BATON ROUGE — After back-to-back home meets to kick off the outdoor season, the LSU track and field teams hit the road for the first time this spring as they travel to Austin, Texas, on Thursday to compete in the 80th Texas Relays at Mike A. Myers Stadium.
The competition begins Wednesday with the men’s decathlon and women’s heptathlon, while the four-day meet is scheduled to conclude Saturday with the running of the 4×400-meter relays.
“This meet is really the beginning of the outdoor season for us because of the size of the meet and the level of competition that we’ll see,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “There’s always a tremendous crowd, and it’s just a first-class meet all the way around.”
Sophomore Nickiesha Wilson will be the first LSU athlete to compete as she is slated to line up in the preliminaries of the 400-meter hurdles on Thursday at 4:30 p.m., while senior Isa Phillips follows at 5 p.m. in the men’s 400 hurdles. The teams will also compete in the 4×800-meter relay on their first day of competition.
Two-sport standout Trindon Holliday will highlight the action this weekend for LSU as he is scheduled to make his long-awaited season debut in the 100-meter dash by competing in the event prelims on Friday at 9:30 a.m. The finals are scheduled to run Saturday at 3:40 p.m.
“Trindon looks really good right now, and he’s on a mission to make a name for himself in track here at LSU,” Shaver said. “He’s in great shape, he’s running with confidence and this is the year that I think he has the potential to really breakout and have a tremendous season for us. We’re looking forward to him opening up in the 100 this weekend.”
Holliday will also run the lead leg on the men’s 4×100-meter relay team that is the three-time defending champion at the Texas Relays. He will team with Will Coppage, Marvin Stevenson and Richard Thompson on the foursome that already clocked an NCAA regional qualifying time of 40.06 seconds at the LSU Tiger Classic last weekend.
“There is still a lot of ironing out that we need to do with the men’s sprint relay team,” Shaver said. “The four that will run together this weekend have not run together before, so it will be a challenge for us in that regard. It will still be a lot of fun to see what they can do.”
The Lady Tigers will feature the same foursome in the 4×100 relay that clocked the second-fastest time in the nation a week ago as Sherry Fletcher, Samantha Henry, Brooklynn Morris and Kelly Baptiste qualified for the regional meet after carrying the stick around the track in 43.73.
“I’m confident that the women will start pushing the stick around the track very well starting this weekend,” Shaver said. “They’ve experienced a lot of success together in the past, but there are still some adjustments to make to take our performance to another level this early in the season.”
LSU has experienced great success at the Texas Relays through the years with the Lady Tigers being named the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays Most Outstanding Team four times, while also having five Lady Tigers named the meet’s Most Outstanding Performer. Former Lady Tiger great Lolo Jones is the last to receive that honor in 2003.
In addition, the Lady Tigers have won a total of 28 relay titles in the meet’s illustrious history, while they are also the defending champion in the women’s 4×200-meter relay competition. The team is looking for its first title in the 4×100-meter relay since 2004 but has won nine titles in the sprint relay since 1989.
The men have enjoyed similar success as they have captured a total of 21 relay championships and are looking to defend their titles in both the 4×100 and 4×400-meter relays from a year ago. In fact, the Tigers have won three straight titles in the sprint relay while capturing a total of six titles in the event.
“This is a meet we look forward to each year and is one where we’ve had great success in the past,” Shaver said. “It has some of the best competition that we will see until the post season, and we anticipate having another strong showing this year. It’s going to be a lot of fun for all of us.”
After returning to Baton Rouge, the teams will be on the road once again as they travel to Phoenix, Ariz., to compete in the Sun Angel Invitational on April 14 at Sun Angel Stadium at Joe Sellen Track. The Arizona State Sun Devils will play host to the one-day meet.