By Steve Lansdale
BATON ROUGE, La. — Texas senior Courtney Okolo already had the fastest time ever run by a collegiate woman in the 400 meters before Texas competed in the LSU Alumni Gold meet this weekend at Bernie Moore Track & Field Stadium in Baton Rouge, La. By the time the event was over, she didn’t just improve upon her own record — she annihilated it.
When records fall in the shorter races, it almost is always by a couple of hundredths of a second. But Okolo obliterated her previous record of 50.03, set in the 2014 Big 12 Championships, when she[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)] clipped more than a quarter of a second off the time, crossing the line in 49.71 seconds. She is the first collegiate woman to crack the 50-second barrier, and her time is the 13th-fastest ever run by an American female runner.
“I wanted to run that fast,” Okolo said. “We’ve been talking about it and training has been looking like I could run that fast, so it was just about executing. I was relieved. I put a lot of pressure on myself to execute my race right.”
Texas head coach Mario Sategna said he always had confidence Okolo could turn in such a performance, and said much of the credit for Okolo’s record-setting run goes to Tonja Buford-Bailey, the UT assistant coach in charge of sprints, jumps and relays. He also said Okolo’s performance is all part of the plan the Texas coaches have in place to help her try to qualify for the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
“You knew that she was capable of doing it, but until you see that time flash up you’re thinking, ‘Holy cow,’” Sategna said. “To do it this early it’s her attention to detail. It’s the plan that Coach Tonja Buford-Bailey has laid out for her.
“And that was one of the things when she was coming back for her senior year. What can we do to help Courtney to achieve success not just at the NCAA level but also at the Olympic Trials in July and ultimately at the Olympic Games in August.”
While Okolo clearly was the headliner of the event, she was not the only Longhorn who stood out.
The Longhorns put up a total of three NCAA-leading times Saturday. In addition to Okolo’s 400 time, senior Morolake Akinosun ran the fastest time by any NCAA runner this year in the 100-meter dash when she won the event in a wind-aided time of 10.97, improving on the fastest collegiate time this year by .01 seconds. Junior Chrisann Gordon finished second behind Okolo in 51.03 seconds — a new personal best that ranks third in the NCAA this season and fifth in program history.
Junior Byron Robinson established a new national college standard in the 400-meter hurdles when he won the event in 49.10 seconds. Sategna said that despite Robinson’s performance, room for significant improvement.
“Watching Byron Robinson run 49.1 and then walk away and the first thing he says is, ‘I’m so close to going in the 48s,’” Sategna said. “I know his goal is to hit that and surpass what our school record is.”
Freshman triple jumper Asa Garcia covered 13.38 meters (43 feet, 10.75 inches) on her final attempt to improve from sixth place to second. Her wind-aided effort ranks No. 5 all-time in Texas history in all conditions.
“Asa winning the triple jump after fouling her first two attempts of the competition, that shows a lot of character,” Sategna said. “It shows that you never know if it’s gonna happen at conference, regionals or even the national championship, you can paint yourself in a corner, but she came through when she needed to and got a legal jump.”
The Longhorns return to action next week as they head to three different meets. A long group will go to Des Moines, Iowa, for the prestigious Drake Relays. Texas will send its distance runners to Stanford for the Payton Jordan Invitational and a small group will compete at the Bobcat Classic hosted by Texas State.
[/s2If]
[s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level1)]
[article-offer]
[/s2If]
Discover more from Horns Illustrated
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.