BATON ROUGE — Just one week after winning the NCAA Indoor title the LSU men’s track and field team will waste no time returning to action, as the Tigers and Lady Tigers open the outdoor season on Saturday at the SEC Triangular at Bernie Moore Track Stadium.
LSU will host Florida and Ole Miss in a scored meet with field events getting underway at 11 a.m. and track events starting at 12:30 p.m.
“It’s an opportunity to get on the track and gets things going outdoors,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “It’s a chance to start dealing with the elements of weather that we haven’t had to worry about having been indoors the last two months, while also getting to work on a few different events like the 4×100-meter relays and some of the throwing events.”
The SEC Triangular is one of only three home meets for LSU this season. LSU won’t compete at home again until the Alumni Gold Relays on April 14.
Despite competing at the NCAA Indoor meet last weekend, a number of LSU’s top athletes will still compete this weekend.
On the women’s side, All-Americans Muna Lee, Sa’Donna Thornton, Myra Combs and Lolo Jones will all open their outdoor seasons this weekend. Thornton will compete in the open 100-meter dash and in the 4×100-meter relay, while the rest will all compete on relays.
NCAA qualifiers Bianca Rockett and Chenelle Marshall will both compete in the jumps. Rockett headlines the women’s triple jump field while Marshall will battle with Ole Miss All-American Tisha Parker in the long jump.
The Tigers will rest a number of athletes such as the 4×400-meter relay tandem of Robert Parham, Lueroy Colquhoun, Pedro Tunon and Alleyne Francique, as well as NCAA triple jump champion Walter Davis.
Two-time NCAA qualifier Greg Scott will headline the men’s 110-meter hurdle field, while Devery Henderson will compete with Florida’s strong sprints corps in the 100-meter dash. Both will also run on relays, as the Tigers will spread their sprinters out over two groups to test their lineups.
This weekend’s meet will prepare LSU for its first major competition of the season next Saturday, when both squads travel to Los Angeles for a dual meet with Southern California. The meet will feature the two teams that finished 1-2 at the 2000 NCAA Outdoor Championships, while pitting two of the top five men’s teams as well.