BATON ROUGE — Just a week removed for the Lady Tigers’ second straight NCAA Indoor title and the men’s fourth place finish at the NCAA Championships, the LSU track and field team is returning to action, opening up the 2003 outdoor campaign Friday at the SEC Quadrangular in Starkville, Miss.
The meet will be held at Mississippi State’s W.O. Spencer Stadium/Carl Maddox Track with action in the field events beginning at 10 a.m. (CST) and running events following at noon. Participating team include Arkansas, Alabama’s men’s team, LSU and Mississippi State.
“This is the start of a new and different outdoor season for us,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “With the inclusion of a regional championship this year there will have to be some experimentation as far as how we do things.”
Beginning this outdoor season the NCAA will be hosting a regional track championship in addition the annual national championship meet. During the regular season, athletes will qualifying into one of the four regional meets based on predetermined regional qualifying standards set for each event.
Once in the regional meet, the field’s top-five finishers in each event at that meet will advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
With that in mind the LSU squad will open the outdoor season with a strong and healthy group of athletes in Starkville this weekend.
“It’s very early in the outdoor season,” said Henry. “We will compete a very good contingent of people this weekend. This meet allows us to rest a few individuals after the championships last week, as well as compete some athletes for the first time this year.”
Not taking any time off after last weekend’s championship run will be junior Robert Parham and sophomore Bennie Brazell. Parham will likely return to the track in the 200 meters, while Brazell should see action on the 4×400-meter relay team.
LSU will hold off on running it’s 4×100-meter relay teams in preparation for the Tigers’ outdoor home opener next week.
Seeing action for the first time this season will be LSU’s javelin and hammer throwers. Seniors Luke Kinnard and Keith Nunez should pace the Tiger squad in the javelin after earning all-SEC honors a year ago, while fellow senior Candice Gonzalez and junior Maria Romero could see action in the hammer and the javelin, respectively. Both are coming off all-conference performances last season.
Following the SEC Quadrangular, the LSU track and field team will return to action the following week, March 28-29, when it hosts its outdoor home opener, the LSU Tiger Relays, at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium.