BATON ROUGE — The LSU track and field teams head to the site of this year’s NCAA Indoor Championships this weekend as they travel to Fayetteville, Ark., on Friday to compete in the two-day Tyson Invitational at the Randall Tyson Track Complex.
The Tyson Invitational is widely considered one of the most competitive meets of the indoor season as it provides an early glimpse at many of the teams that will be competing at the NCAA meet in March. It is scheduled to be broadcast to a national television audience on a tape-delay basis on Sunday from 12-2 p.m.
LSU’s third-ranked women and 15th-ranked men will be competing against many of the nation’s premier athletes as they join such nationally-ranked teams as Arkansas, Arizona State, Auburn, Baylor, Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Louisville, Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas, UCLA and UTEP.
“The competition is certainly going to be great this weekend but our focus is more on individual performances,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “We’ll be running on probably the fastest indoor track in the country, and our athletes need to put themselves into a position to qualify for the NCAAs this week.”
Shaver said that LSU’s participants in both the 400 meters and 800 meters will have a great opportunity to improve upon previous performances this season and put themselves in position to qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Junior All-American Reggie Dardar will lead the Tigers’ effort in the quarter mile after clocking the world’s second-fastest time in the event a week ago, and he will be joined by fellow All-Americans Melville Rogers, Marvin Stevenson and Siraj Williams. Freshman Jamaal James and sophomore Rueben Twijukye are scheduled to compete in the 800 meters.
On the women’s side, senior Cynetheia Rooks and junior Deonna Lawrence are set to run the 400 meters, while sophomore Nickiesha Wilson will be making her collegiate debut in the event this weekend. Freshman phenom LaTavia Thomas is looking to challenge for the 800-meter title after clocking an NCAA provisional qualifying time in her collegiate debut a week ago.
“It’s important for the men and women in events like the 400 and 800 to put themselves in a position to qualify at this meet,” Shaver said. “That would allow us the opportunity to train them differently until we get into the championship meets, and it’s really important for our team from that standpoint.”
Shaver also said that it is important for his athletes in the sprints and hurdles to continue to progress this weekend against perhaps the toughest competition they will face prior to the field at the NCAA Championships in March.
Junior All-Americans Kelly Baptiste and Richard Thompson highlight the field in the 60-meter dash as they are the nation’s No. 1 and No. 7 athletes in the event in the latest Trackwire Dandy Dozen. Junior Jessica Ohanaja is looking for her fifth title in the 60-meter hurdles this season as she is joined by senior Angel Boyd with junior Ryan Fontenot competing for the men.
“Our short sprinters and hurdlers have another opportunity to continue to try to progress because the competition here at this meet is really tremendous,” Shaver said. “We’ll see a lot of SEC schools there, as well as some of the top teams from around the country like UCLA, Texas, Arizona State’s women and others. It gives us a chance to see where we are right now.”
LSU will be led in the field events this weekend by its jumps corps as standouts Will Coppage, Reggie Haslom and Jeremy Hicks are set to compete in the long jump with Coppage and Haslom also appearing in the triple jump. Junior Kathy Coleman leads the way for the women in the long jump with sophomore Andrea Linton competing in the triple jump.
“This is also a great place to jump, so I’m looking to see if we can light a fire into our athletes competing in the horizontal jumps like the long jump and triple jump,” Shaver said. “We’ve got to try to get something done from this group this weekend and it’s a great meet for them to try to do that.”
The teams follow their trip to the Tyson Invitational this weekend by hosting the LSU Twilight at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse on Feb. 16 before preparing for the SEC Indoor Championships at the Nutter Fieldhouse in Lexington, Ky., from Feb. 23-25.