BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s and women’s track and field teams head to the site of this year’s NCAA Indoor Championships as they travel to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Tyson Invitational this Friday and Saturday at the Randal Tyson Track Center.
The meet, which has become known as one of the most competitive of the indoor season, will give the Tigers and Lady Tigers an early glimpse at many of the teams that will be in the championships field come March.
The 22 collegiate teams, of which 10 on the men’s side and nine on the women’s side are ranked among the nation’s top 20, will comprise the field. The fourth-ranked Tigers will go head-to-head with No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Arkansas and No. 3 Florida State, while the sixth-ranked Lady Tigers will battle No. 2 Texas, No. 4 Tennessee and No. 5 Nebraska among others.
Coming off of a heavy load of competition at last week’s New Balance Invitational in New York City, most of the Tigers and Lady Tigers will compete in just one open event and possible a relay on the track, while competitors in the field events will see action in one or two events.
On the oval, sophomore Xavier Carter will return to competition in the 400 meters just one week after posting the third fastest time in the world this year (46.40).
He will likely join Reggie Dardar, Melville Rogers and Kelly Willie on the 4×400 relay as the top-ranked foursome seeks their first NCAA automatic qualifying mark of the season.
On the women’s side, sophomores Kelly Baptiste and Brooklynn Morris will once again battle it out in the 200 meters. Both posted personal records in the event last week in New York, with Baptiste just missing the NCAA automatic standard by .01 seconds.
Fellow sophomore Jessica Ohanaja will return to the track in the 60-meter hurdles. Ohanaja, who has set new personal bests in the event in three of the four meets this season, looks to improve once again as she eyes the NCAA automatic mark.
In the field, the Lady Tiger duo of Tina Harris and Shaunette Davidson will be competing in the long jump and the high jump, respectively. Both have reached the provisional standards in their events and will looking to obtain an automatic mark.
Tigers Rabun Fox and Ricky Jean-Francois will be back in the action in the weight throw and shot put, respectively. Both posted personal best by well over two-feet last week and look for continued progress this weekend.
Following the Tyson Invitational the track and field team returns home for the LSU Twilight, Fri., Feb. 17, at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse.