BATON ROUGE – Members of the LSU Track & Field program will begin their march toward the NCAA Championships this weekend as they travel to Fair Park Arena in Birmingham, Ala., to compete in the Crimson Tide Indoor Opener as they kick off the 2012 indoor season.
The action at the inaugural Crimson Tide Indoor Opener is set to begin Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. CT with the field events followed by the first events on the track at noon.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers have just eight weeks to prepare for the 2012 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships as Boise State University will play host to the meet on March 9-10 at the Jackson Indoor Track at the Idaho Center in Nampa, Idaho.
Both teams are among the national title contenders during the 2012 indoor season as the Lady Tigers start the season ranked No. 2 and the Tigers kick off the campaign ranked No. 3 in the preseason power ranking released Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
LSU took its place on the medal podium at the NCAA Indoor Championships in the 2011 campaign when the Lady Tigers earned a third-place finish and the Tigers earned a fourth-place finish nationally.
Saturday’s Crimson Tide Indoor Opener features an impressive field as LSU is among eight teams ranked in the USTFCCCA Indoor Preseason Top 25. The No. 3-ranked Tigers will compete against the likes of No. 1-ranked and defending NCAA Indoor champion Florida, No. 6 Florida State, No. 19 Ole Miss and No. 20 Mississippi State. The No. 2-ranked Lady Tigers will compete alongside the likes of such teams as No. 9 Florida State and No. 13 Southern Miss as part of the women’s field.
The field also features such programs as Alabama, Auburn, Samford and Southern Miss on the men’s side and Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Samford and Tulane on the women’s side.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers feature four returning All-Americans who are scheduled to make their season debut in their primary events at the Crimson Tide Indoor Opener on Saturday afternoon.
That includes NCAA Indoor runner-up Barrett Nugent, who is ready to kick off his NCAA title run with a start in the 60-meter hurdles. Nugent earned a runner-up finish in the event at the NCAA Indoor meet last season before winning his first career national title with his victory in the 110-meter hurdles at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, to wrap up the collegiate season.
Among the Lady Tiger All-Americans who will make their 2012 debuts include seniors Semoy Hackett in the 60 meters and Rachel Laurent in the pole vault and sophomore Jasmin Stowers in the 60 hurdles.
Stowers earned her first career All-America honor with a sixth-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles during the NCAA Indoor Championships, while Hackett added an eighth-place finish indoors in her first national final in the 60-meter dash. Laurent earned seventh place in the pole vault at the NCAA Outdoor meet.
Junior Kimberlyn Duncan, the defending NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor champion in the 200 meters, will join Hackett in the 60-meter field in her first competition of the 2012 season.
Saturday’s action will also mark the collegiate debut for members of LSU’s highly-touted 2011 recruiting class with the likes of junior Shanekia Hall (60 hurdles) and freshmen Tori Bliss (shot put), Rodney Brown (shot put), Quincy Downing (400 meters), Andreas Duplantis (pole vault), Aaron Ernest (60 meters), Alex Gochenour (60 hurdles, long jump), William LeBlanc (high jump), Samantha Levin (400 meters), Montenae Roye-Speight (400 meters), Jeremy Tuttle (shot put, weight throw), and Kendra White (400 meters) ready to compete at the Crimson Tide Indoor Qualifier.
After competing at the Crimson Tide Indoor Qualifier, LSU makes the trip to College Station, Texas, next weekend to battle the men and women of Texas A&M at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium in the second-annual LSU vs. Texas A&M Dual Meet that is scheduled to run on Jan. 21.
The Aggies are the three-time defending NCAA Outdoor champions on the men’s and women’s sides and enter this year’s dual meet looking to defend their sweep in the inaugural event in 2011.