BATON ROUGE- The No. 1-ranked LSU women’s track and field and 11th-ranked Tigers travel to Gainesville, Fla., on Sunday for the Gator Invitational, the first major test of the indoor season for both squads.
Five of the top 11 men’s teams in the nation will be on hand, while the Lady Tigers head three of the nation’s top 10 teams in the women’s competition.
“This is the first major step for us,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “When we scheduled this meet we really targeted this as an opportunity to get a lot done in terms of qualifying our athletes for the NCAA Championships. This track and this field of teams should allow us to do that.”
In a sport in which the facility dictates performance, the Stephen O’Connell Center is generally recognized as one of the top facilities in the nation due to its unusually wide turns. As a result, a number of LSU athletes will compete in their signature events for the first time this season.
Peta-Gaye Dowdie will open defense of her NCAA 200-meter title with her first deuce of the 2000 season. 1999 NCAA 800-meter champion Claudine Williams will run her first half mile of the season, while NCAA 400-meter runner-up Derrick Brew will run his first quarter of the season in a loaded field that includes a pair of NCAA champions.
LSU will look to build upon a strong showing last weekend at the LSU Invitational with the Tigers and Lady Tigers combining to register one NCAA automatic qualifying mark and nine provisional marks, by far their most productive outing of the season.
Ranked teams on the men’s side this weekend joining LSU include third-ranked Florida, fourth-ranked Clemson, sixth-ranked Auburn, ninth-ranked Arizona State and 17th-ranked Baylor.
Joining LSU among the ranked teams in the women’s competition are seventh-ranked Auburn, 10th-ranked Florida and 24th-ranked Florida State.
Following the Gator Invitational, LSU will head to Lincoln, Neb., for the Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational on Friday and Saturday.