BATON ROUGE – The running of the LSU Relays marks the true outdoor opener each season for members of the LSU Track & Field program, and that is certainly true this weekend as many of LSU’s standouts will make their 2012 outdoor debut at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium on Friday and Saturday.
Fans can enjoy an exciting weekend of world-class competition beginning at 3 p.m. CDT on Friday and at 1 p.m. on Saturday afternoon following a brief opening ceremony.
Morning sessions are also scheduled to begin on Friday at 10:30 a.m. in the field events and Saturday at 9 a.m. in the field events followed by the first events on the track at 9:30 a.m.
Kids Day festivities start Saturday at noon CDT at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium, featuring both a face painter and balloon twister from 12-2 p.m. There is also a “Kids Lap” slated to run at 12:30 p.m. in which any kid in attendance can run a lap around the oval before the start of the afternoon session.
In addition, the national anthem will be performed by the children of St. Patrick’s Preschool at 12:55 p.m. to highlight the opening ceremony for Saturday’s championship action at the LSU Relays.
After wrapping up the indoor season with a third-place finish by the Lady Tigers and a fifth-place finish by the Tigers at the NCAA Indoor Championships two weeks ago, LSU now turns its attention to the outdoor season as the teams begin their preparation for the 2012 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships scheduled to run June 6-9 at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.
The LSU Relays provides the Tigers and Lady Tigers with an opportunity to prepare for the events they’ll see in the coming weeks at both the Texas Relays and Penn Relays.
The 85th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays will run next week as LSU makes its annual trip to Austin for one of the premier events of the outdoor season being held March 28-31. The Tigers and Lady Tigers wrap up the regular season on April 26-28 with the 118th running of the Penn Relay Carnival.
“While both of our teams opened up outdoors for the first time last weekend in Lafayette, we always view the LSU Relays as our true outdoor opener each season,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “Everyone will compete in some capacity this weekend. This is always a great way for us to begin the outdoor season with a meet that is really going to help us as a team moving forward.
“The LSU Relays helps prepare our athletes for what they will see later in the season when we compete at the Texas Relays and Penn Relays. It’s a lot of fun for our athletes to run all the different relays.”
The LSU Relays has established a strong reputation for high school competition in recent years, and that’s certainly the case this weekend with 816 prep athletes representing 48 high schools from six states competing, including Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas.
In addition, the meet will also feature a series of age group races in the 100-meter dash on Saturday which includes tiny tots, sub-bantam, bantam, midget, youth and master’s levels.
“We have a tremendous facility here at Bernie Moore Stadium in which to train and compete and host this caliber of a meet to start the season,” Shaver said. “We enjoy the many different types of events we run at this meet from the youth levels all the way through the high school and college events.”
Despite kicking off its outdoor season last weekend, the Tigers and Lady Tigers elected not to run the top lineup on either 4×100-meter relay team at the Louisiana Classics held Saturday in Lafayette.
The Lady Tigers are the defending NCAA Champions in the 4×100-meter relay after taking their 13th title in the event a year ago with a blistering run of 42.64 seconds in the national final. They’ll feature a probable relay order of sophomore Jasmin Stowers, senior Semoy Hackett, senior Rebecca Alexander and junior Kimberlyn Duncan in their 2012 outdoor debut in Friday’s preliminary round.
The Tigers have also been among the nation’s leading performers in the relay at the NCAA Outdoor meet in recent years, following their national title in 2008 and national runner-up finish in 2009 with their third place in 2010 and fourth place in 2011 at the NCAA Championships. LSU’s expected lineup in the 4×100 relay this weekend includes senior Barrett Nugent, sophomore Shermund Allsop, senior Keyth Talley and freshman Aaron Ernest after its “B” team opened with a time of 40.26 seconds last weekend.
In addition, to running the 4×100-meter relays, the Tigers and Lady Tigers will also run the 4×200, 4×400, sprint medley relay and distance medley relay as they prepare for the Texas Relays next weekend.
Each of LSU’s three reigning SEC Athletes of the Week will also see action in their individual events this weekend as Ernest lines up in the 100-meter dash, freshman Rodney Brown competes in the men’s discus and senior Samia Stokes competes in the women’s discus at the LSU Relays.
Ernest earned SEC Men’s Runner of the Week and SEC Men’s Freshman of the Week honors following a tremendous performance in earning three wins in his outdoor debut for the Tigers at the Louisiana Classic a week ago. Brown was named the SEC Men’s Field Athlete of the Week and Stokes was chosen the SEC Women’s Field Athlete of the Week after strong performances in Lafayette on Saturday.
The LSU Relays also serves as the outdoor opener each season for those Tigers and Lady Tigers earning a spot on LSU’s roster competing at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Among LSU’s qualifiers for the NCAA Indoor meet scheduled to compete in individual events during the LSU Relays on Friday and Saturday include senior Kyron Blaise (triple jump), Rachel Laurent (pole vault), Barrett Nugent (100 meters), senior Keyth Talley (100 meters), junior Shanekia Hall (100 hurdles), junior Charlene Lipsey (1,500 meters), sophomore Denise Hinton (hammer throw), sophomore Lynnika Pitts (long jump) and sophomore Jasmin Stowers (100 meters).
After playing host to the LSU Relays this weekend, the Tigers and Lady Tigers will make their annual trip to Austin, Texas, next week for the 85th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays, scheduled to run March 28-31 at Mike A. Myers Stadium on the campus of the University of Texas.