BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s and women’s track and field teams hit the road for the first time this season as they travel to Albuquerque, N.M., on Friday to compete against a strong field in the Modrall Sperling Lobo Invitational at the Albuquerque Convention Center.
Friday’s action is scheduled to get underway at 7 p.m. CST with the women’s pole vault and the preliminaries of the women’s 60-meter hurdles, while the second day of competition is slated to begin with the field events on Saturday at 11 a.m.
The competition will feature six top-20 teams in the recently released Trackwire 25 as the Tigers join No. 6 Baylor, Nos. 13 UTEP and Texas A&M, No. 16 UCLA, BYU and New Mexico in a strong men’s field, while the third-ranked Lady Tigers join No. 9 Texas A&M, Baylor, New Mexico, Oklahoma and UTEP on the women’s side.
“The competition we’ll be facing this weekend is really important for our athletes,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “We’ll be seeing several of the top teams in the country on the men’s and women’s sides, and this will be a good barometer for us to see where we are at this point in the season. There’s no doubt that it’s going to be a very competitive meet.”
The action should be fierce throughout the meet as a total of 36 nationally-ranked athletes and seven of the nation’s top 4×400-meter relay teams enter the meet ranked among the top 12 in the country in the latest Trackwire Dandy Dozen.
Senior Brooklynn Morris and junior Kelly Baptiste will each be making their season debuts in the women’s 200 meters as the duo is currently ranked fifth and seventh in the event, respectively. They will face stiff competition from the likes of 12th-ranked Porscha Lucas of Texas A&M for top honors in the event.
The Lady Tigers are looking to continue their dominance in the 60-meter hurdles from a week ago as junior Jessica Ohanaja, sophomore Nickiesha Wilson and senior Angel Boyd are among the favorites to capture the event title. Ohanaja is the third-ranked performer in the event, while Wilson follows closely behind at sixth and Boyd is ranked 11th.
Sophomore Andrea Linton, who is currently ranked sixth nationally in the women’s triple jump, will highlight the Lady Tigers’ effort in the field events as she battles the likes of fourth-ranked Yasmine Regis of Texas A&M for first place in her specialty event. Linton is coming off of a first-place finish in the event at the Purple Tiger Classic a week ago.
The Lady Tiger’s second-ranked 4×400-meter relay team returns its foursome that captured a national title a season ago and are the favorites to take top honors in the event this weekend as they go head-to-head against the fourth-ranked squad from Texas A&M and the eighth-ranked team from Baylor.
On the men’s side, senior Melville Rogers will square off against at trio of nationally-ranked athletes in his season debut in the 400 meters as he battles fourth-ranked Justin Oliver of Texas A&M, and sixth-ranked Quentin Summers and 12th-ranked J.T. Rogers of Baylor for the top spot. Rogers opens the season as the ninth-ranked performer in the event.
Junior Richard Thompson is looking to improve upon his personal best effort of 6.72 in the 60-meter dash set at the Purple Tiger Classic last week as he will square off against the likes of 10th-ranked Richard Abu-Bobie of Texas A&M in what is sure to be an exciting event. Thompson is also scheduled to compete in the men’s 200 meters for the first time this season.
The men’s 4×400-meter relay is sure to be among the most exciting events of the weekend as it features the nation’s top three squads in No. 1 Baylor, No. 2 LSU, and No. 3 Texas A&M, as well as 11th-ranked BYU all vying for the top spot. The Tigers are strong contenders once again in 2007 as they enter the season as the defending national champion in the event
“This is exactly the kind of track meet that we really need right now,” Shaver said. “We’re going to be at a great facility with good competition, and for the first time this season we’ll put our athletes in an open event and give them the chance to see where they’re at this time. We’re certainly looking forward to the challenge.”
The Tigers and Lady Tigers will follow their trip to the Lobo Invitational this weekend by hosting the LSU Combined Events and the Bayou Bengal Invitational at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse on Jan. 25-26. They will then make their return to the Armory Track & Field Center in New York to compete in the New Balance Collegiate Invitational on Feb. 2-3.