BATON ROUGE — The NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships begin on Wednesday and LSU will be extremely well represented, as 25 athletes will make the trip to Durham, N.C. The third-ranked Tigers send 14 athletes, while the Lady Tigers will send 11.
Heading the list of Tigers will be a quartet of athletes ranked in the top three in the nation in their respective events. Derrick Brew ranks second in the nation and the world in the 400-meter dash with a time of 44.70 seconds. Brew was the NCAA runner-up in the quarter a year ago.
Brew will also compete on both the 4×100 and 4×400-meter relays. Joining Brew on the short relay will be Carlos Garcia, Deryell Patterson and Dwhyte Barrett. Garcia and Patterson will also join Brew on the mile relay along with Lueroy Colquhoun and Gerald Green serving as the alternate.
Marcus Thomas ranks second in the nation in the triple jump with a mark of 54 feet 6 + inches, registered in winning the SEC title in Baton Rouge on May 14. Thomas will also compete in the triple jump and ranks 10th in the nation.
Russ Buller will look for his first outdoor pole vault All-American honor and ranks third in the nation entering the NCAA Championships with a clearance of 18-8 + at the Texas Relays on April 8. Buller is a perfect 6-0 outdoors.
Claston Bernard ranks third in the nation in the decathlon heading into next weekend’s competition. The two-time SEC champion came up with a fifth place finish at the NCAA Championships a year ago as a freshman.
Gonzales native Greg Scott will make his second NCAA appearance, qualifying in the 110-meter hurdles for the second straight year. Scott, a third place finisher at the SEC Championships two weeks ago, made the semifinals at the NCAA meet in Boise, Idaho a year ago and enters with a season-best time of 13.75.
The Tigers bring a quartet of throwers to Durham, as Javier Nieto will compete in the hammer for the second straight year, Alex Forst will compete in the shot put and Blake Theriot and Craig Nall will both compete in the javelin.
The women will be led by a trio of athletes ranked in the top five in the nation in their respective events. Keisha Spencer leads the nation in the triple jump and ranks third in the long jump entering the NCAA meet. Spencer finished third in the triple jump at the NCAA outdoor meet last year, but won the SEC and NCAA Indoor titles this year, the SEC Outdoor title and is a perfect 11-0 against American collegians this year.
Peta-Gaye Dowdie will be critical to the Lady Tigers’ success, as she will compete in the 100 and 200-meter dashes, as well as the 4×100 and 4×400-meter relays. Dowdie ranks second in the nation in both the 100 and 200 and the Lady Tigers’ short relay ranks second in the nation.
Joining Dowdie on the 4×100-meter relay will be Joyce Bates, Valma Bass and Myra Combs. Bass and Combs will also run on the mile relay along with Althea Thomas.
Bates will look to give the Lady Tigers their first national champion in the 100-meter hurdles since Astia Walker in 1997. The SEC Champion ranks second in the nation entering the national meet with a time of 12.79. Joining Bates in the 100-meter field will be April Sams.
Bass will also compete in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes, while Combs was a last minute qualifier in the 200. Sa’Donna Thornton rounds out the Lady Tigers’ sprint corps with a berth in the 100-meter field.
In the field, Monique Freeman will look to match her second place finish in the long jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships, while Bianca Rockett will look for her first All-American honor in the triple jump, as will Loren Leaverton in the heptathlon.
The NCAA Championships run from Wednesday through Saturday. The Lady Tigers finished fifth a year ago but have won 11 of the last 13 titles. The Tigers will be looking for their first title since 1990, but finished ninth a year ago and have been in the top 10 12 of the last 13 years.
Ironically, the last time the Tigers won the NCAA title was in Durham in 1990. That year LSU swept the team titles for the second consecutive year. LSU is still the only school to accomplish the feat.