Richardson Sprints To Record Day In 2019

How long does it take someone to blink an eye?

We’d be hard-pressed to say anything longer than 10.75 seconds.

Because as soon as Sha’Carri Richardson of LSU started the final of the 100 meters at the 2019 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, she was gone.

But how could you possibly forget this moment? pic.twitter.com/n91WHBdCty

— NCAA Track & Field (@NCAATrackField) August 14, 2019

Last year in Austin, Texas, Richardson shattered a 30-year-old collegiate record in the event with a swagger that only she knows. Richardson pulled away from a talented field that would comprise the fastest 100-meter final in meet history right after the midpoint, turned on the jets and put so much distance between herself and eventual runner-up Kayla White of North Carolina A&T that she began celebrating five meters from the finish line.

Richardson broke the tape in 10.75 (+1.6), bettering another former LSU great’s standard from 1989 by 0.03 seconds (Dawn Sowell, 10.78). And just like Sowell and 2018 NCAA champ Aleia Hobbs, who also starred for the Tigers, Richardson won by a landslide. Richardson posted the second largest margin of victory in the event since the turn of the century (0.20 seconds), slightly off Hobbs’ pace from the previous year (0.23 seconds). Sowell is still the standard bearer for single-race dominance with a 0.34-second victory.

Those in attendance for the final day of the NCAA Championships at Mike A. Myers Stadium saw Richardson’s meteoric rise one race at a time.

Richardson started things off by anchoring LSU’s 4×100 relay team to a runner-up finish and nearly carried them to victory. The Dallas native made up serious ground on Twanisha Terry of Southern California and helped the Tigers clock the best mark for a runner-up team in meet history of 42.29 seconds. That was also the eighth fastest performance in collegiate history.

Then after she broke the collegiate record in the 100, Richardson finished a close runner-up in the 200 meters with the fifth fastest performance in collegiate history of 22.17. If it weren’t for two-time champ Angie Annelus of Southern California, who won in 22.16 and is just the fourth woman in meet history to repeat in the event, Richardson could have become only the second freshman to complete the 100-200 double (Ariana Washington of Oregon was the first in 2016).

Later that year, Richardson took home The Bowerman, collegiate track & field’s highest honor.