BATON ROUGE — LSU’s top-ranked Lady Tigers and second-ranked Tigers will once again be well represented at this weekend’s NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. The two teams have combined to send 13 athletes and two relay teams to the national meet it was announced late Monday evening.
The Lady Tigers will send seven competitors and the Tigers will have six on hand, while both teams will also be sending a 4×400-meter relay team.
“I’m pleased with the group we have qualified,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “I think the fact that Jeffrey Fisher, our own school record holder in the 800 meters, didn’t make the field speaks volumes about the quality of competition and how it just continues to get better each and every year.
“We have a top group of athletes representing us on both sides and I think that if we can go in there, compete well and stay healthy, we have the ability to be among the that top group of finishers in both the men’s and women’s races.”
The Lady Tigers, who return 56 of the 62 points scored at last year’s NCAA Championships, will once again look to the sprint events for many of its scoring opportunities.
15-time All-American Muna Lee will be back to defend her NCAA titles in both the 60 and 200-meter dashes. Lee, the collegiate record holder in the 200 meters, will go for an unprecedented third straight indoor national title in the event. She enters the meet with the nation’s third best mark in the 200, as well as the country’s top time in the 60.
Lee will be joined by fellow All-American Lolo Jones in the 60-meter dash. However, Jones biggest scoring opportunity should come in the 60-meter hurdles where she will be defending her own NCAA title. The Des Moines native is coming off a third straight SEC Championships title in the event and currently ranks fifth on the NCAA performance list.
Joining Lee in the 200 meters will be 10-time All-American Stephanie Durst. Durst, who has finished among the top-six at the national meet each of the last two seasons, enters the meet with the 10th best time in the country.
The Lady Tigers will also have numerous scoring opportunities in the 400 and 800 meters with the return of quartermilers Hazelann Regis and Nadia Davy and halfmiler Neisha Bernard-Thomas.
Regis ran the second fastest time in collegiate history in the 400 meters (51.13) at the SEC Championships to earn top-billing in the event, while Davy has posted the field’s 14th-best qualifying time.
Bernard-Thomas, the NCAA runner-up in the 800 meters a year ago, enters the meet as arguably one of the top halfmilers in the country after notching the NCAA’s second best time of the season at the Armory Invitational.
Hazy, Davy and Bernard-Thomas will join with senior All-American Monique Hall in the 4×400-meter relay as the foursome aims for the Lady Tigers’ first national championship in the event since the 1996 season.
LSU owns the NCAA’s top time in the relay this season after shattering the indoor school record en route to claiming the SEC title two weeks ago.
In the field events, senior Nicole Toney will be the Lady Tigers’ lone representative, doubling in the long jump and the triple jump. Toney was the NCAA champion in the triple jump in 2002 and earned runner-up honors in 2003. This will be her first appearance in the long jump.
On the men’s side, LSU will look to its quartermilers and jumpers for its best scoring opportunities.
All-Americans Kelly Willie and Pete Coley will be back in the 400 meters again this year. Willie earned All-America honors as a freshman, finishing sixth a year ago, while Coley was the NCAA runner-up in 2002.
Both Willie and Coley will likely join Robert Parham and Bennie Brazell in the 4×400-meter relay as the foursome goes after a second straight national championship in the event. The Tiger quartet clocked the second-fastest time in collegiate history (3:03.97) last week at the Iowa State Last Chance Meet.
The Tigers will have a trio of competitors in the triple jump as seniors LeJuan Simon and John Moffitt, as well as junior Willie Bradley all enter the meet as legitimate scoring threats in the event.
Simon owns the field’s second-best qualifying mark, while Moffitt, an All-American in the event a year ago, owns the nation’s third-best jump to date.
Bradley will be making his first ever appearance at the NCAA Championships. His PR mark of 53-6 1/4 ranks sixth among the NCAA this season.
Moffitt and Simon will also be seeing action in the long jump competition. Moffitt, the school record holder in the event, owns not only the top distance in the NCAA this year, but also the second-best distance in the United States and the fourth-best mark in the world.
Simon enters the meet with the field’s sixth best qualifying mark.
All-America pole vaulter Daniel Trosclair will be looking to improve on his eighth-place finish in the event in 2003. Trosclair, just the third athlete in LSU history to clear 18 feet indoors, is tied for second on the NCAA performance list with a top clearance of 18-1.
The 2004 NCAA Indoor Championships get underway Friday afternoon at Arkansas’ Randal Tyson Track Center and will conclude Saturday evening. The Lady Tigers enter the meet as the two-time defending national champions and the Tigers look to improve upon their third-place finish from a year ago.
LSU Competitors at the NCAA Indoor Championships
WOMEN (National Ranking, Top Time/Mark)
60 Meter
Muna Lee (1st, 7.17)
Lolo Jones (15th, 7.38)
200 Meters
Muna Lee (3rd, 22.97)
Stephanie Durst (10th, 23.35)
400 Meters
Hazelann Regis (1st, 51.13)
Nadia Davy (14th, 53.01)
800 Meters
Neisha Bernard-Thomas (2nd, 2:04.97)
60-Meter Hurdles
Lolo Jones (5th, 8.08)
4×400-Meter Relay
Hazelann Regis, Neisha Bernard-Thomas, Monique Hall, Nadia Davy (1st, 3:29.42)
Long Jump
Nicole Toney (8th, 20-9 1/4)
Triple Jump
Nicole Toney (5th, 44-2 3/4)
MEN (National Ranking, Top Time/Mark)
400 Meters
Kelly Willie (8th, 46.04)
Pete Coley (10th, 46.35)
4×400-Meter Relay
Robert Parham, Pete Coley, Bennie Brazell, Kelly Willie (2nd, 3:03.97)
Pole Vault
Daniel Trosclair (t2nd, 18-1)
Long Jump
John Moffitt (1st, 27-1 3/4)
LeJuan Simon (6th, 25-7 1/2)
Triple Jump
LeJuan Simon (2nd, 55-5 3/4)
John Moffitt (3rd, 54-4)
Willie Bradley (5th, 53-6 1/4)