BATON ROUGE — LSU’s track and field team returns to action Friday when it plays host to the Twilight Invitational at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse.
The meet will begin at 3 p.m. with the field events. Running events are scheduled to follow at 6 p.m.
The meet will feature 14 teams from throughout the South as Alabama, New Orleans, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Alcorn State, Grambling, Southern Miss, Jackson State, Tulane, Mississippi Valley State, Texas-Pan America, Hinds JC, UL-Lafayette and Troy State are all scheduled to appear with the Tigers.
LSU will emphasize its work in the men’s short sprints and women’s hurdles this week.
“At this meet the Alabama women are going to be here, so that is going to be good for our women’s hurdlers,” said LSU track and field head coach Dennis Shaver. “Our women’s hurdlers I think have been underachieving, and so the coaches have been challenged them to step it up a little bit and I think they are ready to.”
Lady Tiger RaNysha LeBlanc will be seeking an NCAA automatic qualifying time in the 60-meter hurdles. LeBlanc reached the provisional standard as she ran her best time two weeks ago at the Armory Invitational.
“I think RaNysha (LeBlanc) should run better in the hurdles,” said Shaver. “Certainly I know she will be disappointed if she doesn’t. She has been fairly inconsistent. She has run 30’s and then 40’s and then 30’s again, and her best is 8.30. I think she should be running low 8.20’s right now. So we will see if she can get something done.”
Also on the track, the Tigers will run Olympian Kelly Willie and freshman phenom Xavier Carter among others in the 60-meter dash. Trell Kimmons of Hinds Junior College will also be in the 60-meter dash. Kimmons beat out Carter and Willie while running a Fieldhouse record in the Purple Tiger Invitational.
“The 60-meter dash for the men is going to be great once again because the young man from Hinds Junior College is going to be here,” said Shaver. “We also have Xavier as well as Kelly Willie running in the 60-meters.”
The Tigers will be holding some of their jumpers out of competition this weekend, as LSU will be tuning up for the SEC Championships next weekend.
“In some of the jumping events, after having traveled the last two weeks and on top of that having had some really great performances, we think that we should try to train a little bit,” said Shaver. “Some of the jumpers won’t compete, but they should be ready to go next weekend in the conference meet which is very important.”
Following the Twilight Invitational, LSU will head to Fayetteville, Ark. for the SEC Indoor Championships on Feb. 26-27.