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Track & Field Ready for NCAA Indoor Championships

by Braydin Sik
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Track & Field Ready for NCAA Indoor Championships

BATON ROUGE, La. – The 2023 indoor collegiate track and field season comes to a close this weekend with the NCAA Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, N.M. The two-day meet will be hosted Friday and Saturday at the Albuquerque Convention Center. The LSU women enter the meet ranked No. 12, and the LSU men check in at the No. 19 spot.

Live Results | Competition Guide | Meet Info | Buy Tickets

LSU will be taking 10 athletes (six women, four men) to the national meet with intentions to score as many points as possible; a full competition guide for LSU can be viewed above. Both days of the meet will be streamed on ESPN+, and a tape delayed broadcast of the meet will air on ESPNU on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. CT and Monday at 6:00 p.m. Links can be viewed below.

Friday Live Video
ESPN+ Early Session (10:28 a.m.) | ESPN+ Late Session (7:58 p.m.)

Saturday Live Video
ESPN+ Early Session (12:30 p.m.) | ESPN+ Late Session (7:55 p.m.)

The NCAA indoor meet returns to the Albuquerque Convention Center for the first time since 2014 and the second time overall. LSU has a total of nine scoring chances. The women have entrants in the 60-meter dash, 60-meter hurdles, 200-meter dash, 800 meter, and 4×400-meter relay. The men have scoring opportunities in the 60-meter dash, shot put, triple jump, and long jump.

Friday will feature mostly prelim events, while Saturday will be heavy with finals. The top eight scorers in each event will result in points for their teams in the following format (10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1).

USTFCCCA All-American statuses will be up for grabs this weekend. First Team All-American status is awarded to finishers 1-8 (individual and relays), while Second Team All-American is given to those who finish 9-16 (individual and relays). Athletes must have a valid mark to earn All-American status. Meaning those who do not finish a race, no height, foul three attempts or are disqualified will not be eligible for All-American status if no other valid mark from a previous round exists.

Friday’s competition for the Tigers will kick off with the women’s 60-meter dash semifinals, beginning at 5:15 p.m. CT with Favour Ofili competing. Saturday’s events will also kickoff with Ofili running, this time in the 60-meter finals at 5:10 p.m.

LSU at the Indoor Championships

The LSU women own the most NCAA indoor titles in collegiate track and field history with 11 ahead of Oregon’s seven and Texas’ six. The women won eight of a possible 11 indoor NCAA titles from 1987-1997 including a stretch of five straight from 1993 to 1997. Only one other school has ever won five straight women’s NCAA indoor titles and that was Oregon from 2010 to 2014. The final three LSU women’s NCAA indoor titles came via a three-peat in 2002, 2003, and 2004. The LSU men have won two NCAA indoor titles with the first one coming in 2001 and the second in 2004. LSU was the first program in NCAA indoor history to sweep both the women’s and men’s title in 2004.

Last season the LSU women earned a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships that was hosted in Birmingham, Ala. The Tigers scored 29.5 points at the meet for the fifth-place finish. It was the eighth top-five finish indoors for the LSU women under head coach Dennis Shaver. The LSU men finished in a three-way tie for 24th with nine team points.

Ofili scored in three events for the Tigers on the final day of action at the 2022 NCAA Indoor with quality performances in the 60 meters (7th), 200 meters (2nd), and 4×400 meter relay (7th). The 4×400-meter relay team also featured Michaela Rose who will be joining her in this season’s championship race.

Leah Phillips placed fourth in the 60-meter hurdles with a final clocking of 8.01 seconds to earn her first career All-America honor.

Apalos Edwards earned the first All-American honor of his young career by taking fifth in the triple jump with a personal best mark of 53’ 2.25” (16.21 meters) on his second attempt of the night.

John Meyer set what was the school record at the time with a third round heave of 66’ 4.25” (20.22 meters) to earn a fifth place finish, earning Meyer First Team All-American honors also.

NCAA Indoor Primer

Favour Ofili • Women’s 60 meter, 200 meter
Ofili secured her 60-meter NCAA qualifying mark at the Tyson Invitational after running a personal-best time of 7.15 seconds. Over in the 200 meter, she ran a personal-best time and program record of 22.36 seconds at the same meet she qualified for the 60 meter. Her 60-meter time ranks eighth in the nation, while her 200-meter time ranks second in the nation.

Michaela Rose • Women’s 800 meter
Rose secured her spot in the NCAA championships with a time of 2:00.18 in the 800 meter at the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational at the beginning of February. Her time is the LSU school record, second in the nation, and third in collegiate history. She will be looking to be the first Tiger to ever go sub 2:00.00 in the women’s 800 meter.

Leah Phillips • Women’s 60-meter hurdles
Phillips cranked out a time of 8.02 seconds in the hurdles at the Razorback Invitational in January. Phillips recently ran a time of 8.03 seconds this past week at the SEC Championships and is looking to take a leap back to her personal-best time of 7.97 seconds from last year. Her season-best time of 8.02 seconds ranks sixth in the nation.

Apalos Edwards • Men’s triple jump
Edwards ranks third in the nation with a personal-best mark of 55’ 3” (16.84m), which he landed this past week at the SEC Championships. The top-three marks in the nation currently are all-SEC, making next weekend’s event a redo of the SEC Championships. His jump 16.84 meters ranks third in LSU performance list history behind Walter Davis (17.23m) and Lejuan Simon (17.05m).

Brandon Hicklin • Men’s long jump
Hicklin landed a leap of 26’ 1.75” (7.97m) at the Razorback Invitational in January, which ranks seventh in the nation. His jump ranks 10th in the LSU performance list history and added .12 meters to his best from last season of 25’ 9.25” (7.85m).

John Meyer • Men’s shot put
Meyer heads into the NCAA Championships after setting the LSU program record again and winning the SEC shot put title. His throw of 66’ 10” (20.37m) ranks fourth in the nation, and added just .01 meters to his previous program-record throw of 66’ 9.75” (20.36m).

Godson Oghenebrume • Men’s 60 meter
Oghenebrume has shaved .41 seconds off of last year’s best time of 6.89 seconds, with a new personal-best time of 6.58 seconds this season. His time of 6.58 seconds ranks 13th in the nation currently and is third on LSU’s all-time performance list just behind Trindon Holliday (6.54) and Richard Thompson (6.51).

Women’s 4×400-meter relay
The women’s 4×400-meter relay team will head to Albuquerque with a time of 3:29.94, which was set with Douglas, Ofili, Rose, and Sanders. The time ranks 11th in the nation currently. Athletes that are listed for the relay are Hannah Douglas, Ofili, Rose, Kennedi Sanders, Ella Onojuvwevwo, and Phillips.

Due to Albuquerque’s height above sea level, altitude conversions will be used with times this weekend. Small increments of time will be added to the sprint races, and distance events will have subtractive conversions due to the difficulty of running long distances above sea level.

For all pertinent info regarding the 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships, visit ncaa.com.

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