BATON ROUGE — The LSU track and field team will attempt to step up its level of competition on Saturday afternoon at the Tom Tellez Invitational in Houston, while a handful of distance runners will head to Stanford.
After using his athletes fairly conservatively over the first two outdoor meets, LSU head coach Pat Henry will be a little more aggressive in his use of his NCAA athletes on Saturday, giving many of them their first significant workout with the Texas Relays only a week away.
“We’re going to give line up athletes in a few more events this weekend,” said Henry. “This is a very good field and we think we can accomplish a great deal this weekend. A year ago this meet was a good event in which a number of our athletes broke out and really established themselves for the outdoor season.”
Last year both teams came to the Tom Tellez Invitational and delivered memorable performances, something Henry hopes his team can repeat this weekend.
His men’s 4×400-meter relay team broke the school record at the Tom Tellez Invitational a year ago, winning a thrilling race with Baylor to the tune of 3 minutes 01.73 seconds. The Tigers’ world-class 4×400-meter relay group of Robert Parham, Lueroy Colquhoun, Pete Coley and Alleyne Francique will race together outdoors for the first time this season on Saturday.
In addition, Francique and Coley, a pair that finished 1-2 respectively in the 400-meter dash at the NCAA Indoor Championships earlier this month will make their outdoor debuts in the open quarter.
On the women’s side Muna Lee will run in the open 100-meter dash for the first time since finishing fourth in the event at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last June. Lee has already gotten off to a strong start for the Lady Tigers, anchoring them to victories in the 4×100-meter dash each of the past two weeks while winning the 200-meter title a week ago.
All-American Lolo Jones, a fourth place finisher in the 60-meter hurdles at the NCAA Indoor Championships, will run in the 100-meter hurdles for the first in the outdoor season on Saturday. Jones, the SEC runner-up in the event as a freshman a year ago, has run on the relay through two meets so far and is an NCAA provisional qualifier in the 100-meter dash.
“This is a very fast track and with the level of competition, we feel like we can have a very productive meet on Saturday,” added Henry.
NCAA Indoor 800-meter champion Marian Burnett will run for the first time since becoming the first Lady Tiger to ever win the half-mile indoors on March 9. Burnett heads a loaded field in the 800-meter run at Stanford and will for a fast opener.
Also running at Stanford this weekend will be NCAA cross country qualifier Likhaya Dayile who will make his 2002 track and field debut. Dayile has just missed out on qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in the 10,000-meter run each of the past two seasons and will look to take advantage of what is annually one of the best fields in the event.
Next weekend both squads return to Texas for the 75th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays in Austin from Thursday through Saturday.