Darius Luff did not feel good coming into Saturday’s Mark Colligan Invite. The sophomore said his legs and body felt the worst they’ve had all season.
Even so, it didn’t matter at all.
The Lincoln High graduate shined at the Devaney Sports Center, setting a new personal record of 7.81 seconds in the 60-meter hurdle preliminaries. But that was just the appetizer.
Later in the afternoon, Luff blew out everyone in the finals, setting another personal best of 7.70 seconds. That mark tied him for the fourth-best time in school history, first in the Big Ten this season and third overall in the country.
“Well, when I first looked up and crossed it was 7.69,†said Luff after finishing the finals. “And that just completely blew my mind. I mean, I thought it felt fast but nowhere near 7.70. I thought I needed at least a couple more weeks to get to that point, but it felt amazing.â€
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Not only is this a confidence booster for Luff, but also the result of a full year of training leading into the indoor season. With the addition of new assistant coach Brenton Emanuel in July, he was able to get a lot more attention to improving as a hurdler.
“I mean, it’s really big to me just with how slow I started last year with COVID and kept getting shut down and all that kind of stuff,†Luff. said “Getting a full year of training up into indoor I think is really benefiting me a lot and being able to (with) work Dusty (Jonas) and coach (Brenton) Emanuel.â€
“Emanuel here has been really nice, getting a lot more attention during practice from both of them. So, I think that’s really helped to get a quick start this year.â€
For Emanuel, Luff’s performance wasn’t very surprising to him. In fact, when he was looking at Nebraska, one of the first things that intrigued him was Luff.
And on Saturday, he saw everything that Luff could be.
“We walk through the race, talked about his start and it was the best start he’s had all year,†Emanuel said. “He stayed tall and was aggressive, kept his form, and you know, it was one of those times where just kind of everything clicked.â€
And when he heard that Luff didn’t feel great coming into Saturday’s meet?
“You know what’s funny is every hurdler that I’ve had that run fast times, they always say that leading up to those races they don’t feel very good,†said Emanuel.
As a team, the Huskers fared well in their home invite. The men’s team had nine individual champions, including sweeping all the jumping events in addition to the 60-, 400- and 600-meter runs. Alexander Talley won the shot put while Drake Burton claimed gold at pole vault.
On the women’s side, the Huskers won eight events. Darby Thomas led the way, winning both the 60-meter dash and long jump. Winsome Harris set a new personal record of :08.43 to win hurdles, while Husker volleyball player Kalynn Meyer was best in the shot put with a distance of 50 feet, 3½ inches.
Ashley McElmurry won the triple jump, Riley Masten the high jump, Jessica Gardner and Adrianna Jacobs split the pole vault title, and Emma Algarin finished first in the 200.
Nebraska will now prepare for the two-day Adidas Classic, which kicks off Friday at Devaney.