BATON ROUGE — The top ranked LSU men’s and women’s track and field teams begin the 2003 campaign Saturday, when they travel to Fayetteville, Ark., to compete in the SEC West Challenge.
The meet will be held at Arkansas’ Randal Tyson Track Center, site of the 2003 NCAA Indoor Championships, and will feature some of the top competition in the country as Alabama, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt are all schedule to compete. Field events are will begin at 9 a.m. with the running events following at 1 p.m.
“We’re beginning the season with the understanding that we want to be at our best in the second week in June (NCAA Outdoor Championships),” said head track and field coach Pat Henry. “This weekend is our first step on that big latter. We are going to compete at the level we have trained to and we hope that that changes with each week.”
The LSU track and field teams are coming off yet another remarkable season as 2002 saw the Lady Tigers win the NCAA Indoor title and the men claim the outdoor national championship.
The Lady Tigers return three national champions in short sprint phenom Muna Lee, half-miler Marian Burnett and horizontal jumper Nicole Toney. A 10-time All-American, Lee was named the USTCA Women’s Track Athlete of the Year as well as the SEC Indoor Track Athlete of the Year after winning the national title in the 200 meters last season.
Burnett returns for her final season after winning the national title in the indoor 800 meters last year, while Toney looks to defend her NCAA Indoor triple jump crown in the same venue in which she won the title a year ago.
On the men’s side, LSU will be without standouts Walter Davis and Claston Bernard from last year’s squad, however, the Tigers return a wealth of talent that is headlined by sophomore Bennie Brazell and junior Pete Coley.
Brazell finished second in the nation the 400-meter hurdles as a freshman, while Coley recorded a top-three finish in the open-quarter at the NCAA Outdoors in 2002. Both were also members of LSU’s national champion 4×100-meter relay team as well as the 4×400-meter relay team.
Following the SEC West Challenge the LSU track team will return to Baton Rouge to open its home schedule Saturday, Jan. 25, with the Purple Tiger Invitational.