BATON ROUGE — With the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships just a week away, the fields are nearly complete, but there is still time for those close to qualifying to earn a last minute berth.
Those athletes close to the NCAA qualifying standard will be given one last opportunity to earn a spot into the national meet on Friday evening at the LSU Last Ditch at the Carl Maddox Field House. Field events get underway at 3 p.m., while track events start at 6 p.m.
“We have three or four people that can potentially meet the NCAA qualifying standard and this gives them one more opportunity,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “It’s a limited competition with only those close to the NCAA standard on hand so it’s really a quality gathering.”
The second-ranked Lady Tigers and fifth-ranked Tigers are in great shape heading into the NCAA Indoor Championships. The Lady Tigers have nine qualifiers and are on the bubble with two others, while the Tigers have seven qualifiers and could add to that list Friday.
Among the Lady Tigers’ primary objectives for Friday’s meet will be improving qualifying marks for All-Americans Myra Combs and April Sams, while the Tigers will try and get weight thrower Javier Nieto into the national field.
Combs, already a qualifier in the 400-meter dash and on the Lady Tigers’ 4×400-meter relay, will try to solidify her position in the long jump as well. The 10-time All-American sits 17th in the nation in the event with a mark of 20 feet 5 inches, but will need to move into the top 15 to assure a spot in the national field next week.
Sams ranks 24th in the nation in the 60-meter hurdles with a season best time of 8.38 seconds but will have an opportunity to lower that time this weekend. It will quite likely take a time of 8.30 for Sams to qualify for her first NCAA Indoor meet.
Nieto ranks 32nd in the nation in the weight throw with a season best throw of 62-11 1/2 and will likely need to throw better than 65 feet to get into the NCAA field.
Several Lady Tigers will get a chance to get some work in before the national meet, as Henry will use the short sprinters and let them run the straightaway at the Maddox Field House.
Sams will be pushed in the hurdles by freshman Lolo Jones, already an NCAA qualifier, who will get some last minute work in before travelling to her first NCAA meet next week.
The NCAA Indoor Championships will be held on March 9-10 at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark. The Lady Tigers finished fourth a year ago while the Tigers finished seventh.