As LSU sophomore sprinter Brianna Lyston continues to achieve remarkable success on the track, Head Track Coach Dennis Shaver remains focused on keeping her grounded amidst the rising excitement and expectations surrounding her performances.

Lyston's recent accomplishments are nothing short of extraordinary. She kicked off her indoor season by clinching the SEC 60m title and followed it up with a stunning victory at the NCAA National Indoor Championships, where she clocked a personal best of 7.03 seconds in the 60m dash. This impressive time not only secured her the national title but also placed her as the second-fastest woman in collegiate history and the fifth-fastest Jamaican woman ever over this distance, trailing only legends like Merlene Ottey, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson-Herah, and Veronica Campbell-Brown.

Transitioning to the outdoor season, Lyston made headlines once again at the recent Battle of the Bayou meet, where she blazed through the 100m in a wind-aided time of 10.87 seconds, finishing second behind Favor Ofili. This time ranks as the fastest opening race ever recorded by a collegiate woman under any conditions, highlighting Lyston's exceptional talent.

In light of Lyston's rapid rise to prominence, Coach Shaver emphasizes the importance of staying grounded amid the noise and expectations that come with such early success. "There's going to be a lot of noise," Coach Shaver acknowledges. "People talking, 'oh, you're running too much, or, oh, you're not this and that and everything else.'"

Coach Shaver underscores the significance of maintaining focus and perspective in the face of external pressures, especially in today's age of social media. "Social media has made it really difficult for these young women," he remarks, recognizing both its potential as a support platform and its pitfalls as a distraction.

To keep Lyston grounded, Coach Shaver encourages her to appreciate the journey ahead and understand that her current achievements are just the beginning. "This is the beginning of a long journey for her," he emphasizes. "You need to enjoy it, but you also need to understand that the consistency about how you go about your daily living and preparing yourself to be the best student-athlete you can be here at LSU is a real job."

Furthermore, Coach Shaver points out the valuable resources within LSU's track program, with former standout athletes like Favor Ofili, Aleia Hobbs, and Micaiah Brisco serving as mentors for Lyston. Their experiences provide a guiding light for Lyston to navigate the demands of collegiate athletics and maintain a balanced perspective on her accomplishments.

Despite the high expectations, Coach Shaver maintains a realistic outlook on Lyston's progress. Reflecting on her impressive performance at the Battle of the Bayou, he acknowledges the strong competition she faced and emphasizes the need for consistent dedication and communication to sustain her success.

As Brianna Lyston continues to make waves in collegiate track and field, Coach Dennis Shaver remains steadfast in his commitment to nurturing her talent, ensuring that she not only excels on the track but also thrives in the broader journey of student-athlete development at LSU.

Lyston runs the 200m at the Tom Jones Invitational this weekend.

LSU Head Track Coach Dennis Shaver has bold aspirations for Brianna Lyston, aiming to mold her into a sprinting powerhouse akin to Jamaican legends Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah. However, he emphasizes the importance of patience as Lyston continues her journey towards greatness.

 "My goal over her career here at LSU is to make her an elite 100m sprinter because I think that as a professional track and field athlete, your ability to earn money is better in the hundred than it is being a 200m," he explained.

“But it's still in the early stages. We need to get to where she's just a beast all the time because that's like Shelly Ann, that's like Elaine Thompson. Those people that are just durable and you can always count on them.”

Following Lyston's impressive performance at the Battle of the Bayou, where she clocked a blistering 10.87s (wind 2.6m/s), the fastest time ever recorded for an opener by a collegiate woman under any conditions, Coach Shaver remains optimistic about her development. Despite her recent accolades, the experienced coach  stresses the importance of steady progress and physical development, underscoring Lyston's growth in strength since joining LSU.

"In the shorter sprint races, we had her pretty well prepared. She's been accelerating quite well, and her top-end speed, obviously, has always been pretty good. But I think the biggest change for her, in her development at this point, is she's just physically a little stronger than what she was when she came in August," Coach Shaver told Sportsmax.TV in an exclusive interview.

"And I think it's made a big difference this year, her second year here. I was very patient with her last year because I know how talented she is and how important it is that we take good care of her and have her prepared for summertime, too."

In discussing Lyston's aspirations for the upcoming summer, Coach Shaver revealed her goal of securing a spot on Jamaica's Olympic team for Paris. This summer is especially important, and one of Lyston’s goals is to make Jamaica’s team for the Olympic Games in Paris, he shared.

To get on the team, she will have to run faster than she has ever done before. At the Jamaican trials, she will likely face three of the fastest women of all time in Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson-Herah, and Shericka Jackson, the latter two over 200m as well.

Coach Shaver believes in Lyston's competitive spirit, sharing that she can run lifetime bests later this summer. "I think realistically, I'm more about consistency than what the PR time is. But I think if anybody, as a collegian, can consistently line up and run 10.90 on a fairly regular basis, then when you get towards championship time, or in her case, maybe the Jamaican trials, or maybe if she makes the team with Jamaica to represent in Paris, which is obviously probably one of her goals, is to be able to do that.

