BATON ROUGE — The LSU track and field teams will put the finishing touches on their preparation for next week’s SEC Indoor Championships in Lexington, Ky., by playing host to the LSU Twilight Invitational at the Carl Maddox Field House on Friday night.
The competition is set to get underway at 1 p.m. with the field events followed by the first events on the track at 5:15 p.m. Live results of the meet can be found online at www.LSUsports.net.
“This is an important time of the year for both of our teams as we prepare for the beginning of the championship season next weekend,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “While we’re looking to rest many of our athletes this weekend to have them ready to go for SEC Indoors, many have a great opportunity to step up and compete for us at the LSU Twilight.”
Highlighting the action at the LSU Twilight will be seven athletes who are looking to improve on their already established NCAA provisional qualifying marks as they compete one last time prior to their appearance at the SEC Indoor Championships next weekend.
For the Tigers, senior All-American Jeremy Hicks currently ranks No. 12 nationally in the long jump and will attempt to improve upon his seasonal best and indoor personal best mark of 25 feet, 3 ? inches set at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York three weeks ago. Hicks is looking to compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships for the first time in his LSU career.
Junior Josh Dominguez is also an NCAA provisional qualifier for the Tigers and will be in action in the men’s pole vault with a seasonal best of 17-0 ? set in each of LSU’s last two meets.
The Lady Tigers will feature five NCAA provisional qualifiers of their own at the LSU Twilight, including senior Andrea Linton in the long jump (20-3), junior Samantha Henry in the 60 meters (7.33), junior Katelyn Rodrigue in the pole vault (12-11 ?), sophomore Kenyanna Wilson in the 60 meters (7.37) and sophomore Tenaya Jones in the 60-meter hurdles (8.34).
Henry currently ranks No. 7 in the NCAA in the 60-meter dash, while Wilson is the nation’s 16th-ranked performer in the event. Jones is also ranked among the nation’s Top 20 performers in her specialty as she comes in at No. 20 in the 60 hurdles this week.
“We have a number of athletes competing this weekend who have a great opportunity to improve their position heading into the postseason,” Shaver said. “It’s important that we see improvement from them because we’re going to need them to contribute if we hope to be in contention in the championship meets over the next couple of weeks. This is a big week for each of them.”
After playing host to the LSU Twilight on Friday, LSU will kick off the championship season at the SEC Indoor Championships set to begin Feb. 27 at the Nutter Field House in Lexington, Ky.