FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The LSU track and field team worked out at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark., for just under two hours Thursday afternoon in their final preparation for the NCAA Indoor Championships, to be held on Friday and Saturday.
The Lady Tigers enter the competiton with the No. 2 ranking and in search of their ninth NCAA Indoor crown and first since 1997, while the fifth ranked Tigers will be seeking their first ever NCAA Indoor title.
“It’s going to be a very close weekend in both competitions, for the first time I don’t know if there is really a clear cut favorite in either race,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “There is no margin for error this weekend and which ever teams emerge on top will be the ones the don’t shoot themselves in the foot and step it up when it counts.”
The Lady Tigers finished fourth at the NCAA Indoor meet a year ago after finishing second in 1998 and 1999, while the Tigers finished seventh last year, the fourth time in the last five years they finished in the top 10.
LSU enters this weekend’s competition with 16 athletes qualified – nine of the women’s side and seven on the men’s side.
Each team boasts a national leader heading into this weekend, as well as a number of athletes and relays ranked in the top 10 in the nation.
The Tigers will need a strong weekend from Walter Davis who leads the nation in the triple jump and ranks second in the long jump heading into this weekend. Davis, who won the SEC titles in both events, will open his quest on Friday evening at 6 p.m. No Tiger has ever won either horizontal jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Critical to the Tigers’ success this weekend will be fellow jumper Marcus Thomas, a six-time All-American who enters the meet ranked fourth in the nation in the triple and 14th in the long jump.
Thomas scored both indoors and outdoors in both jumps last year, including a fourth place finish in the long jump and a fifth place finish in the triple at the 2000 NCAA Indoor Championships. Should he score in both events this weekend, he will match former Tiger great Rohsaan Griffin for most All-American honors in LSU men’s history with eight.
The Tigers will need significant contributions from the quarter milers this weekend. Alleyne Francique ranks third in the nation in the 400-meter dash, while Lueroy Colquhoun, who finished fourth at the NCAA Indoor meet a year ago, enters ranked 14th. The duo join with Robert Parham and Pedro Tunon to form the nation’s fourth-ranked 4×400-meter relay.
On the women’s side, the Lady Tigers will try to use a combination of sprints and jumps to bring home their first title in four years.
Muna Lee leads the nation in the 200-meter dash, while ranking seventh in the 60-meter dash. SEC 60-meter dash champion Sa’Donna Thornton ranks fifth in the nation.
Lee can become LSU’s first freshman All-American in the 200-meter dash since Esther Jones in 1988, while Thornton, a seventh place finisher in the 60-meter dash a year ago, will attempt to become LSU’s first NCAA champion in the event since 1998.
Ronetta Smith and Myra Combs hope to make an impact in the 400-meter dash, as Smith ranks sixth in the nation, while Combs ranks 10th. The two also join with Stephanie Durst and Xyllena Lynch to form the nation’s 10th-ranked mile relay.
In the jumps, SEC triple jump champion Bianca Rockett ranks fourh in the nation in her signature event, while Chenelle Marshall and Combs ranks 14th in the long jump. Combs, however, has scored in the long jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships on two occasions.
If the top teams look familiar to LSU this weekend, it’s because they have seen them all already. The Southeastern Conference boasts four of the top five teams in the nation in each poll.
Arkansas leads the men’s poll followed by Alabama, Stanford, Tennessee and LSU. South Carolina leads the women’s poll followed by LSU, Arkansas, UCLA and Florida.
The Lady Tigers have won a total of NCAA Indoor titles with their most successful run coming from 1993-97 when they won five straight. The Tigers have never won the NCAA Indoor crown with their highest finish coming in 1988 when they finished fourth.