BATON ROUGE — The LSU track and field team will be well represented at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., this weekend as the men and women combined to send 17 athletes, head coach Pat Henry learned Monday evening.
The top-ranked Lady Tigers will send 10 athletes with 12 scoring chances, while the defending champion and third-ranked Tigers will send seven athletes with eight scoring opportunities.
“From our standpoint we got everybody in that we felt had a shot,” said Henry. “We go in with the people that we thought would make it, we feel like we’re in pretty good shape. It’s pretty similar to what we had a year ago on the men’s side and a little bit more than we had this time last year with the women’s team.”
The Lady Tigers will be well represented from 60-800 meters with a number of good scoring opportunities. Muna Lee qualified in both the 60, where she owns the nation’s second fastest time, and at 200 meters where she enters this weekend’s championships as the national leader.
Stephanie Durst joins Lee in the 200-meter dash and serves a critical role, as she enters the championships ranked No. 2 in the nation in what will be a key event for the Lady Tigers.
Lolo Jones will join Lee in the 60-meter dash, but will also compete in her signature event, the 60-meter hurdles, an event she enters with the No. 5 ranking and as the SEC champion. Zamyal Jackson joins Jones in the short hurdles field, qualifying for her first NCAA Championship event.
Ronetta Smith, a fourth place finisher in the 400-meter dash a year ago, qualified in her signature event where she enters with the third fastest time in the nation. Newcomer Marian Burnett enters as the sixth ranked half miler, but beat three of the competitors ranked ahead of her two weeks ago when she won the SEC 800-meter title.
Smith and Burnett will join with Doria Appleberry and Durst to run in the 4×400-meter relay.
The Lady Tigers qualified three athletes in the field, all of whom are in the triple jump. Nicole Toney ranks second in the nation in the event, while Bianca Rockett ranks third and Andria Booker eighth.
On the men’s side, Henry will count on his top-heavy quarter-milers, as well as the horizontal jumps.
Alleyne Francique shattered the collegiate record in the 400-meter dash last month, while teammate Pete Coley was not far off and the two enter with the top two marks in the nation. Lueroy Colquhoun, a fourth place finisher in the 400-meter dash in 2000, qualified for his third straight NCAA Indoor Championships.
The trio will combine with Robert Parham to form the nation’s top ranked 4×400-meter relay team. Francique, Colquhoun and Parham all return from last year’s group that won the event which clinched the Tigers’ first NCAA team title.
In the field, Walter Davis will look for similar results from a year ago when he won the triple jump and finished second in the long jump. Davis enters in the same position this year, ranked No. 1 in the triple and second in the long jump.
Davis will be joined in the triple jump by first time NCAA qualifier Traun Smith who ranks 14th in the event. Claston Bernard, a two-time All-American in the decathlon, qualified for her first open event and is tied for the 10th spot in the nation in the high jump, a suspect event that the senior could sneak into scoring position this weekend and bolster the Tigers’ chances.
The NCAA Indoor Championships get underway on Friday afternoon at the Randal Tyson Track Center and continue through Saturday night. LSU will attempt to become the first school to sweep the titles at the NCAA Indoor Championships. In addition to the Tigers being the defending champions in the men’s competition, the Lady Tigers have won eight titles in their illustrious history, most recently in 1997.
LSU’s NCAA Indoor Championship Roster
Men (8 scoring chances)
Mark National Rank (2001 Finish)
400m
Alleyne Francique 45.35 1 (4)
Pete Coley 45.37 2 (DNC)
Lueroy Colquhoun 46.61 14 (SF)
4×400-meter relay 3:04.75 1 (1)
(Colquhoun, Coley, Parham, Francique)
High Jump
Claston Bernard 7-1 3/4 10t (DNC)
Long Jump
Walter Davis 26-6 1/2 2 (2)
Triple Jump
Walter Davis 56-2 1/2 1 (1)
Traun Smith 52-0 3/4 14 (DNC)
Women (12 scoring chances)
Mark National Rank (2001 Finish)
60m
Muna Lee 7.21 2 (SF)
Lolo Jones 7.37 15t (DNC)
200m
Muna Lee 22.91 1 (5)
Stephanie Durst 23.04 2 (DNC)
400m
Ronetta Smith 52.59 3 (4)
800m
Marian Burnett 2:06.07 6 (DNC)
60h
Lolo Jones 8.18 5 (7)
Zamyal Jackson 8.34 15t (DNC)
4×400-meter relay 3:37.29 10 (6)
(Appleberry, Smith, Durst, Burnett)
Triple Jump
Nicole Toney 44-5 1/2 2 (DNC)
Bianca Rockett 44-0 3 (13)
Andria Booker 42-8 3/4 8 (DNC)