FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Just as he did when running his first 400-meter dash of the season at the Razorback Invitational a month ago, LSU junior Michael Cherry walked off the track at the Randal Tyson Track Center on Friday as the NCAA leader in the event to lead the way on the first day of the 2016 SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Cherry, who opened his season with an indoor personal best of 45.78 seconds in that race on Jan. 30, was among a host of 16 SEC finalists qualifying for the Tigers and Lady Tigers on the day as he reclaimed the national lead he once held with a winning time of 45.61 in the first heat for the fastest time of the day.
LSU’s athletes also combined for 13 heat wins and 12 indoor personal bests on the first day of competition at this year’s SEC Indoor Championships to set up an exciting finish in Fayetteville on Saturday.
“There weren’t necessarily a lot of points out there for us to score today, but we gave ourselves a great opportunity to do just that tomorrow with the way we performed in qualifying. That’s really all you can ask for as a team the way it set up today,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “We’ll also have a chance to improve our qualifying position for NCAAs in many events, so tomorrow will be a big day for us.”
Cherry beat the field to the break and came through the first 200 meters in 21.47 for a narrow lead over senior teammate Fitzroy Dunkley (21.74) with his first run through the finish line. He closed strong in 24.15 on the second lap with an indoor personal best of 45.61 for the win to emerge as a frontrunner to win the SEC Indoor title in Saturday’s finale.
Cherry was more than three tenths of a second faster than the rest of the field among the seven heats as Arkansas’ former NCAA leader Marqueze Washington was second overall in 45.95 from the fifth heat.
Dunkley also advanced to his first career SEC 400-meter final after crossing the finish line with an indoor personal best of 46.24 for the sixth-fastest time of the day. Missouri’s Kahmari Montgomery sandwiched himself between the two LSU Tigers at the finish line with a time of 46.08 for second place in the first qualifying heat.
Junior LaMar Bruton (47.07) and senior Cyril Grayson (47.34) did not advance to the men’s 400-meter final despite winning their qualifying heats to finish in 13th place and 17th place, respectively, on the afternoon.
LSU’s athletes fired out of the blocks in the very first event of Friday’s opener at the SEC Indoor Championships as junior Jordan Moore posted the top time in qualifying in the men’s 60-meter hurdles and sophomores Mikiah Brisco and Daeshon Gordon finished 1-2 as heat winners in the women’s 60-meter hurdles to kick off a successful day of preliminary action on the track.
Moore, the SEC’s leading sprint hurdler this season with a best of 7.69 entering the weekend, edged Florida’s Yanick Hart (7.75) at the line with his winning 7.74 in the first heat that stood as the fastest qualifying run of the afternoon. South Carolina’s Isaiah Moore took the tape in the second of two heats with a winning time of 7.77.
The Lady Tigers were dominant in the first two heats of the women’s hurdles as Brisco won the first section in 8.08 and Gordon followed with a win of her own in the second section in 8.12 for the two fastest times this afternoon. Senior Chanice Chase (8.31) was third behind Brisco in the first heat and finished ninth overall, while sophomore Danielle Phillips (8.43) placed fifth in the section and 14th overall in the event.
Brisco advanced to SEC finals in two events as she was also the top Lady Tiger in 60-meter qualifying after winning the second heat in 7.29 ahead of freshman teammate Kortnei Johnson in second place at 7.35.
Johnson set a personal best with her time of 7.35 to finish runner-up to Brisco in the heat as she advanced to her first career final in her SEC Championship debut with the seventh-fastest time of the day. Also sprinting to a personal best while advancing to her first career SEC was junior All-American Rushell Harvey, who followed with a runner-up finish in the fourth heat with a time of 7.32 for the sixth-fastest time of the day.
Harvey was one of three LSU athletes to qualify for SEC finals in two events as she followed a PR performance in the 60 meters with a heat-winning PR of 23.43 in the 200 meters to clinch the eighth and final spot into a loaded women’s final. Harvey won the second heat after junior teammate Jada Martin won the first qualifying heat in 23.13 to advance to the final with the fourth-fastest time of the prelim round.
The Tigers were also impressive in sprint qualifying on Friday afternoon as freshman Donte Jackson set the pace early on by slashing his personal best to 6.63 to win the fourth heat of the men’s 60-meter dash. Jackson trailed only Arkansas’ Kenzo Cotton (6.62) in the overall standings as he posted the NCAA’s No. 9-ranked time this season and jumped to No. 4 on LSU’s all-time indoor list in the event.
Junior Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake also advanced to the men’s 60-meter final as the eighth and final qualifier with his 6.71 that earned him a runner-up finish to Arkansas’ Jarrion Lawson (6.71) in the third heat.
But it was the 200 meters where Mitchell-Blake continued to prove himself as an SEC-title and NCAA-title threat with his performance on Friday night as he turned in the fourth No. 1 qualifying time by an LSU athlete in the competition with a heat-winning personal best of 20.51 in the first section. His time held up as the fastest of the day through eight heats as South Carolina’s David Winters, Jr. was a tenth of a second off the pace as the runner-up in the standings with his time of 20.61 in the fifth heat.
Junior Tinashe Mutanga also sprinted to an indoor personal best in 200-meter qualifying as he placed second in his heat with a run of 20.98 to earn the last spot into the men’s final with the eighth-best time on the day. Mutanga smashed his previous indoor best of 21.21 entering the meet to earn a lane in the final in his first SEC Championship appearance.
Rounding out LSU’s qualifiers on the opening day of competition was a pair of 800-meter runners as juniors Blair Henderson and Morgan Schuetz earned lanes in Saturday’s final at this year’s SEC Indoor meet.
Schuetz, the SEC’s leading 800-meter runner on the women’s side with a seasonal best of 2 minutes, 4.05 seconds entering the meet, finished nearly four seconds ahead of the field in her qualifying heat with a time of 2:07.96 to advance third overall in the qualifying round. Henderson finished runner-up in his heat and seventh overall in men’s qualifying with a run of 1:48.30 for his efforts.
“Our athletes did about all we could do on the track today,” Shaver said. “Many of those athletes are here for the first time and went out and made the final. We’re excited to see them step it up like that here today.”
Junior Cameron Robichaux put the Tigers on the scoreboard for the first time in the meet with his seventh-place finish in the men’s pole vault while nearly matching his lifetime best with a jump of 16 feet, 10 ¾ inches. Freshman Dajour Braxton nearly added to LSU’s total in the final event of the day as he clocked an 8:24.16 personal best to win the first section of the men’s 3,000 meters and place 11th overall.
Other athletes setting personal bests in Friday’s opener at the SEC Indoor Championships were junior Travia Jones with a time of 53.40 for 11th place in the 400 meters, sophomore Kymber Payne with a time of 54.45 to finish in 18th place in the 400 meters, freshman Rachel Misher with a time of 23.62 for 15th place in the 200 meters and freshman Erika Lewis with a time of 2:12.52 for 17th place in the 800 meters.
Saturday’s finale at the 2016 SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships is scheduled to get underway at 1 p.m. CT in the men’s weight throw followed by the first final on the track at 3 p.m. with the men’s 60 hurdles. The SEC Network+ will stream live coverage of the final day online at http://www.ESPN3.com as fans can watch LSU’s teams in action from 2:55-7:30 p.m. CT.