LSU track and field held its final outdoor season meet on Saturday, where Michaela Rose became the nation’s No. 1 women’s 800-meter runner.

On a sunny Saturday afternoon at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium, 21 seniors were honored at their last-ever home meet, including Rose, who has had a historic run at LSU.

After four years, she owns six program and two national records in distance events.

With the outdoor SEC championships right around the corner, this LSU Invitational was everyone’s last chance to improve in the national rankings before the postseason.

Rose took her starting position in the fourth lane and got out quickly, keeping pace with the front runners. Within the first 20 seconds, she steadily made her way into the lead and took off from there. By the home stretch, she had left all 14 competitors in the dust and stopped the clock at 1:58.12.

Rose jumped from third to first in the ranks by smashing her previous personal record of 1:58:37.

She has been continuously topping her own program and collegiate records in the 800 with her previous best coming from last season’s Bryan Clay Invitational.

She climbs closer to the collegiate all-time fastest 800 time of 1:57.73 set by Texas A&M’s Athing Mu in 2021, who is the only woman to go below the 58-second mark.
Since her freshman debut, Rose has been trying to catch the national record, and now she’s closer than ever as she prepares for her final SEC and NCAA championship.

As far as the 2025 season goes, Rose is the only woman to run the 800 under 1:59.00.

It was only her second 800-meter race showing of the outdoor season after setting a 2:00.22 time at the 2025 Bryan Clay Invitational two weeks ago.

Other standout seniors from Saturday’s meet were Kuda Chadenga and Johanna Duplantis, who earned a pair of personal records.

Chadenga shared the men’s high jump win with Arknasas’ Scottie Vines after both hit the 2.15-meter mark but were unable to get two more inches and clear the 2.19-meter bar.

It was a record height for the 6-foot-5 senior, beating his previous best from last weekend by a quarter of an inch.

Duplantis achieved second in the women’s pole vault and annihilated her personal record with a peak of 4.26 meters or almost 14 feet. She finished just behind Auburn’s Alyssa Quinones-Mixon, who reached 4.36 meters.

Duplantis’ previous best was also set at last week’s Alumni Gold meet where she hit 4.15 meters.

Her clearance moved her into the SEC top 10 – tied at No. 8 with the No. 1 height to beat being 15 feet even.

The seniors and the rest of the team will attend the three-day outdoor SEC Championships on May 15-17 in Lexington, Kentucky.

Next, several Tigers will be national championship bound later in the month. To qualify for the first round, an athlete must be ranked within the top 48 of their event, which means the conference championship will be the final chance for some to shake up the rankings.

For others like Rose, they are already on the path to a national championship.