BATON ROUGE — The second-ranked LSU men’s track and field team and third-ranked Lady Tigers head to Starkville, Miss., this weekend for the SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
It marks the first time since 1992 that the event has been hosted by Mississippi State, as the event begins on Thursday and runs through Sunday. Nine of the 11 men’s teams on hand are ranked in the top 25, including the top three teams in the nation, Tennessee, LSU and Arkansas.
Four women’s teams are ranked led by the third-ranked Lady Tigers and No. 4 South Carolina.
Tennessee is the defending men’s champion while Arkansas won its second straight women’s title in 2001.
The Lady Tigers finished fourth at the event a year ago, while the Tigers placed sixth. LSU figures to make a major impact this weekend, however, as the men’s and women’s teams combine to own 11 SEC-leading marks and 25 total performances ranked in the top three in the conference.
In addition, six of its seven champions of a year ago will try to defend titles this weekend.
“We bring a very talented group to mix this weekend, we have a good number of athletes that have experienced success at this competition before,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “I’ve said it before, this is the hardest competition win. The SEC is the premier conference in college track and field and every year the marks that this meet produces back that statement up.”
Defending champions for LSU include Walter Davis in both the long and triple jumps and Muna Lee in the 100 and 200-meter dashes.
Davis will attempt to become only the second man in SEC history to sweep the horizontal jumps in consecutive years, while Lee can become only the third woman to sweep the short sprints in consecutive years.
The Tigers have won 22 SEC titles in their storied history, most recently in 1990, while the Lady Tigers have won eight, more than any other women’s program, with their most recent title coming in 1996.