BATON ROUGE – The Lady Tigers smashed their seasonal best in the 4×400-meter relay to wrap up this year’s Tyson Invitational in Arkansas and juniors Blair Henderson and Morgan Schuetz both cracked the NCAA’s Top 16 in the 800 meters at the Iowa State Classic to set the pace for the LSU Track & Field teams on Saturday afternoon.
The Lady Tigers emerged from Saturday’s finale at the Tyson Invitational with the 11th-fastest relay in the country with a nearly two-second seasonal best of 3 minutes, 34.42 seconds in the invitational final.
Meanwhile, LSU’s middle distance runners scorched the track at Iowa State’s Lied Recreational Center as Henderson smashed his indoor personal best by more than a half second with the 15th-fastest time in the NCAA at 1:47.85 and Schuetz clocked 2:05.20 in her 800-meter debut this season to rank No. 16 nationally and position her for a return trip to the NCAA Indoor Championships.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers combined for four nationally-ranked performances in the qualifying positions for the NCAA Championships across three different meets on Saturday. Junior Johnnie Jackson threw a personal best of 69 feet, 3 ¼ inches in the men’s weight throw at the LSU High Performance Meet earlier in the day to rank No. 15 nationally in his event.
“We don’t normally split our teams up like we did this weekend, but we were still able to improve in some areas and put our teams in a better position in terms of NCAA qualifying,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “Our group here at Tyson, especially. I thought they competed very well here over two days and did some things that made this trip well worth it in the end.”
The Lady Tigers sent the LSU Track & Field teams home from the Tyson Invitational with their fastest performance to date in the 4×400-meter relay with sophomore Kymber Payne, junior Travia Jones, freshman Rachel Misher and junior Jada Martin combining for a heat-winning run of 3:34.42 in the second of three sections in the women’s invitational final in the team’s last event of the afternoon.
Just one day after clocking an indoor PR of 54.62 in the open 400 meters, Payne put the Lady Tigers in a strong position with a 54.14-second split on the leadoff leg before handing off to Jones on the second leg.
Running with confidence after setting an indoor best of her own at 53.59 in Friday’s opener, Jones brought the Lady Tigers into a dead heat with Texas A&M with a 53.54 carry on the second leg before Misher put them in front with a clean pass to Martin at the final exchange following a 53.68-second split on the third leg. Martin carried the baton home in 53.07 on the anchor for a nearly half-second win over the Aggies (3:34.90) with a seasonal-best time of 3:34.42 to place sixth overall in the event with the 11th-fastest time in the NCAA this season.
The Lady Tigers currently find themselves in qualifying position for the NCAA Championships as the top-12 teams in the 4×400-meter relay at the end of the regular season will qualify for the national meet.
“We still have some work to do to make sure we have a time good enough to qualify for the national meet, but that was a big step forward for our women today on the relay,” Shaver said of his Lady Tigers in the 4×400 relay on Saturday afternoon. “We’ll need to be at our best to make sure we get that qualifying time we’re looking for when we come back here in two weeks for the SEC Championships.”
Earlier in the day, Martin led the Lady Tigers in the 200-meter dash as she won the second heat of the women’s invitational event with a time of 23.20 to place fifth overall in the standings. Misher earned a finish of 18th place in the early sections of the women’s 200-meter dash with LSU’s first personal-best performance of the day when she clocked 23.98.
Also sprinting to an indoor personal best in Saturday’s finale at the Tyson Invitational was Lady Tiger freshman Kortnei Johnson, who crossed the finish line in 23.43 for 12th place overall in the invitational sections.
On the men’s side, freshman Jaron Flournoy finished four tenths of a second ahead of his nearest competitor in the eighth heat with a lifetime best of 21.09 to finish atop the final standings in first place in the early 200 sections. Junior Tinashe Mutanga clocked an indoor PR of his own at 21.21 to finish runner-up in the second heat with the fourth-fastest time overall in the early heats.
Junior All-American Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, the NCAA’s leading 200-meter sprinter this season with a top time of 20.57, won the fifth heat of the men’s invitational event later in the day with a time of 20.72 en route to a fourth-place finish in the event behind Tennessee’s Christian Coleman (20.59), TCU’s Sam Watts (20.60) and Clemson’s Tevin Hester (20.71).
LSU’s middle distance crew took center stage further North with the likes of Henderson and Schuetz setting the pace for their teams on the final day of competition at the Iowa State Classic in Ames.
Henderson became the third-fastest Tiger to ever run the 800 meters indoors with his performance at the Lied Recreational Center as his indoor PR of 1:47.85 shattered his previous best of 1:48.42 run at the Razorback Invitational two weeks ago by more than a half second. He finished fifth in the first section and fifth overall with Akron’s Clayton Murphy taking the top spot with a winning 1:46.13 on the day.
Sophomore teammate Jack Wilkes ran an indoor best of his own in the event as he crossed the finish line in 1:49.77 to place fourth in the third section and 13th place overall in a fast men’s 800-meter event.
Like Henderson, freshman teammate Dajour Braxton turned in a performance ranking among the Top 10 all-time in school history as he became the ninth-fastest miler to ever wear the purple and gold when he ran an impressive 4:05.29 early in the day to win the fifth section just a split-second ahead of Eastern Kentucky’s Thomas Koringo (4:05.33). Braxton placed 20th overall in the event when combining the seven sections.
An NCAA semifinalist in the 800 meters during both the indoor and outdoor seasons a year ago, Schuetz took a step toward a return trip to the NCAA Indoor Championships in the coming weeks as her season-opening 2:05.20 was second only to Virginia Tech’s Hanna Green (2:04.87) in the field at the Iowa State Classic. She entered the NCAA rankings at No. 16 following the first 800-meter race of her junior season.
Saturday was a homecoming of sorts for another Lady Tiger as freshman Erika Lewis returned to her home state and turned in a personal best for her family and friends to enjoy as she posted a time of 2:13.34 to finish in 32nd place in the women’s sections. Lewis is in her first season with the Lady Tigers after signing as part of their Class of 2015 from Waukee High School in West Des Moines, Iowa.
In other action, sophomore Hannah Deworth was just ahead of Lewis in 31st place in the women’s 800 meters with a time of 2:13.31 and freshman Hollie Parker placed 15th overall with a time of 4:49.82 in the mile.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers will have one final opportunity to prepare for the championship season next weekend when they remain in Baton Rouge to play host to the LSU Twilight being held Friday, Feb. 19, at the Carl Maddox Field House. They will then return to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville for the SEC Indoor Championships running Feb. 26-27 at the Randal Tyson Track Center.