With half the qualifiers for the NCAA 60 final coming from LSU, the potential for a magical moment was obvious.
The Tigers delivered: a 1–2 from Aleia Hobbs and Mikiah Brisco, the former clocking a collegiate record-equaling 7.07 and breaking the low-altitude record.
Hobbs matched the mark of Oregon’s Hannah Cunliffe—set last year in the thin air of Albuquerque—and also scratched the 2015 lo-alt best of 7.08 by Alabama’s Remona Burchell.
Brisco’s 7.11 in 2nd, 0.03 off her PR, equaled the No. 9 college performance ever.
“It felt like it was a good race,” said Hobbs, a 22-year-old senior. “The drive from transition to actually getting up and running, it felt perfect. So the time matched how it felt running.
“I knew I could do it, but I knew I needed to get mentally prepared to do it, and execute the right race.”
Mental preparation was also vital for Brisco, a 21-year-old senior. The magic moment almost didn’t happen when she had a poor heat. A 7.21—well off the 7.08 she ran in Albuquerque in February—put her a mere 0.01 from possibly missing the final.
“I knew I had to shake back for my team,” said Brisco. “So when I came out there, I knew that we could get big points in the 60, so I just gave it my best effort and got a 2nd-place finish.”
Adding in the 7th- and 8th-placers in Kortnei Johnson and Cassondra Hall, 21 of LSU’s 29 points that earned the Bengals 6th in the team battle came in the 60 alone.
Brisco’s poor heat altered her chemistry with Hobbs—the two typically end up side-by-side in the middle lanes, but now they were seeded apart. “I couldn’t see her at all,” Hobbs said.
But Brisco, the reigning outdoor 100 champ, didn’t worry about it: “When you run the race, you’re just running to win. I guess we both have that mentality.”
Indeed, the silver medalist complimented her record-setting teammate connecting those mental dots at just the right time.
“She’s been running fast all season, she just hasn’t put it all together yet,” Brisco said of Hobbs. “I think she can run faster. It came together.”
And then she added, with a laugh: “I thought we both could run 6.9!”
