BATON ROUGE — LSU’s top-ranked men’s and women’s track and field teams open the home schedule Saturday with the Purple Tiger Invitational. The meet will be held at the Carl Maddox Field House with field events beginning at 9:30 a.m. and track events starting at 11:45 a.m.
The field of 17 teams will feature a variety of in-state schools, including UL-Lafayette, UL-Monroe and Tulane, as well as Florida State, Southern Miss and Texas’ men’s squad, among others.
LSU is coming off a sensational season opening meet at the SEC West Challenge as three NCAA automatic qualifying marks were posted by the Fighting Tiger teams.
Junior Muna Lee earned an early bid to the NCAA Championships in the 200 meters (23.45), while junior college transfer LeJuan Simon’s leap of 25-6 in the long jump propelled him into the NCAA meet as well.
The Tigers’ third automatic qualifying mark came from the quartet of Pete Coley, Marlon Greensword, Bennie Brazell and Kelly Willie who clocked a sizzling 3:06.54 in the 4×400-meter relay. All three marks posted by Lee, Simon and the men’s 4×400 team currently rank as the fastest times in the nation in the respective events.
Following the Purple Tiger Invitational, the LSU track and field team will continue its home stand Friday, Jan. 31, when teams from around the country once again come to the Carl Maddox Field House for the Bayou Bengal Invitational.