Vernon Norwood medals at NACAC U-23 Championships

Junior sprinter Vernon Norwood became the third LSU Tiger to win a gold medal at this year’s North American, Central American & Caribbean Under-23 Championships when he anchored the United States to an easy victory in the 4x400-meter relay during Sunday’s finale in the event this weekend in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada.
While teaming with Najee Glass, Brycen Spratling and Akeem Alexander, Norwood, a Morgan City High alum, anchored the team to victory in 3 minutes, 4.34 seconds to finish more than four seconds clear of the rest of the field.
Canada finished a distant second place with a silver-medal-winning time of 3:08.78, while Costa Rica won the bronze medal in 3:14.29 and Jamaica followed in fourth place with a time of 3:14.66.
Norwood is the first LSU Tiger to ever win a gold medal in the men’s 4x400-meter relay in the 14-year history of the NACAC U-23 Championships and is the third Tiger to strike gold during this year’s meet after Rodney Brown on the men’s discus title Friday and Aaron Ernest helped lead Team USA to victory in the men’s 4x100-meter relay Saturday.
It also marked the second time for Norwood to climb the medal podium during the competition as he sprinted to the NACAC bronze medal in the 400-meter dash Saturday night, too.
LSU Track & Field athletes now have combined to win 32 medals all-time at the NACAC U-23 Championships, including 16 gold medals, seven silver medals and nine bronze medals in the meet that dates back to the 2000 season.
After running the second leg on Team USA’s gold-medal-winning 4x100-meter relay team Saturday, Ernest also wrapped up the championship Sunday with an appearance in the men’s 200-meter final as he took home a fifth-place finish with a time of 20.81 in the event.
Remonty McClain was crowned the 200-meter gold medalist for the United States with a winning run of 20.32 in the final.