Norwood runs 2nd-best time worldwide

Saturday’s LSU Alumni Gold meet marked the outdoor season opener for LSU’s 2015 NCAA Indoor Champion Vernon Norwood in his favored 400-meter dash, and the Tiger sprint star turned in the NCAA’s fastest time in his debut with a blistering personal record of 44.44
seconds for the title at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium.
Norwood, a Morgan City High alum, was crowned a national champion in his last 400-meter race before Saturday’s outdoor opener when he
sprinted to an indoor PR of 45.31 in the final at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships on March 14. His 44.44 to take
the title at the LSU Alumni Gold laid down the gauntlet to his rivals as he emerged as a true NCAA-title threat for the 2015 outdoor season.
It proved to be the fastest 400-meter race by an LSU Tiger in nine seasons when former LSU standout Xavier Carter was crowned the 2006
NCAA Outdoor Champion with a time of 44.53 in the national final.
Norwood took control of the race around the first turn, surged ahead of the pack on the backstretch, extended his lead against teammates
Fitzroy Dunkley and Cyril Grayson at the 250-meter mark and never looked back as he powered to the finish line in 44.44 to become the
NCAA’s fastest 400-meter runner for the 2015 season.
The reigning NCAA Outdoor Bronze Medalist in the event, Norwood opened his outdoor season by eclipsing the previous NCAA-leading time of 44.89 set by Texas A&M’s Bralon Taplin at the 36th Sun Angel Classic at Arizona State University a week prior.
He also trails only the seasonal-best time of 44.31 by 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist Kirani James as the world’s fastest 400-meter runner this
spring.
Dunkley followed Norwood across the finish line with a lifetime personal best of his own as he clocked 46.34 for second place, while Grayson
followed in third place with a time of 46.47, just one week after smashing his career-best with a seasonal best of 46.23 at the Jim Click Shootout at the University of Arizona.
LSU now features five of the NCAA’s Top 20 400-meter runners for the 2015 season.
Only Derrick Brew’s Southeastern Conference and school-record time of 44.29 separates Norwood’s 44.44 from the top of the school’s all-time rankings in the event as he will now look to threaten that mark in 2015.
“It’s always on my mind,” Norwood quipped in a news release of one day setting LSU’s school record over 400 meters.
“I think about the school record a lot. I want to leave as one of the best 400 runners that’s ever been here. I’m here to help our team score as
many points at SECs and nationals, and if I can make that kind of history in doing that, that’s what I want to do before I leave here after this season.”
Norwood talked about the importance of getting off to such a fast start in his final outdoor season with the Tigers to help set up what is sure to be a historic final season in Baton Rouge for him.
“I felt I had that kind of time in me, but I was surprised to run that in a season opener,” Norwood said in the release. “We put in a lot of
hard work as a group in training, and it’s nice to see that hard work paying off. I kind of knew for my first 120 (meters) that I needed to go. I was already pressing at that time. Even with the wind coming down the homestretch, I just wanted to finish it off strong. Keep my chin up, pump my arms and just hammer it down. That’s what I did. I just executed a great race to help set me up for the rest of the year.”
But Norwood didn’t slow down there as he and Grayson teamed with senior Quincy Downing and junior Darrell Bush in wrapping up the LSU
Alumni Gold meet with a win in the men’s 4x400-meter relay.
Norwood split 45.3 on the third leg, and Grayson anchored in 46.0 to help lead the Tigers clocking the third-fastest relay time in the NCAA this season at 3 minutes, 2.79 seconds to take the tape ahead of Arizona’s 3:07.04.