BATON ROUGE — The championship season kicks off this weekend for the LSU track and field teams as the Tigers and Lady Tigers make the trip to Lexington, Ky., to compete at the 2009 SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships to be held at the Nutter Field House.
The meet is set to begin Friday with the men’s heptathlon and women’s pentathlon, but LSU will not compete for the first time until Saturday with the start of the open track and field events.
The SEC Championships features many of the nation’s premier programs each year, and that will be the case again this weekend as seven men’s teams and five women’s teams enter the weekend ranked in the latest poll by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
The ninth-ranked Lady Tigers are the defending SEC Indoor champions and must fight off No. 2 Tennessee, No. 18 Auburn, No. 20 Arkansas and No. 24 Florida in order to keep their crown. The Lady Tigers have actually won three-straight SEC championships dating back to the 2007 season as they have won back-to-back SEC Outdoor crowns in 2007 and 2008.
The Tigers enter the meet ranked No. 5 nationally and are looking to improve upon their runner-up finish from a year ago with their first team title at the SEC Indoor Championships since 1990.
This is perhaps the deepest field of any conference championship meet in the country as LSU will be joined by six other teams ranked among the nation’s Top 20, including No. 2 Arkansas, No. 8 Florida, No. 12 Georgia, No. 17 South Carolina, No. 19 Kentucky and No. 20 Tennessee.
“We always look forward to this time of year because it’s what we work so hard for since starting our training in the fall,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “In many ways, this meet is exactly what we can expect to see at the NCAA Championships in two weeks because most of the events will be like lining up and competing in a final at the national meet. We look forward to that.”
LSU will bring some firepower to Lexington this weekend as a number of athletes are in position to compete for conference titles in their respective specialty events.
The Tigers feature three athletes who rank at the top of the Southeastern Conference in their event as junior Trindon Holliday, sophomore Walter Henning and freshman Robert Simmons enter the meet as favorites to be crowned individual champions with the league’s top mark this season.
Holliday has clocked a seasonal-best time of 6.56 seconds in the 60-meter dash to also rank No. 2 in the NCAA this season. He is gunning for his first career SEC title at 60 meters after earning all-conference honors with a runner-up finish at the SEC Indoor Championships a year ago, when he was second to teammate and Olympic silver medalist Richard Thompson.
Like Holliday, Henning also ranks No. 1 in the SEC and No. 2 nationally in his event with a seasonal best and personal-best performance of 73 feet, 4 ? inches in the 35-pound weight throw. Simmons has the league’s top time in the 400-meter dash with a seasonal-best clocking of 46.55.
The Lady Tigers boast a pair of event favorites of their own as junior Samantha Henry has the top time in the 200 meters at 23.61 and junior LaTavia Thomas leads the 800 meters at 2:04.54.
Thomas has an opportunity to make history at this year’s SEC Indoor Championships with a first-place finish in the 800-meter final on Sunday. She would join former Florida star Hazel Clark as the only two women in the history of the SEC to win five consecutive conference titles in the half mile race. Thomas has already won four-straight SEC titles in the 800 meters by sweeping indoor and outdoor crowns as a freshman in 2007 and a sophomore in 2008.
Clark captured five-straight conference titles for the Gators from 1997-99 while sweeping indoor and outdoor crowns in 1997 and 1998 before adding a third indoor title to her resume in 1999.
In addition, many LSU athletes will be in the running for all-conference honors as they will open the competition ranked either second or third in the SEC in their respective event.
Among the LSU athletes who are the league’s second-ranked performer in their event this season include senior Andrea Linton in both the long jump and triple jump, junior Josh Dominguez in the pole vault, sophomore Brittani Carter in the high jump and the Lady Tigers’ 4×400 relay team that is looking to defend its SEC Indoor title from a year ago.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers also feature five athletes who rank third in the league in an event, led by Henry in the 60 meters, senior Jeremy Hicks in the long jump, junior Armanti Hayes in the 400 meters, junior Jamaal James in the 800 meters and freshman Rachel Laurent in the pole vault.
“We’re looking forward to competing against many of the best teams and athletes in the country this weekend, and it should be an exciting race for the team title on both the men’s and women’s sides,” Shaver said. “We’ve prepared ourselves well and are ready to line up and compete starting tomorrow. We’ll get a good idea about where we’re at going into the NCAA Championships.”
Any LSU athlete having yet to qualify for the NCAA meet following this weekend’s action has a final opportunity to do so next week as the Tigers and Lady Tigers return to the Carl Maddox Field House on March 6 to play host to the LSU NCAA Indoor Qualifier.
The 2009 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships are set to get underway March 13 at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium on the campus of Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.