LSU sophomore Michael Rose completed a wire-to-wire race Saturday to capture the 800 meters in the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Rose, a native of Suffolk, Virginia, turned in her third sub two-minute time of the outdoor season and captured her specialty event with a time of 1 minute, 59.83 seconds, setting a facility record at the University of Texas’ Michael A. Myers Stadium to close out the four-day event.
“Just trust,” Rose said in her post-race interview with ESPN on her improvement from third at the NCAA Indoor meet. “Trust my coaches, trust the plan, trust my teammates and trust myself. Zone in on stepping the (starting) line and just listening to God. Listening to when he tells me to move. I’ll move and go.”
Rose easily won the event over Oklahoma State’s Gabija Galvdyte (2:00.47) and was part of LSU’s seventh place showing in the team standings with 26 points. Host Texas won the meet with 83 points followed by Florida (51) and Arkansas (46) of the Southeastern Conference.
Rose provided LSU with its lone national title on the final day.
Senior Alia Armstrong was unable to successfully defend her national championship in the 100 hurdles, clipping a hurdle midway through the race and fell from first to third with a time of 12.49 and was behind Ackera Nugent of Arkansas (12.25) and Masia Russell of Kentucky (12/32). The New Orleans native still finished her career as a four-time All-American.
Armstrong came back to run the lead leg on LSU’s third place 4×100 relay team which finished with a season’s best time of 42.52 seconds, fifth best in school history. Texas won the event (41.60) followed by Kentucky (42.46).
Shani’a Bellamy was fifth for the Tigers in the 400 hurdles with a season’s best time of 55.58 seconds.
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