BATON ROUGE- The LSU track and field team will have its final opportunity to prepare for next week’s Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships this Friday when the No. 1-ranked Lady Tigers and ninth-ranked Tigers welcome a nine-team field to Baton Rouge for the LSU Twilight. Field events get underway at the Carl Maddox Field House at 3 p.m., while track events start at 6 p.m.
“We’re relatively healthy right now, which is very important at this stage of the season,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “We’ll put most of our people on the track this weekend, but we will be selective in resting a few athletes. The main goal is to give some people a little extra work before our conference championship next week.”
Joining LSU this weekend will be fellow SEC rival Ole Miss, as well as Tulane, Southern Mississippi, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana-Lafayette, the University of New Orleans, Grambling State and Hinds Community College.
“There are some quality teams looking to accomplish some of the same things we are this weekend,” said Henry. “The size of the field is smaller than our first two home meets, but these are quality programs that are also preparing for their conference meets and are looking to get something done here on Friday.”
Both the Tigers and Lady Tigers find themselves in strong position heading into the SEC Championships. The Tigers have accumulated three NCAA automatic qualifying marks to go along with seven provisionals, while the Lady Tigers have four autos and seven provisionals.
In addition, the Lady Tigers have three national leaders, as Peta-Gaye Dowdie leads the nation in both the 60 and 200-meter dashes, while Trackwire National Women’s Athlete of the Week Keisha Spencer holds the top mark in the triple jump.
Following the LSU Twilight, both teams head to Fayetteville, Ark., for the SEC Indoor Championships. The Lady Tigers are two-time defending champions, while the Tigers finished sixth in Gainesville last year.