BATON ROUGE — LSU’s nationally-ranked track and field team begins postseason competition this week when it travels to Fayetteville, Ark., for the SEC Outdoor Championships.
The four-day meet will run Thursday through Sunday at the University of Arkansas’ newly constructed John McDonnell Field.
The meet will serve as a preview of many of the teams that will be vying for a national title in June as five of the men’s teams and five of the women’s team’s are ranked among the nation’s top 25 this week.
The Tigers’ enter the meet as the top-ranked men’s squad coming in at No. 3 in the Trackwire 25 standings. Arkansas, Tennessee and Florida aren’t far behind in sixth, seventh and 10th, respectively.
For the women, SEC Indoor champions, Georgia, pace the pack with a No. 4 national ranking. The Bulldogs are trailed by No. 7 Auburn, No. 8 LSU and No. 9 South Carolina in the top 10.
“With the quality of competition that will be at the SEC Championships it’s going to be very a good tune up for the NCAA meet,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “I feel like there are three or four teams on both sides that have the opportunity to win it and we are going to everything we can to be one of those teams, but at the same time we are not going to be stupid about it.”
With the next four weeks consisting of not only the conference championships, but also the NCAA regional and national meets, Shaver is making a concerted effort not to put too many rounds of competition on any of his athletes.
On the track, the sprinters are slated to run in their specialty open event(s) as well as one relay race.
Tiger standouts Xavier Carter and Kelly Willie will be going head-to-head in the 200 meters. The pair enters the meet with the two fastest times in the event, not only in the SEC but in the NCAA, this season.
In addition, Carter will run in the 400 meters, Willie will see action in the 100 meters and both will run on the 4×100 squad.
Neither are scheduled to run on the 4×400 relay this week as Shaver feels his team has displayed that they can be still be successful in the event without the services of the All-American duo.
“The Penn Relays really allowed us to cultivate and test our depth in the relay events under a pressure situation,” said Shaver. “It wasn’t our headliners, but our middle guys, that really stepped it up and showed that they can get the job done.”
Headlining the women’s efforts on the track will be short sprinters Kelly Baptiste and Brooklynn Morris.
Currently the nation’s top-ranked 100-meter runner, Baptiste will compete in both the 100 and 200 meters as well as on the 4×100-meter relay team. Morris, who is ranked among the nation’s top 10 in both the 100 and the 200 will be joining Baptiste in all three events.
“I feel like good things are happening for the women right now,” said Shaver. “They are realizing that they can do it when it counts; that they can lineup up and compete against the best and win.”
In the combined events, seniors Edwin Billot and Megan Akre will look to complete a sweep of the conference’s multi-event titles this season. Billot, the 2006 SEC heptathlon champion, enters the meet with the field’s second-best decathlon point total this season (7,468). Akre, who won this year’s conference pentathlon title, comes into the championships owning the best heptathlon mark to date (5,352).
Action from the SEC Championships gets underway tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. (CT) with the multi-events.