BATON ROUGE – The LSU Track & Field teams will take their next steps toward the SEC and NCAA championships this weekend as they travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the third-straight season to compete over two days at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic running Friday and Saturday at the Albuquerque Convention Center.
It marks LSU’s fourth trip to Albuquerque in the last three seasons following their two appearances at the New Mexico Team Invitational and NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships during the 2014 season and an appearance at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic for the first time a year ago.
LSU’s athletes are looking to hit their stride ahead of the championship season that kicks off in just a few short weeks on Feb. 25-26 at the SEC Indoor Championships being held in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
This year’s NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships is just over a month away as the Tigers and Lady Tigers will finish off this campaign March 11-12 at the Birmingham Crossplex in Birmingham, Alabama. The Tigers tied for seventh place and the Lady Tigers tied for ninth place in a pair of top-10 team finishes at the NCAA Indoor Championships a season ago.
Friday’s evening session at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic is set to start for LSU’s teams at 5 p.m. CT with the field events and first preliminary races on the track followed by the first finals on the track at 6:20 p.m. It continues Saturday at 11:30 a.m. in the field events with the continuation of qualifying on the track to follow at 11:45 a.m. The meet will run through the running of the 4×400-meter relays at approximately 4 p.m.
Fans can follow the Tigers and Lady Tigers in action in their two days in Albuquerque by following @LSUTrackField on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lsutrackfield and Instagram at http://instagram.com/lsutrackfield, and also by liking LSU Track & Field on Facebook at http://facebook.com/lsutrackfield.
“Our teams are starting to pick up a bit of momentum with their performances in recent weeks, and it’s important that we continue that with another big weekend coming up,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “It’s hard to believe that we’re only a few weeks away from the championship season, but that’s the nature of the indoor season. That’s why we need to take advantage of each opportunity.”
The Tigers and Lady Tigers will compete alongside a strong field in Albuquerque this weekend as they join the likes of host New Mexico, Alabama, BYU, Southern California, Texas and Texas Tech.
Rounding out the field lining up at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic over the next two days include Eastern New Mexico, Grand Canyon, Lamar, Louisiana-Lafayette, Metro State, Nevada, New Mexico Highlands, New Mexico Junior College, North Texas, Northern Arizona, Stephen F. Austin, Texas Lutheran, UC-Davis, University of Alberta, University of the Southwest, UNLV, Wayland Baptist and West Texas A&M.
Friday’s opener at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic will feature the first round of qualifying in the 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles featuring LSU junior Jordan Moore and sophomore Mikiah Brisco.
Moore enters the weekend tied atop the NCAA rankings in the men’s 60-meter hurdles with the fastest time in the country at 7.69 seconds run just two weeks ago at the Conference Clash Power Five Invitational held in Birmingham. Brisco ranks among the NCAA’s Top 10 in both events with the third-fastest time of 7.26 in the 60 meters and 10th-fastest time of 8.20 in the 60 hurdles.
Tiger junior Michael Cherry is set to run to the 600 meters as part of Friday’s events at the Albuquerque Convention Center just one week after turning in two NCAA-leading performances at the Razorback Invitational. He clocked an NCAA-leading personal best of 45.78 in his 400-meter debut for the Tigers and paced their team to a collegiate-best 3:04.46 in the 4×400-meter relay en route to claiming the Dyestat College Performance of the Week and earning SEC Men’s Runner of the Week honors on Tuesday.
Among LSU’s other nationally-ranked performers headlining the first day of competition at the Albuquerque Convention Center on Friday include juniors Jada Martin in the women’s 200-meter dash and Nataliyah Friar in the women’s long jump. Martin ranks No. 10 nationally with a time of 23.46 in the 200 meters, while Friar is tied for No. 12 spot with a mark of 20 feet, 9 inches in the long jump.
Saturday’s finale at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic will also give the Lady Tigers an opportunity to improve upon their No. 7 national ranking in the 4×400-meter relay after Martin anchored a squad that also featured junior Travia Jones, freshman Rachel Misher and sophomore Kymber Payne that ran 3:35.99 at the Razorback Invitational last Saturday.
After competing at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic this weekend, the Tigers and Lady Tigers will head back to the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to compete at the Tyson Invitational that’s going to run Feb. 12-13. They will also play host to the LSU High Performance Meet in Baton Rouge on Saturday, Feb. 13, while selected athletes will even compete at the Iowa State Classic in Ames next weekend.