Editor’s Note: The following is an official press release courtesy of LSU’s athletics department.
BATON ROUGE, La. – The LSU track and field team closed out the SEC Outdoor Championship on Saturday at Bernie Moore Track Stadium. The Tigers finished with five running titles, including sweeping both 4×100 relays.
Live Results | Results (PDF) | Team Standings
After three days of action in Baton Rouge, the LSU men finished as runners-up with 89 total points. The men’s team was led by the senior Dorian Camel and sophomore Godson Oghenebrume who both tallied 12.5 points on Saturday. The women finished in seventh with a total of 53 points, being led by Alia Armstrong who tallied 20 points.
The highlight of the weekend was the LSU men’s 4×100-meter relay team consisting of Brandon Hicklin, Camel, Da’Marcus Fleming, and Oghenebrume defending their home track with a new collegiate record. The team clocked the second ever sub-38 second relay in collegiate history with a time of 37.90 seconds. Their time ranks second in the world behind Canada athletics’ team, whom they’ve beaten twice this season already in head-to-head races. The collegiate record shaved .34 seconds off of the previous LSU record that was set in 1998, and is the third top-10 time in LSU history produced by the squad.
“This is what we work for,” said Fleming. “All year we just been getting the stick around the track and getting faster and faster every week, so it feels good to have that number (37.90) up there right now. Brandon always catches the guy in front of him, Dorian just get the stick and open it up, I put at least two more meters ahead, and Godson closes it and brings it home.”
Just minutes later after the men got their win, the women’s team consisting of Armstrong, Favour Ofili, Brianna Lyston, and Thelma Davies completed the 4×100 sweep. The race was extremely close but a great anchor by Davies helped the Tigers clock a time of 42.92 seconds. The time ranks fourth in the nation, in-which is their third meet passing the baton together this season.
A day after running the fastest all-conditions 100-meter hurdle time in collegiate history of 12.31 seconds, Armstrong followed it up with an outstanding time of 12.40. Her time gives her the LSU record, improving on Tonea Marshall’s 12.44 which was set in 2021. Heading into the weekend, Alia’s previous legal PR came in at a time of 12.55, which ranked second in LSU history. Her time of 12.40 ranks third in NCAA history, is an SEC meet record, and also the new Bernie Moore Track Stadium record.
“My main goal is that I knew there were two very-talented ladies (Masai Russel and Ackera Nugent) next to me, so I just knew not to count anyone out, remain humble, and just do the best I could,” said Armstrong. “The World Championships kind of prepared me for this moment in particular… so I know how to stay composed and to keep my calm when there’s someone next to me, because I’m in my own lane… they don’t control me.”
As many expected, Michaela Rose won the 800-meter title on Saturday in what was a very competitive field. Not only did Rose make a time of 1:59.73 look incredibly easy, she won the race by over four seconds. Her time broke the oldest SEC-running record of 2:01.00 set by Tiffany McWilliams of Texas A&M in 2004 when Rose was less than a year old. Rose’s time ranks eighth in NCAA performance list history and is the new Bernie Moore record. She still holds the nation-leading time of 1:59.08, and is still in pursuit of beating the only time ahead of her in the collegiate record book: 1:57.73.
“I wanted to get out more aggressive, but coach (Houston Franks) wanted told me to go for a different gameplan just to secure the win,” said Rose. “The plan was to be in front of everybody the whole time. I just came here to win, but beating the meet record is a blessing and I thank God for it.”
Oghenebrume earned his second SEC title of the day with a win in the 100-meter final. The Ughelli, Nigeria, native clocked a legal personal-best time of 10.04 seconds. Although he holds a slightly-wind aided time of 9.97 seconds that ranks him third in the nation, many overlooked him heading into the race. His new PR of 10.04 puts him at fourth on the all-time LSU performance list, jumping ahead of Terrance Laird, Fleming, Xavier Carter, and Camel.
“I just executed, doing what my coach asked me to do, and staid patient and just enjoy the race,” said Oghenebrume. “I fixed my start from yesterday. My coach (Dennis Shaver) told me to stay patient and I did that, and it just got better.”
LSU’s best miler in school history, Lorena Rangel-Batres, took silver with a time of 4:17.91 in the 1500 meter on Saturday also to score eight points for LSU.
Up next, the Tigers who are qualified and declared will travel to the University of North Florida for the NCAA East Regional, held May 24-27 in Jacksonville, Fla.
Final Men’s Team Scores
1. #1 Arkansas – 149
2. #6 LSU – 89
3. #5 Tennessee – 87
4. #16 Georgia – 75
5. Texas A&M – 73
6. #3 Florida – 70
t7. Ole Miss – 58
t7. #4 Alabama – 58
9. #24 Auburn – 41
10. Kentucky – 35
11. Mississippi State – 34
12. South Carolina – 32
13. Missouri – 18
Final Women’s Team Scores
1. #3 Arkansas – 134
2. #2 Florida – 112
3. #7 Texas A&M – 86
4. #10 Ole Miss – 73.5
5. #20 Tennessee – 67
6. #8 Georgia – 57
7. #6 LSU – 53
t8. #18 Alabama – 50
t8. #9 Kentucky – 50
10. Missouri – 45
11. Vanderbilt – 39
12. Auburn – 25
13. South Carolina – 19
14. Mississippi State – 8.5
Additional Point Scorers
Dorian Camel – 3rd place (6 points) – 100 Meter
Claudio Romero – 4th place (5 points) – Discus Throw
Sean Burrell – 4th place (5 points) – 400-Meter Hurdles
Davis Bove – 5th place (4 points) – 1500 Meter
Men’s 4×400 – 5th place (4 points)
Matthew Sophia – 5th place (4 points) – 110-Meter Hurdles
Apalos Edwards – 5th place (4 points) Triple Jump
Favour Ofili – 5th place (4 points) – 100 Meter
Alex Selles – 5th place (4 points) – 800 Meter
Beau Domingue – 6th place (3 points) – Pole Vault
Da’Marcus Fleming – 6th place (3 points) – 100 Meter
Dorian Camel – 6th place (3 points) – 200 Meter
Favour Ofili – 6th place (3 points) – 200 Meter
Women’s 4×400 – 7th place (2 points)
Shani’a Bellamy – 8th place (1 point) – 400-Meter Hurdles
Da’Marcus Fleming – 8th place (1 point) – 200 Meter
Jaden James – 8th place (1 point) – Discus Throw