99 for third place in the women’s invitational 4×400-meter relay. They trailed Oregon (3:33.34) and Texas A&M (3:35.86) with the seventh-fastest time nationally this season.
Sophomore All-American Mikiah Brisco continued the Lady Tigers’ momentum on the track with back-to-back personal bests en route to a bronze-medal-winning third-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles.
After advancing with a personal best of 8.28 for the fourth-fastest time in the qualifying round, Brisco returned to the track two hours later and raced to the finish line in 8.20 for third place overall behind just Oregon’s champion Sasha Wallace (8.05) and Florida State’s silver medalist Mulern Jean (8.15) in the event. Brisco cracked the Top 10 of the NCAA rankings for the 2016 season at No. 8 with her effort.
Two of LSU’s middle distance runners also entered the Top 10 of the NCAA rankings this season with their performance in Saturday’s invitational races as junior Blair Henderson scored the silver medal in the men’s 800 meters and junior Morgan Schuetz placed fourth in the women’s mile to help set the pace on the track.
Henderson stepped onto the track with an indoor personal best of 1 minute, 49.70 seconds he set last season as a sophomore with the Tigers, but slashed more than one second from his previous best with his time of 1:48.42 to finish runner-up to Arkansas’ Carlton Orange (1:47.38) in the men’s invitational race. Henderson’s time moved him to No. 7 in the NCAA rankings and No. 5 on LSU’s all-time indoor list in the event.
Schuetz wasn’t to be outdone as she took her mark in the next event on the track in the women’s invitational mile and raced to the finish line in 4:40.07 to improve her previous indoor PR of 4:43.52 by more than three seconds. Schuetz ran the 10th-fastest mile in the NCAA this season as she finished behind Oklahoma State’s Kaela Edwards (4:32.14), Oregon’s Annie Leblanc (4:36.61) and Arkansas’ Jessica Kamilos (4:39.70).
Schuetz (4:40.07) also finished just shy of LSU’s school record in the event as the No. 2-ranked miler in school history behind only Christine Slythe’s 31-year-old school record of 4:38.67 from 1985.
Like Henderson, Lady Tiger freshman Hollie Parker also enjoyed a personal-best performance in the 800 meters when she posted an indoor PR of 2:09.61 in her collegiate debut in the event to take third place overall in the sections of the event earlier in the afternoon. Fellow freshman Dajour Braxton clocked 4:10.65 in his first collegiate mile to finish 10th overall in the men’s sections.
Headlining Saturday’s action in the field events was junior All-American Nataliyah Friar as she also emerged from the competition as the NCAA’s No. 8-ranked performer in her event when she soared to an indoor best of 42-9 in the triple jump. Friar actually led the competition through five rounds after opening her series with a PR of 42-9 on her first jump, but was passed in the final round when Florida’s Darrielle McQueen posted a winning jump of 43-10 on her last attempt for first place and the No. 2-ranked jump in the NCAA this season.
Friar enjoyed a strong series in her first triple jump competition of 2016 as she also jumped 42-2 ¼ in the fifth round and 42-6 in the sixth round, while her top jump of 42-9 cracked LSU’s all-time Top 10 performance list in the event at No. 10 in school history. Sophomore Bria Druilhet jumped a seasonal best of her own of 39-10 on her final attempt to follow in sixth place in the triple jump final.
Junior Jonathan Pitt added a personal best of his own in the men’s triple jump as he qualified for the final with a lifetime best of 51-7 ¼ in the second round en route to a fourth-place finish in the competition.
In other finals on Saturday afternoon, two Lady Tigers took their mark in the final of the women’s 60-meter dash as freshman Kortnei Johnson sprinted to the finish line in 7.45 for seventh place and junior All-American Jada Martin followed in eighth place with a time of 7.48. Martin won her qualifying heat earlier in the day with a time of 7.41 in the preliminary round.
“This meet marked the midway part of our season, so we come away from a competition like this knowing a little bit more about our teams,” Shaver said. “We’re continuing to take positive steps forward in each meet, and we need to continue that in the coming weeks before we come back here for the SEC Championships. We’ve got another big week of preparation ahead of us before we head to New Mexico.”
With the Tigers and Lady Tigers now reaching the midway point of the regular season indoors, they will take their next step toward the championship season next weekend with a trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for an appearance at the two-day New Mexico Collegiate Classic running Feb. 5-6 at the Albuquerque Convention Center.