BATON ROUGE — The No. 1-ranked LSU women’s track and field team and seventh-ranked Tigers continue the indoor season with sprinters and jumpers going to the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Neb., and the distance runners and quarter milers going to the Iowa State Track and Field Classic in Ames. Both meets begin on Friday and conclude Saturday afternoon.
“We’re going to two different facilities this weekend because indoors the facility dictates the performance,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry.
“Nebraska will be good for our sprinters and jumpers, while we have an opportunity to get some things done with our quarter milers and distance runners at Iowa State because there is a larger oval on the track at Ames. We’re splitting the teams up this weekend not because we want to, but in this situation, because we have to.”
Heading the list of competitors in Nebraska will be SEC Women’s Track Athlete of the Week, Peta-Gaye Dowdie, who will attempt to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 60-meter dash after earning an automatic mark in the 200 last weekend.
Claudine Williams will attempt to get through her first 800-meter run of the season. The defending NCAA 800-meter champion was on an NCAA automatic qualifying 2:05 pace in the half mile at Gainesville, Fla., last weekend and took an awkward step and went off the track. Williams ran a 2:06 on the same track in Nebraska while at Barton County Community College two years ago.
The Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational brings a wealth of the nation’s premier talent to the field events. All-American pole vaulter Russ Buller headlines a solid competition, while national leader Keisha Spencer highlights a strong triple jump field.
At Ames, Derrick Brew will make a serious bid to break the nine-year-old LSU record in the 400-meter dash. He has been close on numerous occasions, coming within .03 of breaking the record time of 46.67 set by Maurice Horton in 1991. The oversized track at Ames suits Brew’s running style well. Last year in his only outing on an oversized track at Colorado Springs, he became only the second man in LSU history to run under 21 seconds indoors in the 200-meter dash.
Brew recorded a provisional mark in the 400-meter dash last weekend in Gainesville and ranks third in the nation heading into this weekend.
This weekend’s competitions will be the second to last for LSU before the SEC Championships. Both teams return to Baton Rouge next week for the LSU Twilight on Feb. 18 at the Carl Maddox Field House.