(updated 6/7/03 to include addition of Katie McKeever in shot put)
BATON ROUGE — LSU track and field’s top-ranked Lady Tigers and seventh-ranked Tigers should once again be a dominate force at the NCAA Outdoor Championships as the two teams have combined to send 21 individuals and four relay teams to the national meet it was announced Tuesday by the NCAA committee.
The Lady Tigers, the 2003 indoor national champions, will send 14 athletes and two relays teams to the championship meet, while the Tigers will have seven athletes and two relays teams representing LSU.
The Lady Tigers will look to the sprints and hurdle events for the majority of its scoring opportunities. Muna Lee, the 2003 women’s indoor athlete of the year, swept the short sprint titles at the NCAA Indoor Championships and has the opportunity to do the same at the outdoor championships as she has qualified in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes. She enters the meet with the top qualifying time in the 100 meters (11.04) and the third-best mark in the 200 meters (22.74).
Also competing in the women’s 200 meters will be Stephanie Durst and Monique Hall. Durst finished third in the event at last year’s national championships and enters the meet with the nation’s sixth-best time (22.86).
Hall will be making her second straight trip to the NCAAs after qualifying to the indoor national meet in the 200 meters earlier this year.
The Lady Tigers will be well represented in the 100-meter hurdles as three athletes have qualified in the event. 2003 NCAA 60-meter hurdles champion, Lolo Jones, will headline the solid core of hurdles as she enters the meet ranked second in the nation with a season-best time of 12.90. She will be pushed by teammates RaNysha LeBlanc, an All-SEC selection in the event, and Zamyal Jackson who own the eight and 19th best times in the NCAA this season, respectively.
Another Lady Tiger will be representing LSU in the hurdle events as Althea Thomas has qualified in the 400-meter hurdles. This will mark Thomas’ first appearance at the NCAA Championships in the 400 hurdles as she has been to the meet before, serving as an alternate on the 4×400-meter relay team.
In the long sprint and middle distance events, Hazelann Regis and Nadia Davy will headline the Lady Tiger quarter-milers, while Neisha Bernard-Thomas will be a solid force in the 800 meters. Regis is a two-time All-SEC selection in the 400 meters and has run the NCAA’s third fastest time in the event this season (51.54). Davy, an indoor All-American in the open quarter, ranks 12th in the event with a season-best time of 52.31. Bernard-Thomas will enter the meet with the field’s third fastest time, 2:03.32, a mark that ranks fourth all-time in the LSU record books.
Regis, Davy and Bernard-Thomas will likely join with Monique Hall as the foursome contends for the national title in the 4×400-meter relay. The foursome ranks second in the event this season.
Hall will make her second appearance in a relay event as she will combine with Stephanie Durst, Lolo Jones and Muna Lee to challenge the countries best in the 4×100-meter relay. The quartet owns the world-leading mark in the event this season (42.63) and is undefeated in the race to date.
In the field events the Lady Tigers will be represented by Nicole Toney in the triple jump, LaToya Payne in the long jump, Mallory McDonald in the hammer and Katie McKeever in the shot put. Toney, a three-time All-American and the 2002 indoor national champion in the triple jump, will return with her eye on her second national title. The junior from West Hartford, Conn., has won both the SEC and Mideast Regional titles and enters the meet with the fourth-best triple jump distance in the country to date (44-6 3/4).
Payne, in her first year with the Lady Tigers, will be making her inaugural appearance at the NCAA Championships. She finished fourth in the long jump at the Mideast Regional Championships with a season-best effort of 21-0 1/4 to earn the automatic bid.
McDonald rounds out the Lady Tigers’ field of competitors. The school record holder in the hammer, she enters the meet with the field’s 14th-best throw (197-4) this season.
McKeever, who received an invitation from the NCAA Track & Field Committee on June 7 when an athlete was forced to withdraw, has a season-best of 51-9 3/4 in the shot put.
On the men’s side, the Tigers will look to the sprints and horizontal jumps for their best scoring opportunities.
All-Americans Pete Coley, Kelly Willie and Robert Parham will serve as LSU’s marquee athletes in the sprint events. Coley finished third in the 400 meters at the outdoor meet a year ago, while Willie, just a freshman, earned All-American accolades with his sixth-place finish in the open quarter at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Parham, a four-time All-American, will be representing the Tigers in the 200 meters. He advanced after a season-best 20.81 effort in the event at the Mideast regional championships.
Parham, Coley and Willie will join with Bennie Brazell as the foursome will challenge the nation’s best in both the 4×100 and 4×400-meter relays.
Individually, Brazell should also be a top contender in the 400-meter hurdles. Brazell finished second in the nation in the event a year ago, clocking a school record time of 48.80, and enters the meet with the fourth-best time in the NCAA this year (49.10).
In the field events, the Tigers will be represented by LeJuan Simon in the triple jump, John Moffitt in both the long and triple jump events and Daniel Trosclair in the pole vault.
Moffitt, earned All-America honors in both events during the indoor season and enters the national championships ranked third in the country in the long jump and seventh in the triple jump. Simon, making his second appearance at the NCAA Championships, ranks fifth in the triple jump.
Trosclair, an indoor All-American in the pole vault, enters the meet with a season-best outdoor clearance of 16-11.
The NCAA Outdoor Championships will run, June 11-14, at the Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex in Sacramento, Calif. The Tigers enter the meet as the defending national champions, while the Lady Tigers, the 2003 NCAA Indoor champions, look to improve upon their fourth-place finish from a year ago.
LSU’s 2003 NCAA Championships Participants
WOMEN (National Ranking, Top Time/Mark)
100 Meters
Muna Lee (1st, 11.04)
200 Meters
Muna Lee (3rd, 22.74)
Stephanie Durst (6th, 22.86)
Monique Hall (11th, 23.09)
400 Meters
Hazelann Regis (3rd, 51.54)
Nadia Davy (12th, 52.31)
800 Meters
Neisha Bernard-Thomas (3rd, 2:03.32)
100-Meter Hurdles
Lolo Jones (2nd, 12.90)
RaNysha LeBlanc (8th, 13.09)
Zamyal Jackson (19th, 13.33)
400-Meter Hurdles
Althea Thomas (21st, 58.30)
4×100-Meter Relay (1st, 42.63)
4×400-Meter Relay (2nd, 3:28.68)
Long Jump
LaToya Payne (16th, 21-0 1/4)
Triple Jump
Nicole Toney (4th, 44-6 3/4)
Hammer Throw
Mallory McDonald (14th, 197-4)
Shot Put
Katie McKeever (25th, 51-9 3/4)
MEN (National Ranking, Top Time/Mark)
200 Meters
Robert Parham (19th, 20.81)
400 Meters
Kelly Willie (10th, 45.62)
Pete Coley (24th, 46.46)
400-Meter Hurdles
Bennie Brazell (4th, 49.10)
4×100-Meter Relay (6th, 39.33)
4×400-Meter Relay (8th, 3:05.31)
Pole Vault
Daniel Trosclair (24th, 16-11)
Long Jump
John Moffitt (3rd, 26-3 3/4)
Triple Jump
LeJuan Simon (5th, 54-9 1/2)
John Moffitt (7th, 54-6 1/2)