BATON ROUGE — LSU track and field’s quest for the first-ever men’s and women’s national title sweep began to take shape Tuesday evening as the final field of competitors for the 2004 NCAA Outdoor Championships was released. The Tigers and Lady Tigers will send a combined 22 athletes and four relay teams to this year’s national meet.
The Lady Tigers, the defending outdoor national champions and the 2004 indoor champions, qualified 14 athletes, while the Tigers, also the 2004 indoor national champions, advanced eight competitors. Both qualified teams in the 4×100 and 4×400-meter relays.
The Lady Tigers will look to the track for the majority of their scoring opportunities. Muna Lee, the national runner-up in the 100 and 200 meters last season, will return in both events this year. The 17-time All-American enters the meet with the second-best qualifying time in the 100 meters (11.07) as well as the third-best mark in the 200 (22.47).
Lee will be joined by fellow senior Stephanie Durst in the 200 meters. The 11-time All-American from Houston, Texas, owns the field’s sixth-best qualifying time (22.88).
The field will be laden with purple and gold in both the 400 meters and the 100 hurdles as the Lady Tigers automatically qualified three athletes in each event out of the Mideast Regional Championships.
Senior All-Americans Hazelann Regis, Nadia Davy and Monique Hall all have significant scoring potential in the open quarter. Regis and Davy have each posted top-10 time in the world this season, while Hall is listed among the top-15 on the NCAA’s descending order list.
In the 100 hurdles, top-ranked Lolo Jones enters the meet riding a four meet win streak. She currently owns the nation’s No. 1 time in the event at 12.78.
Junior RaNysha LeBlanc and senior Brittany Littlejohn will be joining Jones in the hurdles. This will be LeBlanc’s second appearance at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and Littlejohn’s first.
Rounding out competitors in the running events is Neisha Bernard-Thomas in the 800 meters and both the 4×100 and 4×400-meter relay teams.
Bernard-Thomas owns the NCAA’s top mark in the 800 this season after clocking a personal best 2:02.05 at the Gatorade Invitational. She will likely join Hall, Davy and Regis to form the Lady Tigers’ 4×400 team. The quartet posted a school record mark of 3:27.04 in winning the SEC title just over two weeks ago. They head into the meet ranked No. 2 on the national descending order list.
The Lady Tiger 4×100 team of Jones, Hall, Durst and Lee will be seeking a second straight NCAA title in the event after setting the low altitude collegiate record last season. LSU, who has been ranked No. 1 in the event for seven straight weeks, is the only school to have recorded a sub-43 second performance this year, clocking 42.92 at the Penn Relays.
In the field, the Lady Tigers will have five athletes vying for All-American honors. Britney Henry, the school record holder and Mideast Regional champion in the hammer, enters the meet with the nation’s 10th-best mark (205-11).
Junior Katie McKeever received an at-large bid in the discus based on her season-best effort of 173-10.
In the jumps, four-time All-American Nicole Toney headlines the list of Lady Tiger competitors that also includes freshman Tina Harris and junior LaToya Payne.
Toney placed fourth at the NCAA Outdoor meet a year ago and has the field’s 11th-best mark this season (43-7 3/4).
Harris will be making her debut at the NCAA Championships after posting a personal-best distance of 20-4 1/2 at the regional championships. It will be Payne’s second straight trip to the NCAA outdoor meet.
On the men’s side, the Tigers will look to the jumps and the sprints for the majority of its scoring opportunities.
The All-American trio of LeJuan Simon, John Moffitt and Willie Bradley will headline the Tiger jumping crew. Simon, Moffitt and Bradley finished 1-2-3, respectively, in the triple at the NCAA Indoor Championships and look to repeat the performance as they enter the meet ranked third, sixth and eighth in the event this outdoor season.
Moffitt and Simon will also be making an appearance in the long jump. Moffitt, the 2004 indoor national champion, will look to complete the NCAA title sweep. He is currently ranked No. 2 in the event, while Simon follows at No. 3.
On the track, LSU will be represented by All-Americans Kelly Willie and Pete Coley in 400 meters and Bennie Brazell in the 400 hurdles.
Willie, a three-time All-American in the open quarter, appears to be hitting his stride just in time for the NCAA Championships as he’s coming off a personal-best and meet-winning effort of 44.81 at the Mideast Regionals. Coley has clocked a top time of 45.62 this year.
In the 400 hurdles, Brazell will be seeking his third-straight All-America honor. The Houston native finished fourth at the NCAA Championships a year ago and currently owns the field’s third-fastest time (48.86).
Willie, Coley and Brazell will likely join forces with freshman Marvin Stevenson in both the 4×100 and 4×400 as LSU looks to sweep the men’s relay titles for a second straight season. The 4×100 is currently ranked No. 2 with a season-best time of 38.93, while the 4×400 sits at No. 3 with a time of 3:01.39.
The Tigers have two other NCAA qualifiers in senior Daniel Trosclair and junior Sam Mwape. Trosclair, who has cleared a season-best 17-4 1/2 in the pole vault, will be eyeing outdoor All-America honors for the first time in his career after earning indoor accolades each of the last two seasons.
Mwape will be making his inaugural appearance at the NCAA Championships, earning an at-large bid in the 5,000 meters. He has posted a personal-best time of 14:14.52 in the event this season.
The 2004 NCAA Championships will get underway Wednesday, June 9, at the University of Texas’ Mike A. Myers Stadium. Competition will conclude Saturday, June 12, with the crowning of the men’s and women’s team champions.
LSU 2004 NCAA Championships Participants
WOMEN (National Ranking, Top Time/Mark)
100 Meters
Muna Lee (2nd, 11.07)
200 Meters
Muna Lee (3rd, 22.47)
Stephanie Durst (6th, 22.88)
400 Meters
Hazelann Regis (2nd, 50.64)
Nadia Davy (5th, 51.19)
Monique Hall (13th, 51.93)
800 Meters
Neisha Bernard-Thomas (1st, 2:02.05)
100-Meter Hurdles
Lolo Jones (1st, 12.78)
RaNysha LeBlanc (13th, 13.14)
Brittany Littlejohn (15th, 13.17)
4×100-Meter Relay
Lolo Jones, Monique Hall, Nadia Davy, Muna Lee (1st, 42.92)
4×400-Meter Relay
Nadia Davy, Neisha Bernard-Thomas, Monique Hall, Hazelann Regis (2nd, 3:27.04)
Long Jump
Tina Harris (27th, 20-4 1/2)
LaToya Payne (31st, 20-2 1/2)
Triple Jump
Nicole Toney (11th, 43-7 3/4)
Discus
Katie McKeever (20th, 173-10)
Hammer
Britney Henry (10th, 205-11)
MEN (National Ranking, Top Time/Mark)
400 Meters
Kelly Willie (4th, 44.81)
Pete Coley (13th, 45.62)
5,000 Meters
Sam Mwape (26th, 14:14.52)
400-Meter Hurdles
Bennie Brazell (3rd, 48.86)
4×100-Meter Relay
Kelly Willie, Marvin Stevenson, Pete Coley, Bennie Brazell (2nd, 38.93)
4×400-Meter Relay
Marvin Stevenson, Bennie Brazell, Pete Coley, Kelly Willie (3rd, 3:01.39)
Pole Vault
Daniel Trosclair (20th, 17-4 1/2)
Long Jump
John Moffitt (2nd, 26-6 1/4)
LeJuan Simon (3rd, 26-3 1/2)
Triple Jump
LeJuan Simon (3rd, 55-2 3/4)
John Moffitt (6th, 54-9 1/4)
Willie Bradley (8th, 53-8 1/4)