BATON ROUGE- The LSU track and field team has reached the most critical stage of its season, as the No. 1-ranked Lady Tigers and the eighth-ranked Tigers travel to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships on Saturday and Sunday.
“We’re relatively healthy right now and that’s very important at this time of the season,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “I think our women’s team is certainly in that mix of teams that is capable of winning the title along with Arkansas, South Carolina and Florida. On the men’s side, as always, Arkansas is the clear favorite, especially being at home, but we feel like we’ve got a competitive group that will be in the upper echelon of teams competing with them.”
The meet will be contested at the brand new Randall Tyson Track Center, site of the NCAA Indoor Championships in two weeks.
The Lady Tigers are two-time defending champions and have claimed four of the last five titles overall, while the Tigers finished sixth a year ago in Gainesville, Fla., and have finished as high as second as recently as 1998.
The Tigers have not won the event since 1990.
While the Lady Tigers dominance outdoors on the NCAA level has been well documented, on the conference level, they have experienced more success indoors. The Lady Tigers have won 10 of the 16 SEC Indoor Championships contested on the women’s side.
“We’ve been fortunate to have a great deal of success on the women’s side,” said Henry. “We have an opportunity to extend our fortune this weekend. We’ve got a number of athletes who are ranked right at the top of the conference. This weekend will also be important in helping us get a few more athletes into the NCAA field which will make us a stronger team as we prepare for the national championship.”
Peta-Gaye Dowdie leads the conference in both the 60 and 200-meter dashes and will be critical to the Lady Tigers’ bid to win a third straight title this weekend. In addition, Keisha Spencer leads the conference in the triple jump, while the Lady Tigers boast five of the top 10 long jumpers in the conference, an event that helped push the LSU over the top a year ago when four women scored in the event.
Dowdie won the 200-meter title a year ago, while Keisha Spencer brought home the Commissioner’s Trophy after winning the triple and high jumps and finishing fifth in the long jump.
While the Lady Tigers have yet to put together a solid 4×400-meter relay, they have yet to run their top four together this season. That will change this weekend. In each of the past two SEC Indoor Championships the Lady Tigers sealed victory in the final event of the competition by winning the mile relay.
On the men’s side, Derrick Brew heads an all-star field in the 400-meter dash and will try to become the Tigers’ first repeat champion in a track event since Rohsaan Griffin won the 200-meter title in 1995, then again in 1996. Brew won the 400-meter title a year ago just missing the school with a time of 46.69.
Russ Buller won his first SEC Indoor pole vault title a year ago and will be the clear favorite once again this season. He leads the SEC heading into the meet with a season-best effort of 18-2 +.
The Tigers’ 4×400-meter relay has run the fastest time in the conference heading into this weekend. The Tigers have not won the event at the SEC Indoor Championships since 1996.
Following the SEC Indoor Championships, a majority of both teams will take next weekend off, while those still needing to qualify for the NCAA Indoor Championships will compete at the LSU Last Ditch at the Carl Maddox Field House next Friday.