The Lady Tigers finished the 2016 season among the NCAA’s elite once again while scoring 31 points for a sixth-place finish nationally at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships. In all, 10 Lady Tigers turned in All-American performances over the course of the campaign with their efforts at the NCAA Championships during the indoor and outdoor seasons.
The Lady Tigers will return 10 All-Americans to their squad in 2017 as LSU will once again challenge for top honors at the SEC and NCAA Championships. With a senior-laden squad featuring All-Americans Nataliyah Friar, Rushell Harvey, Travia Jones, Jada Martin, Morgan Schuetz and Rebekah Wales; along with juniors Mikiah Brisco and Aleia Hobbs and sophomores Kortnei Johnson and Rachel Misher, the Lady Tigers hope to make 2017 a season to remember in Baton Rouge.
Seventh in a nine-part series previews the women’s middle distance and distance runners that are sure to be among the nation’s elite once again during the 2017 season.
Women’s Middle Distance & Distance
The 2016 season is one that Baton Rouge native Morgan Schuetz won’t soon forget as LSU’s middle distance star was crowned the SEC Indoor Champion in the women’s 800 meters before capping her junior season as an All-American as an NCAA finalist at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Schuetz scored two points for the Lady Tigers with a seventh-place finish nationally at the NCAA Outdoor Championships to help LSU solidify a sixth-place team finish with 31 points scored during the meet.
It marked the first time in her collegiate career for Schuetz to race in an NCAA final in her specialty event after lining up in national semifinals on three previous occasions, including both the indoor and outdoor seasons in 2015 and indoors again a year ago. She crossed the finish line in 2 minutes, 3.72 seconds in the NCAA Outdoor final to finish among the nation’s elite for the 2016 season.
Schuetz’s junior season was off to a fast start when at the SEC Indoor Championships the Parkview Baptist High School product won her first championship when she became the first Lady Tiger since Charlene Lipsey in 2012 and 2013 to be crowned the SEC Indoor Champion in the 800 meters. It marked the eighth time for a Lady Tiger to win the SEC Indoor title in the event.
She has also twice been honored as an All-SEC performer during the outdoor season as a back-to-back SEC Outdoor Bronze Medalist in the 800-meter final at the SEC Championships in 2015 and 2016. Schuetz hopes to add an SEC Outdoor title to the indoor crown she won as a junior last February.
Schuetz returns for the Lady Tigers once again as a fifth-year senior in 2017 with personal bests of 2:04.05 indoors and 2:02.29 outdoors to her credit as one of the fastest half-milers in the program’s history. In fact, she ranks No. 6 on LSU’s all-time indoor performance list and No. 5 on the school’s all-time outdoor list with her performance to-date.
A versatile middle distance and distance runner throughout her time as a Lady Tiger, Schuetz also ranks among the Top 10 performers in school history in four other events as she ranks No. 2 in the mile with a best time of 4:40.07 and No. 5 in the 3,000 meters with a time of 9:45.79 on the indoor list and No. 5 in both the 1,500 meters with a time of 4:20.21 and 3,000 meters with a time of 9:44.41 on the outdoor list.
Record-Setting DMR
Schuetz also anchored the most prolific distance medley relay team in school history throughout the 2016 indoor season as the squad made history by lining up at the NCAA Indoor Championships for the first time.
While teaming with Hollie Parker (1,200 meters), Travia Jones (400 meters) and Hannah Deworth (800 meters), Schuetz ran the mile leg of LSU’s DMR that placed 10th nationally in its first ever NCAA appearance. It’s the same foursome that solidified NCAA Championship qualification by running a school record of 11:05.34 at Notre Dame’s Alex Wilson Invitational during the regular season.
In fact, the Lady Tigers ran their three fastest DMRs in school history during the 2016 season as Keterra Harris joined Parker, Deworth and Schuetz as the 400-meter leg on a team that first set a school record of 11:16.92 at the Razorback Invitational before Chanice Chase ran the two laps for LSU’s SEC Indoor Silver Medalists clocking 11:15.43 at the conference meet.
Deworth solidified her position as the 800-meter leg of LSU’s DMR last season with personal bests of 2:10.95 indoors and 2:09.11 outdoors in the open event. She placed 12th at the SEC Indoor Championships and 13th at the SEC Outdoor Championships in the qualifying round of the 800 meters to highlight her sophomore season.
After arriving in Baton Rouge from Cambridge, England, as part of the Lady Tigers’ recruiting Class of 2015, Parker set personal bests of 2:08.46 in the 800 meters and 4:49.71 in the mile in her debut indoor season at LSU in 2016. She is already the ninth-fastest miler in school history as her mile PR of 4:49.71 slots in at No. 9 on LSU’s all-time indoor performance list in the event.
Parker followed outdoors by running a personal-best time of 4:26.92 in the 1,500 meters that cracked the Top 10 of LSU’s all-time outdoor performance list in the No. 10 spot in the program’s history.
Jones returns for her senior season as one of the team’s leading 400-meter sprinters with an indoor PR of 53.40 and an outdoor PR of 53.08 ahead of the 2017 season. Sophomore Erika Lewis will also give the Lady Tiger squad solid depth in the DMR pool and other middle distance events with a lifetime best of 2:10.67 in the 800 meters from her freshman season.
Other runners looking to make their mark in the distance events includes senior Danielle Avery; juniors Ellen Barkemeyer, Jenna Walker and Ashley Welborn; sophomores Hannah Bourque, Monica Guillot and Rebecca Little; and freshmen Heather Cizek, Breanna Elliott, Tahlaya Hardin, Annie Jung, Kailyn McCarley, Allyson Seals, Courtney Tapocik and Amelie Whitehurst.
Land O’ Lakes
The Lady Tigers will pack a 1-2 punch in the 800 meters in championship competition throughout the 2017 season when freshman Ruby Stauber joins Schuetz as one of the nation’s top recruits in the Class of 2016.
A native of Plymouth, Minnesota, and product of Wayzata High School, Stauber capped her last high school season by securing the 800-meter bronze medal at the 2016 USA Track & Field Junior Outdoor Championships where she set a lifetime best of 2:03.43 in the final to just miss out on a spot on Team USA for the IAAF World Junior Championships. That was the fourth-fastest time among all high school half-milers during the 2016 outdoor season and the No. 2-ranked time nationally among members of the Class of 2016.
Stauber’s PR run of 2:03.43 at the USATF Junior Championships came just one week after winning the 800-meter silver medal at the 2016 New Balance Outdoor Nationals. She also scored the event’s silver medal at the New Balance Indoor Nationals with an indoor best of 2:05.56 that ranked No. 2 nationally in her final indoor campaign prior to her arrival in Baton Rouge.
Stauber first emerged on the national scene as a high school junior in 2015 when she made her international debut for Team USA at the Pan American Junior Championships after winning the U.S. Junior silver medal on the campaign. She was also honored as the Minnesota Gatorade Girls Track & Field Athlete of the Year for the 2015 season.