The 20-year-old clocked a season’s best 7.17, narrowly short of her personal best and national record 7.15 set back in 2021, to win ahead of Tennessee teammate Jacious Sears who did 7.22 and Jamaican Ohio State senior Yanique Dayle who did 7.34.
This performance marked an improvement from Lloyd’s first appearance of the season where she ran times of 7.34 and 7.21 in the heats and the final to finish first and third, respectively, at the Bob Pollock Invitational on January 27.
Elsewhere, Jamaican World Championships representative Charokee Young, who has now turned professional, finished fourth overall in the Women’s 400m.
The former Hydel High and Texas A&M standout ran 52.11 to win the first of 20 heats but her time saw her finish fourth overall behind USC’s Jan’Taijah Jones and Texas A&M’s Jermaisha Arnold, who both did 51.89 while Arnold’s teammate Kennedy Wade did 52.10 for third.
Meanwhile, Barbadian Texas senior Jonathan Jones finished fourth overall in the men’s equivalent. He ran a time of 45.78 to finish as runner-up in the first heat behind Texas A&M’s Auhmad Robinson who ran 45.65. Robinson’s time was good enough for second overall behind Georgia’s Elijah Godwin who produced 45.63. Tennesee’s Emmanuel Bynum ran 45.67 for third overall.
Jones’ time was slightly faster than the 45.83 he did to open his season with a win at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic on February 4.
The 23-year-old British Virgin Islander set a new national record of 45.84s over 400 metres at the meet held at Clemson University on Saturday and says that he is as good as any 400-metre hurdler in the world and being in good health will allow him to show the magnitude of his immense talent.
In 2018, McMaster established himself among the world’s elite 400m hurdlers when he clocked a personal best 47.54, one of the fastest times in the world that year when he won gold at the Commonwealth Games, NACAC Senior Championships and the CAC Games.
However, in 2019 he suffered injury setbacks that saw him miss the Pan Am Games and perhaps caused him not to be at his best for the World Championships in Doha where he finished in fourth place in 48.10.
For 2020, he wants to put his injury worries behind him.
“My main focus is staying healthy and to dominate and execute my workouts. Competition is something I have been doing professionally now for four years so the mental preparation for races is always there. So, the main focus is staying healthy and executing workouts,” he said, acknowledging that he can successfully challenge 2019 World Champion Karsten Warholm, silver medallist Rai Benjamin and bronze medallist Abderrahman Samba during the coming outdoor season.
“I think I have the same calibre of talent and put in hard work to contest those athletes,” he said.
“They set the bar high and it’s just like the high jump, sort of. After one athlete clears the bar, the next competitors raise the bar and they surely did that, and I am not trying to foul out this time.”
He is confident he will be in the mix this season.
“I think I’m in pretty good shape this trip around compared to the last few years and I think I do stand a shot to challenge them at Olympics and on the circuit,” he said.
Coming off a strong personal-best 32.91-run over 300m in January, McMaster said he was not surprised by the new national 400m indoor record.
“I guess I knew I could have done it while preparing for it. The thought and execution process was in my head and it was just to transfer it onto the track,” he said, revealing that his training suggested that the time was on the cards.
“Training was projecting something along those lines. I felt confident about that. We all know how sometimes training times don’t reflect in competition so I also left room for optimism.”
The time also eclipses the 7.81 set by Kendra Harrison at Clemson on January 14.
The 2015 100m hurdles world champion gave a preview of what was to come when she cruised to a 7.86 clocking to win her heat earlier in the day.
Paula Salmon of North Carolina A&T ran a fast 7.83 for second place, tying Williams’ previous best which was also the second-fastest time in the world this year.
Masai Russell of Kentucky also went below eight seconds, crossing the finish line in 7.93.
Meanwhile, St Lucia’s sprint queen and Texas Longhorn Julien Alfred won the 60m dash in 7.26 ahead of North Carolina A&T’s Symone Darius who was a close second in 7.27. Alfred’s teammate Kevona Davis took the third podium spot in 7.35.
The 2019 World Championship bronze medalist clocked 7.87, a season-best time. Only Christina Clemons’ 7.83 in February and Tonea Marshall’s 7.86 in January were faster in 2021.
The 28-year-old Williams, the 2015 World Champion, was easily the fastest in the preliminaries clocking 8.04, a full 0.10 seconds faster than Clemson’s Trishauna Hemmings, who was fourth in the final in 8.15.
Second place went to Kentucky junior Masai Russell, who clocked 8.09 while Tiana McMinn of University of Miami was third in 8.13s.
Meanwhile, Antigua’s Joella Lloyd, a sophomore at Tennessee won the 60m dash in a season-best 7.20 in a blanket finish with Kentucky’s Abby Steiner, who was given 7.21 for the silver medal.
Grenada’s Halle Hazzard, a senior of Virginia was third in 7.26.
Texas A&M’s Distin, who has yet to lose indoors this season, jumped 1.97m to win ahead of teammate Bara Sajdokova who produced 1.87m while Georgia’s Elena Kulichenko jumped 1.84m for third.
Distin’s mark equals her own outdoor national record which she did on her way to winning gold at the NCAA Championships.
The 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medallist has now achieved winning clearances this season of 1.90m at the Razorback Classic on January 27, 1.94m at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic on February 3 and 1.97m on Saturday.
Elsewhere, 2019 World Championships shot put silver medallist Danniel Thomas-Dodd threw 18.74m to comfortably win the event ahead of Hannah Hall who threw 16.71m and Ana da Silva who threw 16.60m for third.
Jamaicans also occupied the top two spots in the Men’s triple jump as Virginia’s Owayne Owens produced 16.59m for victory ahead of Kentucky’s Luke Brown who produced 16.43m. Ohio State’s Clarence Foote-Talley was third with 15.88m.
