BATON ROUGE — Those track and field athletes that are close to the NCAA automatic qualifying standard but not quite there will get one last chance to join next week’s NCAA Indoor Championship field at the LSU Last Ditch on Friday evening at the Carl Maddox Field House.
Field events will get underway at 3 p.m. with track events starting at 6 p.m.
“It’s one last chance to line up and get it done,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “Every year this meet alters the shape of the NCAA Indoor Championships because somebody steps up with the pressure of not making the field staring them in the face. This meet has been very productive for us in the past and it will be for many of the other teams coming in as well.”
The top-ranked Lady Tigers and third-ranked Tigers find themselves in fine shape heading into next weekend’s NCAA Indoor Championships with a combined 12 NCAA automatic qualifying marks already, with another seven high provisional marks that should gain entry to the meet.
“I think the picture is a little clearer for us this year than maybe it has been in the past,” added Henry. “We’ve qualified very well so far and I think it will really help us next week to be able to rest some people and not worry about having to qualify a high number of athletes this weekend.”
The LSU Last Ditch is one of six qualifying meets around the nation this weekend.
The NCAA Indoor Championships will be held at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville next Friday and Saturday, the same facility that was very generous to LSU last weekend when the men’s and women’s teams combined to win eight events at the SEC Indoor Championships.
The Tigers are the defending NCAA Indoor champions, while the Lady Tigers finished 14th a year ago.