BATON ROUGE – After arriving in Eugene, Oregon, on Sunday evening, members of the LSU Track & Field teams have wrapped up two days of training at Hayward Field and are now ready to roll in the semifinal and final rounds at the 2014 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships beginning Wednesday at the University of Oregon.
The NCAA Outdoor Championships return to Oregon’s Hayward Field for the second-straight season as they Tigers and Lady Tigers also wrapped up their 2013 season in Eugene.
The semifinal rounds of this year’s NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships are scheduled to begin Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. CT with the first field events of the week, followed by the first event on the track at 5 p.m. with the semifinal rounds of the men’s and women’s 4×100-meter relays. Thursday’s action is also slated for a 3:30 p.m. start, while Friday’s action kicks off at 5:25 p.m. and Saturday’s finale opens up at 2:45 p.m. for the Tigers and Lady Tigers on the final day of the 2014 collegiate season.
ESPNU will air two days of live coverage from Oregon’s Hayward Field this weekend as fans can watch the LSU Track & Field teams in action on Friday from 6:30-8:30 p.m. CT and on Saturday from 4-6 p.m.
ESPN3.com will also provide live streaming video during the first two days of the competition on Wednesday from 6-10 p.m. CT and on Thursday from 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m. All four days of the 2014 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships will also be available for viewing through Watch ESPN.
Live results from the semifinal and final rounds during the 2014 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships will be provided by Flash Results and can be found online at http://www.flashresults.com/.
Fans can also receive live updates and behind-the-scenes coverage of the Tigers and Lady Tigers competing throughout the weekend in their 2014 season finale at the NCAA Outdoor Championships by liking LSU Track & Field on Facebook at http://facebook.com/lsutrackfield and by following @LSUTrackField on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lsutrackfield.
The Tigers will line up at the NCAA Championships as the No. 6-ranked men’s team in the country after qualifying 10 semifinalists into the meet from the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds held in Jacksonville, Florida, from May 29-31. The Lady Tigers are the No. 8-ranked women’s team in the country with 13 semifinalists in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Top 25 power rankings.
LSU’s 23 NCAA semifinalists competing in the championship is the sixth-most nationally combined between the two teams, trailing only Oregon (41), Texas A&M (25), Arkansas (31), Florida (28) and Texas (28).
The semifinal round of the NCAA Championship will include the Top 24 finishers in each event from the NCAA Preliminary Rounds held two weeks ago. That includes the Top 12 finishers in each event from the East site held at Hodges Stadium at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville and the Top 12 finishers in each event from the West site at John McDonnell Field at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
“This week is the continuation of a seven-day NCAA Championship that we started with a great weekend in Jacksonville just a couple of weeks ago,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “We are preparing to bring that momentum here to Eugene as we continue with Day 4 at NCAAs tomorrow. We’ve prepared well over the past couple of weeks, and are ready to get it going tomorrow.”
The Lady Tigers took home the fourth-place team trophy on the women’s side a year ago while scoring 40 points in four days of competition at Hayward Field. The Tigers earned a top-10 team finish of their own during last year’s NCAA Championships as they scored 27 points for seventh place in the final men’s team standings.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers have combined for an impressive 18 team titles all-time at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships between the two programs. They own 31 national championships all-time between the indoor and outdoor seasons as one of the most decorated combined programs in the history of collegiate track and field. The Tigers last won the NCAA Outdoor crown on the men’s side in 2002, while the Lady Tigers last took home the women’s team title during the 2008 season.
While it has been 11 seasons since the Tigers were last crowned the NCAA Outdoor team champions, they have an impressive run of 12 top-five finishes at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the past 14 seasons. It’s a run that includes four runner-up finishes in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2012 and a pair of third-place team finishes nationally in 2004 and 2005.
While the Tigers have proven themselves as one of the NCAA’s most consistent men’s programs in recent years, the Lady Tigers have finished outside the Top 7 in the team standings just once during that span.
Below is the complete list of LSU’s semifinalists scheduled to compete this week at the 2014 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships as the Tigers and Lady Tigers wrap up the 2014 collegiate season.
“We had an outstanding weekend in Jacksonville during the first three days of this NCAA Championships to put our teams in the position where we can compete for top finishes here in Eugene this week,” Shaver said. “With the fields now being cut from 24 to eight on the track and 24 to nine in the field events, it’s absolutely important that our athletes are prepared and ready to compete at the highest level from the very start here this week. We know they’re prepared to do that starting tomorrow from the very first event.”
LSU’s Qualifiers for the NCAA Championships Semifinals in Eugene, Oregon
Note: All marks and times were achieved at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds on May 29-31.
Tigers
Name, Event, Time/Mark (Place)
Rodney Brown, Discus, 207-10 (1)
Quincy Downing, 400 Hurdles, 50.49 (2)
Aaron Ernest, 100 Meters, 10.19 (3)
Aaron Ernest, 200 Meters, 20.38 (2)
Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, 200 Meters, 20.69 (9)
Vernon Norwood, 400 Meters, 45.17 (2)
Joshua Thompson, 110 Hurdles, 13.77 (9)
Jeremy Tuttle, Hammer Throw, 213-10 (9)
Mitchell-Blake, Ernest, Acy, Allsop; 4×100 Relay; 39.04 (3)
Downing, Bush, Grayson, Norwood; 4×400 Relay; 3:02.64 (1)
Lady Tigers
Name, Event, Time/Mark (Place)
Tori Bliss, Shot Put, 54-6 (6)
Chanice Chase, 100 Hurdles, 13.27 (11)
Chanice Chase, 400 Hurdles, 56.40 (4)
Nataliyah Friar, Long Jump, 20-5 ¾ (8)
Rushell Harvey, 100 Meters, 11.46w (9)
Denise Hinton, Hammer Throw, 202-2 (5)
Lynnika Pitts, High Jump, 5-9 ¾ (T8)
Lynnika Pitts, Triple Jump, 43-1 (9)
Jasmin Stowers, 100 Hurdles, 12.91 (2)
Toshika Sylvester, 200 Meters, 23.59 (11)
Nikita Tracey, 400 Hurdles, 56.23 (3)
Rebekah Wales, Javelin, 162-9 (11)
Stowers, Sylvester, Harvey, Friar; 4×100 Relay; 43.94 (3)