EUGENE, Ore. — The LSU track and field team worked out for 90 minutes Tuesday morning in their final preparation for the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Competition will get underway at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., on Wednesday afternoon.
The second-ranked Tigers enter the NCAA Championships as one of a handful of teams picked to compete for the team title, while the Lady Tigers enter ranked fifth, the same position they held a year ago when they won their 12th NCAA title in 14 years.
“We’ve got a great opportunity to get in the mix in both competitions,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “Our men’s team won the NCAA Indoor title in March in a very competitive team race and I expect it to be every bit as close this weekend and it could come down to a similar situation to the indoor meet where the 4×400-meter relay decides the meet.
“On the women’s side, all year everyone has been more concerned with who we didn’t bring back from last year’s national championship team and haven’t really noticed what we do have. I think they’ll know after this weekend. We have a tremendous young nucleus that may very well take some people by surprise.”
World decathlon leader and 2000 Olympian Claston Bernard begins his quest to become the third Tiger to wear the NCAA decathlon crown on Wednesday, kicking off the competition. Bernard enters the championships fresh off a personal best outing of 8,024 in winning his third straight SEC title and will try and get the Tigers kick-started in the team race.
“I have to get out to a big start on the first day of competition,” said Bernard. “I want to put up 4,200-4,300 points to put the pressure on some of my top competitors to come up with something extraordinary on the second day to catch me.”
Bernard finished fifth as a freshman two years ago and was the NCAA runner-up in the event last year.
The only final involving LSU athletes on Wednesday will be the women’s long jump. The combination of Myra Combs and Chenelle Marshall enter the meet on a hot streak, however. Combs won the SEC title, while Marshall finished second. The two then came up with season best marks in their last outing, as Marshall jumped 21 feet 1/2 inch, while Combs wetn 20-9 3/4 at the LSU Last Ditch to make the NCAA field.
“It’s very important for Myra and Chenelle to get our ladies off to a good start,” added Henry. “They’ve been jumping extremely well and we hope that they can set the tone for a good weekend for us.”
In preliminary action on Wednesday, both 4×100-meter relays will be in action, while Muna Lee, Stephanie Durst, Ronetta Smith and Combs will be in action in the 200-meter prelims, as will Susanne Strunz in the 3,000 meter steeplechase.
Competition will continue on Thursday and run through Saturday. The Lady Tigers are the defending champions in the event, while the Tigers finished fifth a year ago and have placed in the top 10 13 of the last 14 years.