BATON ROUGE — The indoor championship season begins for the LSU men’s and women’s track and field teams as they travel to the Nutter Field House in Lexington, Ky., this weekend to compete in the SEC Indoor Championships beginning Friday.
The meet is scheduled to get underway Friday with the women’s pentathlon and the first day of the men’s heptathlon competition, while the action continues Saturday and Sunday with the conclusion of the heptathlon and the start of the open field and running events.
The competition is sure to be fierce as the races for both the men’s and women’s conference championships will feature six squads ranked among the top 20 teams in the nation in the latest USTFCCCA Top 20. The third-ranked Auburn Tigers enter the meet as the favorite on the men’s side, while No. 3 South Carolina is the team to beat in the women’s race.
Auburn will be challenged in the men’s competition by seventh-ranked Arkansas, No. 11 LSU, No. 16 South Carolina, No. 19 Florida and No. 20 Tennessee with the women’s squad from South Carolina being challenged by a strong field that features fourth-ranked Georgia, No. 6 LSU, No. 7 Tennessee, No. 8 Auburn and No. 17 Arkansas.
In addition, the individual competition at this year’s meet will be just as exciting as a total of 35 women and 27 men enter the weekend ranked in at least one specialty event in the latest Trackwire Dandy Dozen. The men also boast four of the nation’s top 12 squads in the 4×400-meter relay with the women following closely behind with three.
“Both the men and women are looking forward to the first championship meet of the season,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “In many ways it’s a natural progression for us in achieving our ultimate goal, which is to be in the hunt for a national championship. This weekend will be our first step in preparing for what is to come in the next few weeks.
“Probably half of the athletes competing in many of the events this weekend are nationally ranked and will finish in the top eight at the NCAA meet. It’ll give our athletes an opportunity to line up against many of the nation’s best athletes at the college level. We’ll get a chance to see where we stack up, and we’ll learn from that as we prepare for NCAAs.”
The Tigers and Lady Tigers enter this weekend’s meet with a number of athletes in a position to compete for conference titles in their respective specialty events. In fact, a total of nine athletes are projected to earn all-conference honors as they currently rank either No. 1 or No. 2 on the updated SEC performance list.
The men’s squad is led by a pair of junior All-American sprinters as Richard Thompson and Reggie Dardar enter the meet holding the top spot in the 60 and 400 meters, respectively. Thompson has clocked a league-best time of 6.67 in the 60-meter dash this season, while Dardar is currently the SEC’s No. 1 performer in the 400 meters with a time of 46.24.
On the women’s side, junior Jessica Ohanaja is the SEC’s top hurdler with a NCAA automatic qualifying time of 8.14 in the 60-meter hurdles. Freshman middle distance phenom LaTavia Thomas is the league’s top-ranked performer in the 800 meters with a season-low time of 2:06.44, and junior Kathy Coleman leads the league in the long jump with a mark of 20-8 ?.
In addition, freshman Will Coppage is projected to earn all-conference honors as he is the SEC’s second-ranked athlete in the long jump, while junior Kelly Baptiste, sophomore Nickiesha Wilson and senior Shaunette Davidson will compete for all-conference accolades of their own in the 60 meters, 60-meter hurdles and women’s pentathlon, respectively.
Both the men’s and women’s 4×400-meter relay squads enter the meet among the favorites to compete for conference titles as the Tigers’ foursome ranks No. 1 on the SEC performance list with a season-low time 3:06.62 and the are second in the conference with an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 3:31.77.
“I could see after the Tyson Invitational that we needed to take it a little bit of time to rest up in our preparation for this weekend,” Shaver said. “I can already see the difference in a lot of them with just backing off and not pressing so hard in our training program. I’m really looking forward to it and I know they are as well. It’s should be an exciting meet this weekend.”
Any LSU athlete having yet to qualify for the NCAA Championships following this weekend’s meet will have one last opportunity as the Tigers and Lady Tigers are set to return to the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse on March 2 to host the LSU Invitational. The NCAA Indoor Championships are scheduled to get underway the following week on March 9 in Fayetteville, Ark.