LSU’s 4x400-meter relay advances to national finals

EUGENE, Ore. — LSU’s 4x400-meter relay, which includes Morgan City High alum Vernon Norwood, qualified for the national finals during the second day of competition at the 2014 NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Track & Field Championships at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field Thursday.
Norwood who ran the anchor leg, capped off the Tigers’ first-place finish in the third of three heats with a time of 3:03.43. Oregon finished second in the heat with a time of 3:03.80.
Norwood, a junior, ran a 45.04 split in the race.
He was joined on the relay by junior Quincy Downing and sophomores Darrell Bush and Cyril Grayson. Downing ran a 46.46 split, while Bush clocked in at 46.1 and Grayson, 45.84.
The Tigers finished with the second-fastest time of the day behind Texas A&M, who clocked in at 3:00.76 to win the first of three heats.
Other teams who qualified for Saturday’s finals, which will be run at 5:47 p.m. CDT, are Nebraska (3:03.61), Oregon, Western Kentucky (3:03.94), Florida (3:04.33), Arkansas (3:04.74) and Baylor (3:05.64).
LSU enters the outdoor finals with the same quartet that took the NCAA Indoor Championship this year in the 4x4.
Before Saturday’s final, though, Norwood will be competing for a national title today in the 400-meter run, which is set to be run at 7:50 p.m. CDT.
Joining Norwood in the finals will be Christopher Giesting of Notre Dame, Hugh Graham Jr. of Florida, Deon Lendore of Texas A&M, Brycen Spratling of Pittsburgh, Mike Berry of Oregon, James Harris of Florida State and Najee Glass of Florida.
Lendore, the 2013 national runner-up in the event, enters the finals with the top time at 45.18. The rest of the field is Spratling (45.401), Berry (45.410), Norwood (45.52), Glass (45.56), Giesting (45.68), Harris (45.75) and Graham (45.83).
Norwood’s time was second in his semifinal heat behind Spratling.
ESPNU will feature a live television broadcast of Friday’s action at Hayward Field from 6:30-8:30 p.m., while fans also can watch the Tigers and Lady Tigers in action during that time on Watch ESPN.
Flash Results features live results throughout Friday and Saturday on http://flashresults.com, while fans also can receive live updates of the Tigers and Lady Tigers by liking LSU Track & Field on Facebook on http://facebook.com/lsutrackfield and by following @LSUTrackField at http://twitter.com/lsutrackfield.