The long and the short of the annual Best of Preps track meet at GPS Friday is that Baylor’s Brandon Lord can cover long distances really fast and Howard’s LaQuisha Jackson can cover short distances really, really fast.
That may sound like a simple description, but on a day in which seven meet records were broken, those two athletes did exactly what the large crowd expected — they stood out.
Lord shattered a 15-year-old record in the 1600-meter run, his 4:10.46 more than eight seconds faster than the previous meet best held by Baylor’s Jamey Gifford. Lord finished 31 seconds ahead of the next closest runner but was slightly disappointed when he finished one second behind his season-best time.
“It’s really mentally tough when you’re out there running by yourself to push yourself,” Lord said. “I can’t be too disappointed because Jamey Gifford was a great runner, but I really thought I had a shot at getting under 4:09.
“It’s nice to know I’ll leave behind a time for other runners to chase in the future. Hopefully nobody will break it for a while, though.”