“And I think if we can just get the 10.90s on consistent basis, I think we can have her ready to run faster than that when we get to late into the summer.”

Highlighting the importance of patience in Lyston's journey, Coach Shaver emphasized injury prevention and physical development. "That's kind of been our outlook with everybody that's talented like her here at LSU. You know, we've always tried to show patience and give them a chance to mature," he remarked.

"I still think she has room for growth. And I think that's where the patience and the education part of how the training helps you overcome that also, when we're talking about, you know, strength training and so forth.

“She's a little fragile and so we've tried not to do too much with her, and especially last year. And I think now she's physically a little stronger, and I think she's gained confidence about the ability to be able to consistently run fast in more than one race. But, she's got a ways to go yet and I think this is an important season for her.

“This weekend we're competing and she's only going to run a four by one. But when we go to Tom Jones Florida the following week, if the weather's good, which it usually is, I think that'll be her 200m opener. I'm anxious to see what she runs in the 200m in a couple of weeks.”

Having spent most of her freshman season at Louisiana State University (LSU) adapting to a new program and overcoming physical challenges, Jamaica’s Brianna Lyston is ready to showcase her immense talents while eyeing the challenge of a sprint-double campaign at her country’s national championships in June.

According to LSU Head Track and Field Coach Dennis Shaver, the plan for the 19-year-old former Hydel High School star is to attempt making Jamaica’s team for the Olympic Games in Paris in both the 100m and 200m races.

Lyston gave an indication of her early readiness to be competitive this season when she ran a fast 7.07 to win the 60m dash at the Razorback Invitational last weekend. The time tied Aleia Hobbs’ school record and is the fifth-fastest time in the world this year.

Intriguingly, Coach Shaver revealed that the fast time was not really a surprise given how well Lyston had been training leading up to the meet but hinted that she could have gone even faster.

“Well, it's hard to predict what she would run. But I did know that when we're doing starts in training and so forth for 30, 40 or 50 meters, she was executing quite well in training, but it's always hard in the 60 to predict what their actual finish time is going to be. But I knew that, just based on what some of our other athletes that she trains with, what they were running, I had a pretty good idea that she was going to run in the 60 m this last week.

“And that's why we entered her always because we felt like, in communicating with her, we both felt that she was ready to execute the race well. And so I was proud of her. She just ran, I think, 14 (7.14) in the prelims and felt really easy. And I said, well, when you get in the final now, don't try to run real fast, just try to execute, and I think that's what she did.”

This early indicator, Coach Shaver believes, is why Lyston – all things being equal - will be in the mix when she goes up against her more experienced compatriots at the Jamaica national championships come June.

“She's going to be ready, and she's going to be able to run at the Jamaican trials and try to make the Olympic team. That's just one of the goals now. If we don't make it, it's not the end of the world. She's so young, but the reality of it is that I think the experience of her running in under 20s was a real positive thing,” Coach Shaver said of the 2022 World U20 200m champion.

“And so I think, the younger you are to make an Olympic team and be able to perform at Olympic level, it is one more year of experience you have for the next time that rolls around.”

Coach Shaver explained that even though Lyston is known more for her prowess over 200m, he is not ruling out her aiming for a spot on Jamaica’s 100m team to Paris as well.

“I wouldn't eliminate the 100 meters from the possibility either. And I know there are some great Jamaican 100m people, but I think she can be in that mix too, just based on that 7.07.”

The journey to this point has not been easy for Lyston, who has had a history of physical challenges during her high school career. That was pretty much the case when she arrived at LSU for her freshman year, Coach Shaver revealed.

 During her freshman year indoors, Lyston ran two 60m dashes peaking at 7.29 as well as a single 200m in which she ran 23.54 in New Mexico. Outdoors, she raced over 200m four times. She also ran in seven 4x100m relays and a single 4x400m relay.

Coach Shaver explained the reason behind why she ran such a limited number of races.

“Most people that know me know that I'm pretty patient. When I don't feel like somebody's really prepared to perform at an adequate level just based on training, I just don't race them. So last year I just felt like it was a big transition for Brianna. But I think that as we went through the year with her, she adapted more and more to what we were asking her to do. And I think she's just grown from there,” he said.

“She had a really good fall, this fall of training, and I think that led to what happened this (past) weekend. I just didn't feel like until now I really had her prepared to perform well and be able to do it safely and not injure herself.”

Injuries were something that the LSU coaching staff had to help the now bigger and stronger Lyston overcome during that difficult freshman year.

“There were things that we do in training that she did some things really good, but she didn't do everything really good. So until she got and adapted and started adapting to the training and then, of course, I just think this year there's a lot more focus more confidence, which is obviously very important and it's a tribute to her and believing in what we do and working within those parameters that we're asking her to do,” Coach Shaver said.

“I think also we've got an excellent medical staff that diagnosed things that needed to be worked on. It's just taking this long before I really feel like collectively we had her prepared to run fast and stay healthy.”

For her standout performance on the weekend, Lyston was named USTFCCCA Female Athlete of the Week.