BATON ROUGE – The LSU Track & Field teams look to hit another gear with their first trip to Nashville, Tennessee, this season as the No. 3-ranked Tigers and No. 7-ranked Lady Tigers compete against a strong field at the Commodore Invitational running Friday and Saturday at the Vanderbilt Multipurpose Facility.
Friday’s afternoon session kicks off at 4 p.m. CT with the first field events of the day followed by the first events on the track at 7 p.m. The meet continues Saturday with the morning session getting underway with the unseeded events on the track at 10:20 a.m. followed by the start of the afternoon prelims at 1 p.m. Saturday’s field events get underway at 10:30 a.m.
The finale at this year’s Commodore Invitational will run through the 4×400-meter relays beginning at 4:55 p.m. CT on Saturday as fans can follow live results from the meet at http://www.cfpitiming.com.
Fans can receive live updates of the Tigers and Lady Tigers competing throughout the weekend at the Commodore Invitational by following @LSUTrackField on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lsutrackfield and Instagram at http://instagram.com/lsutrackfield and also by liking the team’s Facebook page at http://facebook.com/lsutrackfield.
SEC Indoor Preview?
This marks the first of two trips for LSU’s teams to the Vanderbilt Multipurpose Facility this indoor season as the Commodores will also play host to the 2017 SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships from Feb. 24-25.
And the Commodore Invitational this weekend will certainly have an SEC flavor as LSU will be joined in the competition by Auburn, Florida, Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee as they look to get a feel for the Vanderbilt Multipurpose Facility ahead of the SEC Indoor Championships next month.
Power Five conference squads Georgia Tech and Texas Tech join their SEC counterparts at the Commodore Invitational this weekend with the likes of Austin Peay, Belmont, Lipscomb, Middle Tennessee State, Murray State, UT-Martin, UTEP, Western Kentucky and Trevecca Nazarene University rounding out the field in Nashville.
National Rankings
LSU was again featured among the country’s elite teams with the release of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association preseason indoor rankings this week with the Tigers as the No. 3-ranked men’s team and the Lady Tigers the No. 7-ranked women’s team at the outset of the 2017 indoor season.
Three of the top-four teams in the country are among the men’s field at the Commodore Invitational this weekend as the No. 1-ranked Florida and No. 4-ranked Arkansas join the Tigers as the top teams heading up to Nashville over the next two days. Also among the nation’s Top 25 men’s teams in the field this weekend are No. 12 Texas Tech and No. 13 Tennessee.
The Lady Tigers are among five nationally-ranked teams on the women’s side competing this weekend as No. 2 Arkansas, No. 6 Florida, No. 15 Tennessee and No. 21 Ole Miss are also the featured attractions.
Building Momentum
Two Lady Tigers are looking to build upon their season-opening performances at the Purple Tiger Invitational a week ago after sophomore Kortnei Johnson and freshman Tonea Marshall kicked off 2017 with two of the NCAA’s leading performances in the 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles, respectively, while sweeping event titles.
Johnson equaled her personal-best time of 7.33 seconds set in her debut appearance at the SEC Indoor Championships nearly one year ago to tie for the No. 5-ranked time in the national rankings early in the season.
Marshall’s collegiate debut was certainly one to remember as she won the 60-meter hurdles in her first final as a Lady Tiger with a winning run of 8.29 last Friday afternoon. Her season-opening win cracked the NCAA’s Top 10 as the No. 6-ranked time in the collegiate ranks early on and gave her the fastest season opener by a freshman in the history of the Lady Tiger program.
Along with their primary events, both Johnson and Marshall will also line up in the 200-meter dash in Friday’s opener at the Commodore Invitational as they are among 11 Lady Tigers entered in the one-lap event.
Opening Up
A host of returning All-Americans are scheduled to run their individual events for the first time this season at the Vanderbilt Multipurpose Facility, including 2015 NCAA Indoor Bronze Medalist Nataliyah Friar in the long jump, fellow senior Rushell Harvey in the 200 meters, junior Aleia Hobbs in the 60 meters and senior Travia Jones and sophomore Rachel Misher in both the 200 meters and 400 meters.
Freshmen Nickolette Dunbar (shot put), Cassondra Hall (200 meters), Ruby Stauber (800 meters) and Christian Miller (triple jump) are members of LSU’s highly-touted recruiting classes also debuting this weekend.
Next Up
LSU’s teams will follow their trip to Nashville this weekend with an appearance at the Auburn Indoor Invitational in Birmingham, Alabama, next week as they will compete at the Birmingham Crossplex on Saturday, Jan. 21. They wrap up the month of January with their first trip to the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas, as they compete at the Razorback Invitational running Jan. 27-28.