BATON ROUGE – With the success of the 2011 indoor season still fresh in their minds, the LSU men’s and women’s track and field teams will kick off the outdoor season Saturday as they make the short drive to Lafayette to compete in the Louisiana Classics hosted by the University of Louisiana-Lafayette.
Saturday’s competition at the Ragin’ Cajuns Track Stadium is scheduled to start with the field events at 9 a.m. CDT followed by the first events on the track at 1:30 p.m.
While the Tigers and Lady Tigers competing at the NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station over the past weekend will remain in Baton Rouge to rest during the team’s outdoor opener, Saturday’s meet is sure to give many of LSU’s athletes an opportunity to get off to a fast start for the outdoor campaign.
While live results will be unavailable during this year’s Louisiana Classics, fans will have the opportunity to access full meet results and a complete meet recap on LSUsports.net following the competition.
“This is an important weekend for both our men’s and women’s teams as we allow those competing in the NCAA Indoor Championships last weekend to rest up, while giving many of our other athletes the chance to compete this weekend and show us what they can do early on,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “I look for us to carry our success from NCAA Indoors into the outdoor season.
“This meet is always an important step for both our teams as we make that transition. Our plan is for all of our athletes to see some action next weekend when we host our first home meet at the LSU Relays.”
Each year, the Louisiana Classics provides members of LSU’s throws group to compete in events that are not offered during the indoor season, including the discus and javelin throws.
Junior Samia Stokes, one of the nation’s premier discus throwers returning to the collegiate ranks in 2011, is just one Lady Tiger standout who is set to make her outdoor debut on Saturday afternoon. The reigning SEC Outdoor discus champion qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships after recording a new PR of 177 feet, 11 inches at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds a season ago.
Stokes, who improved her personal record by more than 14 feet over the course of the 2011 season, ranks No. 2 on LSU’s all-time outdoor performance list in the event. Stokes is the defending Louisiana Classics discus champion after opening the 2010 outdoor season with a then personal best of 166-1.
The LSU javelin throwers will also have their first opportunity to compete in 2011 as the group is led by a pair of returning SEC scorers in juniors Aaron Moore and Ryan Roubion.
Moore was an All-SEC performer during his sophomore season in 2010 after earning a runner-up finish at the SEC Outdoor Championships in Knoxville, Tenn., where he established a personal record of 226-8 on his first throw of the meet. Roubion owns a personal best of 210-10 that he set as a freshman back in 2009 with a fifth-place finish at the SEC Outdoor Championships held in Gainesville, Fla.
Moore is a two-time NCAA Championships qualifier in the javelin throw during his collegiate career with a career-best 15th-place finish in the event in national competition.
Among those who will lead the Tigers on the track during this year’s Louisiana Classics are senior Tristan Walker in the 200-meter dash and freshmen Geno Jones and Rynell Parson in the 100-meter dash. For the Lady Tigers, freshman Toshika Sylvester will line up in both the 100-meter and 200-meter sprints.
After competing at the Louisiana Classics in Lafayette this weekend, the Tigers and Lady Tigers return to the Bernie Moore Track Stadium in Baton Rouge for back-to-back home meets with the LSU Relays from March 25-26 and the LSU Invitational on April 2 at the newly-renovated facility.