LSU men's track team takes 4x100

LSU Tigers sophomore Godson Oghenebrume pulls away after taking the baton from LSU Tigers junior Da'Marcus Fleming in the 4x100 meter relay at the SEC championship meet on Saturday, May 13, 2023 at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

The 4x100-meter relay in collegiate track and field can be an extremely volatile and unpredictable event with no margin for error if a team has a misstep.

The LSU men have certainly learned that over the years with some big wins and a little bit of heartache along the way.

But on Friday night, in the finals of the NCAA championships at Michael A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas, the Tigers had good fortune go their way.

Texas Tech won the race, but was later disqualified for passing the baton out of the first exchange zone. LSU, which thought it took second in 38.05 seconds, was declared the winner about 20 minutes later.

The team of Brandon Hicklin, Dorian Camel, Da'Marcus Fleming and Godson Oghenebrume got the stick around cleanly and claimed the victory.

That same group set the collegiate record at 37.90 seconds on May 13 in the Southeastern Conference championships. While they didn't run as fast Friday night, they're not complaining.

The 10 points they got for the win temporarily gave LSU a one-point lead over Arkansas 25-24, but the Tigers didn't have enough qualifiers for the finals to make a run at the team title as the meet continued late Friday night.

Florida set a collegiate record of 2 minutes, 57.74 seconds in the 4x400-meter relay — the final event of the meet — to overtake Arkansas for the championship.

Florida scored 57 points for its second NCAA outdoor title in a row, while Arkansas was second with 53 points. Stanford was third with 44 and LSU was fourth with 43.

After their win in the sprint relay, the sprint duo of Oghenebrume and Fleming scored points for their team with a 2-4 finish in the open 100 meters.

Oghenebrume posted a personal-best for the second time at this meet when he took second in 9.90 seconds. He ran a 9.93 in the semifinals on Wednesday night.

Oghenebrume looked like he would take the title Friday night, but Texas Tech's Courtney Lindsey caught him right at the finish line and won with a time of 9.89 seconds.

The time for Oghenebrume moved him a little bit closer to the LSU program record of 9.89 by Olympic silver medalist Richard Thompson back in 2008.

Oghenebrume had moved into second place on the school's all-time list in the semifinals.

Fleming, who also had a PR in the semis Wednesday night with a time of 10.01 seconds, lowered that even more when he clocked a 9.97 in the final to grab fourth.

Fleming's time moved him into third on the school's all-time list behind only Thompson and Oghenebrume.

The 13 points Oghenebrume and Fleming picked up in the 100 gave LSU 38 points at that point, with Claudio Romero adding five more when he took fourth in the discus with a best of 205 feet, 7 inches.

But the Tigers had no entrants in the 5,000 meters and didn't qualify for the meet-ending 4x400 relay and thus had no chance of catching the Gators or Razorbacks.

Coach Dennis Shaver's women's team will close out the four-day meet on Saturday with a 4x100 relay and four individuals going for national honors. ESPN2 will again provide live coverage starting at 8 p.m.

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