BATON ROUGE — The LSU track and field team travels to venerable Franklin Field in Philadelphia this weekend for the prestigious Penn Relays Carnival from Thursday through Saturday in its final tune-up prior to the upcoming Southeastern Conference Championships.
In addition, LSU’s 1991 Penn Relays shuttle hurdle championship team will be enshrined on the Penn Relays Wall of Fame this weekend. The group of Donalda Duprey, Dawn Bowles, Cinnamon Sheffield and Mary Cobb won the event in a world record time of 53.0 seconds a decade ago, a time that still stands as the world, collegiate and Penn Relays record.
“It’s the greatest atmosphere of any American track and field meet,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “It’s an opportunity to reward our athletes with an opportunity to compete in front of 40-50,000 knowledgeable track and field fans.
“In addition, this year is very special because they are honoring one of our great relays. To be immortalized at a competition of this magnitude is a strong indication of what that group accomplished. It’s a tremendous honor for four outstanding individuals involved and it’s a tremendous honor for LSU track and field.”
For the current LSU squads, this weekend serves as one last chance to step on the track before the conference meet from May 10-13. The Tigers enter the Penn Relays hanging on to their one-point lead for the No. 1 ranking in the Trackwire national rankings, while the Lady Tigers surged to a season-high outdoor ranking of No. 3 on Wednesday morning when the new poll was released.
With relays being the primary theme this weekend, both LSU squads enter with highly touted relay teams. The Tigers lead the nation and the world in the 4×400-meter relay and will be one of the featured relay teams this weekend, while the Lady Tigers lead the nation by a substantial margin in the 4×100-meter relay and will look for their second straight title.
In addition, the Lady Tigers figure to bring one of the premier 4×200-meter relay squads to Philadelphia this weekend and will attempt to reclaim the title from a tough South Carolina squad that broke the SEC record in the event in winning a year ago. The Lady Tigers enter this weekend’s field with four of the top eight ranked 200-meter sprinters, as Muna Lee ranks second, Myra Combs third, Stephanie Durst fifth and Ronetta Smith eighth.
In the field, Walter Davis makes his Penn Relays debut and will be involved in one of the best individual competitions of the weekend. Davis will renew his rivalry with Olympic teammate Savante Stringfellow of Ole Miss in the long jump. Stringfellow edged Davis for the long jump title at the NCAA Championships while Davis won the SEC title in duel between the two. Davis leads the nation in the triple jump and will be the top threat in that event.
Action gets underway on Thursday with preliminary rounds of the women’s 4×100-meter relay. In the distance events, a pair of NCAA provisional qualifiers will get a chance to improve their status Thursday night, as Susanne Strunz will compete in the 3,000-meter steeplechase while Likhaya Dayile will compete in the 10,000.
A portion of the meet will air Saturday on ESPN2 from 4:30-5:30 p.m. CT.