Norwood wins 400 national title; anchors LSU to 4x400 crown

Senior track standout Vernon Norwood spearheaded LSU’s charge to a fourth-place team finish at the 2015 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships by completing his national championship sweep in the 400-meter dash and anchoring the Tigers to the title in the 4x400-meter relay in Friday’s men’s finale at Hayward Field.
Already the NCAA Indoor Champion at 400 meters to kick start his senior season, Norwood blew away the field in Friday’s 400-meter final as he completed his NCAA title sweep in 45.10 seconds for LSU’s first victory of the afternoon. He became just the second Tiger to be crowned NCAA Outdoor Champion in the 400 meters, joining the great Xavier Carter in 2006.
Norwood then returned to the track to lead the Tigers to the 4x400-meter relay title with a 44.97-second anchor leg as they edged the Florida Gators at the finish line in a winning 3 minutes, 1.93 seconds.
It catapulted LSU past the USC Trojans for the fourth-place team trophy in the final standings as the Tigers accumulated 45 points on the final day of the men’s competition at this year’s championship in Eugene. LSU clinched a top-five team finish for the 14th time in 16 seasons while extending their NCAA-leading streak to 18 straight years with a top-10 national finish in the men’s field.
The Oregon Ducks defended their men’s team championship with a winning total of 85 points, while the Florida Gators followed well back in second place with 56 points and the Arkansas Razorbacks rounded the top three with 53 points.
LSU edged ahead of USC’s 40.5 points in the final team race with the Trojans not fielding a team in the 4x400-meter relay.
In addition to winning the 400 and anchoring the 4x400-meter relay to a national title, Norwood also was a member of the Tigers’ 4x100-meter relay that finished third.
“We couldn’t be more proud of Vernon,” LSU track coach Dennis Shaver said in a news release Friday. “I thought he really ran inspired today. It’s not easy to run so many races in conditions like this where the wind is really blowing, but he got it done for us today.”
The afternoon belonged to Norwood as he concluded his LSU career as a four-time NCAA Champion and nine-time All-American as one of the greatest 400-meter sprinters to ever wear the purple and gold. He walked away with two NCAA titles and three All-America honors alone in his final appearance for LSU.
After qualifying for the 400-meter final Wednesday with the fastest time of the semifinal round at 45.42, Norwood cruised to the finish line in 45.10 Friday afternoon to put his name alongside Carter as the only two Tigers in the team’s history to win the event at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The race was rightly billed as a battle of heavyweights with Norwood, the reigning NCAA Indoor Champion, running to knock off Texas A&M’s defending NCAA Outdoor Champion Deon Lendore for his title sweep in 2015.
But Lendore quickly fell out of contention when he pulled up with an apparent hamstring injury on the backstretch, according to an LSU release, leaving Norwood in a tight race for the crown with the likes of Oregon’s Marcus Chambers, Illinois’ DJ Zahn and Florida’s Najee Glass. The LSU senior powered past Glass (46.31) at the curve and outlasted both Chambers (45.59) and Zahn (45.97) to the finish line for the win.
Also following Norwood across the finish line in the 400-meter final were Alabama’s Steven Gayle (46.32) in fifth, Texas’ Zack Bilderback (46.50) in sixth and North Carolina’s Ceo Ways (46.52) in seventh overall.
“I pretty much did exactly what Coach (Dennis) Shaver asked me to do,” Norwood said in a release. “He knew the wind was heavy on the backstretch, and that I had (Deon) Lendore in front of me, so he just told me to stay calm and keep it close. Lendore pulling up gave me confidence because he’s such a great runner. I just stayed true to the race plan after that.”
When returning to the track for the 4x400-meter relay final in his final race in an LSU uniform, Norwood overtook Florida’s Najee Glass with a blistering 44.97-second split on the anchor leg to go out a two-time national champion Friday. He teamed with senior Quincy Downing and juniors Fitzroy Dunkley and Cyril Grayson in winning LSU’s fourth NCAA Outdoor title in school history in the mile relay.
It quickly turned into a two-team race for the relay title as Downing and Dunkley put the Tigers in a strong position just three tenths of a second behind the Gators at the second exchange. That’s when Grayson posted a blistering 45.02-second split on the third leg before Norwood brought the title back to Baton Rouge as he sprinted past Glass with 60 meters to go with Florida taking second in 3:02.48.
The Tigers had the ninth-fastest time in school history at 3:01.96 for the win as they also were followed across the finish line by Mississippi State (3:04.96) in third place, Ohio State (3:05.35) in fourth place, BYU (3:05.56) in fifth place, Arkansas (3:05.91) in sixth place, defending NCAA relay champion Texas A&M (3:06.85) in seventh place and Illinois (3:07.10) in eighth place.
The Tigers now have captured the NCAA Outdoor title in the 4x400-meter relay four times in the program’s history as Friday’s victory followed in the footsteps of winning teams from 2003, 2005 and 2006.
“I just wanted to go out the right way,” Norwood said of his determination to end the meet with a win in the relay. “That was the last time for me and Quincy, you know, Cyril and Fitz, they’re coming back next year. All we wanted to do was go out the right way with a win. There’s a lot of emotions. It just means a lot. It shows how hard I’ve been working from indoors to go out like that today.”
The Tigers started the day as the reigning NCAA Outdoor Bronze Medalists in the 4x100-meter relay, and they raced to a seasonal best to defend their position as the third-place finishers once again Friday.
With Joshua Thompson leading off, Norwood running the second leg, Tremayne Acy lining up as the third leg and Aaron Ernest running anchor, the Tigers slashed nearly two tenths of a second off their seasonal best with their time of 38.62 seconds to follow national champion Arkansas (38.47) and runner-up TCU (38.59) with their sixth-fastest time in school history. The Tigers smashed their previous seasonal best of 38.78 entering the meet.
Ernest found himself in fifth place coming off the turn after taking the stick from Acy at the final exchange, but he brought the Tigers to third at the finish line while passing anchor legs from Texas A&M and USC coming on the homestretch. It took a school record from the Razorbacks to win the sprint relay title, while the Horned Frogs also clocked a seasonal best.
LSU’s foursome took home the NCAA bronze medal in the 4x100-meter relay for the fifth time in school history as they also placed third nationally in 1997, 2000, 2010 and 2014. It also marked the 17th time for the Tigers to medal at the NCAA Championships in the sprint relay as they also have been crowned national champions eight times and silver medalists four times in meet history.
Rounding out the sprint relay finalists were Southern California (38.75), Texas A&M (38.77), Florida (38.96), Illinois (39.36) and Alabama (39.63) as the scorers in the first event final on Championship Friday.