BATON ROUGE – With the Christmas holiday and New Year’s break now in the rearview mirror, a new season for the LSU Track & Field program is just around the corner as the Tigers and Lady Tigers are ready to play host to this year’s Purple Tiger Invitational at the Carl Maddox Field House on Friday afternoon.
The morning session at the Purple Tiger Invitational gets underway with the early field events at 10:30 a.m. CT followed by the first preliminary races on the track beginning at 12:30 p.m. The first finals on the track start at 1:35 p.m. as the action continues through the running of the distance medley relays beginning at 5:40 p.m.
Delta Timing will be providing live results from the meet as fans can follow the action at http://deltatiming.com. Fans can also receive live updates from the Purple Tiger Invitational by following @LSUTrackField on both Twitter at http://twitter.com/lsutrackfield and Instagram at http://instagram.com/lsutrackfield and by liking the LSU Track & Field page on Facebook at http://facebook.com/lsutrackfield.
The Field
Friday’s Purple Tiger Invitational features a Louisiana flavor as LSU is among nine in-state programs opening their season at the Carl Maddox Field House. LSU’s teams are set to compete alongside the likes of Louisiana-Lafayette, McNeese State, New Orleans, Nicholls State, Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana, Southern and Tulane.
Rounding out the 15-team field making the trip to Baton Rouge on Friday afternoon are Alcorn State, Hinds Community College, Meridian Community College, North Texas, Texas Southern and Texas State.
All-Americans Return
Nine returning All-Americans from the 2016 season headline the action for LSU’s teams with seniors LaMar Bruton and Michael Cherry both set to run the men’s 600 meters for the Tigers and seniors Rushell Harvey (60 meters), Travia Jones, Jada Martin (60 meters) and Morgan Schuetz (mile, 3,000 meters); junior Mikiah Brisco (60 hurdles) and sophomores Kortnei Johnson (60 meters) and Rachel Misher (60 meters) all slated to open up their indoor seasons for the Lady Tigers.
Bruton and Cherry were both members of LSU’s NCAA Champion 4×400-meter relay team a year ago with Cherry also being crowned the NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor Bronze Medalist in the 400-meter dash to end his debut season with the Tigers. Bruton was an NCAA semifinalist in the 400 meters during the outdoor season.
Brisco returns as one of the top performing Lady Tigers a year ago when she captured four All-America honors in NCAA competition. Not only did she lead off the team with Johnson, Martin and Harvey that captured a national championship in the women’s 4×100-meter relay last spring, but she also placed third in the 60 meters and fifth in the 60 hurdles at the NCAA Indoor Championships and fifth nationally in the 100 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships to cap her sophomore season.
Martin was also a member of LSU’s All-American 4×400-meter relay team during the 2016 outdoor season as she joined the likes of Jones and Misher in placing fourth in the NCAA Outdoor final in Oregon last June.
Schuetz also returns as one of the NCAA’s leading middle distance runners from a year ago when she closed out her junior season as an All-American in the 800 meters at the NCAA Outdoor Championships, finishing in seventh place overall. Her 800-meter debut will have to wait this indoor season as she is scheduled to run both the mile and 3k on Friday afternoon.
Collegiate Debuts
Both of LSU’s recruiting classes in 2016 received top-five rankings with the release Track & Field News’ official recruiting rankings in its January 2017 issue as the Lady Tigers signed the nation’s No. 3-ranked class and the Tigers signed the nation’s No. 4-ranked class ahead of the 2017 season.
Many of these freshmen are ready to debut in the purple and gold at Friday’s event when Rayvon Grey, Christian Miller and Jace Attuso all step onto the long jump runway for the Tigers and Nickolette Dunbar (weight throw), Cassondra Hall (60 meters), Brittley Humphrey (60 hurdles) and Tonea Marshall (60 hurdles) compete for the Lady Tigers for the first time.
Next Up
After opening the 2017 indoor season with the Purple Tiger Invitational on Friday afternoon, the Tigers and Lady Tigers follow with their first of two trips to Nashville, Tennessee, with the Commodore Invitational being held Jan. 13-14 at the Vanderbilt Multipurpose Facility. Vanderbilt will also play host to the 2017 SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships later this season from Feb. 24-25.