THE BEST TO EVER DO IT 42.99 • 42.66 • 42.53 • 42.49 • 42.25 THE BACK STORY
We’ll begin with the history of LSU and the 4x100 meter relay. Regarded as the best sprint relay program in NCAA history, the Purple and Gold have traditionally dominated the event that sees four women pass a baton around the track in under 44 seconds. Dating back to the 1982, LSU has won 15 national titles to account for 39 percent of the NCAA titles in the event. The lineup had three key cogs over the during the 2017 and 2018 seasons with multiple-time national champions Aleia Hobbs, Mikiah Brisco and Kortnei Johnson. Those three have teamed up with Jada Martin and Rachel Misher to rewrite the collegiate record book for good. A race that takes an extreme amount of chemistry for the quick exchanges, it rewards teams that are technical and speedy. The slightest misstep or timing issue can cause an unrepairable rhythm that results in a slow time, but over the last two years, the LSU women’s 4x100 meter relay, for the most part, has limited the mistakes and taken the baton around the track in fine fashion.
16
42.05
NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
42.09 • 42.42 • 42.50 • 42.65 • 42.67
Brisco and Johnson were members of the past two LSU 4x100 meter relay national titles, claiming their first one in 2016 and then winning their second in the summer of 2018. Hobbs and Misher had never been on a 4x100 meter relay national title team until 2018 when they teamed up with Brisco and Johnson for the gold. “It really means a lot,” Brisco said when talking about her two relay national titles. “When you walk into the indoor track, you see a wall that is dedicated to relay championships. Just to see the names that are on that wall is amazing. To know that I’m up there twice and that I will be associated with some of those other names up there is truly special.” At the first race of the 2018 NCAA Championships, the foursome circled the track in an NCAA meet record time of 42.09 to easily advance to the finals. Running in not the most ideal conditions on the final day of the meet, the foursome grouped up and brought the stick around the track in 42.25 seconds to claim LSU’s 15th title in the event.
2021 TRACK & FIELD RECORD BOOK
“Being at LSU, making the top-10 list is hard, but to do what we did on the NCAA list is hard to believe,” Hobbs mentioned. “To run that many fast times over the past two years is unheard of. It’s a really good feeling to know that those times will last a long time. We put in a lot of hard work into this event, and to see it pay off the way it did was something else.” The time of 42.25 blew the rest of the field away with no other relay even going below 43 seconds. Oregon was the runner-up in the race with a 43.09 that resulted in a .84 second differential between the Lady Tigers and the Ducks. That .84 second differential was the largest winning margin in the 4x100 meter relay at the NCAA Championships since 2010. “It was a very special moment, especially for the seniors,” Johnson noted. “That’s who we really wanted to do it for. The ending of our 2017 season {a DQ due to an exchange out of the zone) was our motivation. Everything happens for a reason, and we used that to push us to be better. We could not let that happen again. Mikiah and I made sure we had our exchanges down to the point this season.”
