The finish line is almost here.
The LSU track and field teams take one more step toward the end of the 2014 outdoor season on Saturday as the Tigers and Lady Tigers host the LSU Invitational.
LSU invites Florida, Miami, Ole Miss and Texas A&M to Bernie Moore Track Stadium for the No. 10 Tigers’ and No. 7 Lady Tigers’ regular season finale.
The final home meet also serves as a goodbye for five Tiger and nine Lady Tiger seniors, including five-time All-American and five-time Southeastern Conference Champion Jasmin Stowers.
“It’s bittersweet,” Stowers said. “It’s senior week so I know I’m going to miss being out here for the last time. … Hopefully I can continue to run track after this.”
In her four seasons, Stowers has written her own page in the LSU record books. The Pendleton, S.C. native owns LSU’s indoor 60-meter hurdles record with a time of 7.96 and her 100-meter hurdles time of 12.81 ranks No. 4 on LSU’s all-time performance list. At the 120th Penn Relays on Saturday, Stowers became the first woman to win the meet’s 100 hurdles three times in a career.
But despite the continued success, Stowers has had in past and present seasons, she doesn’t downplay the importance of Saturday’s meet in regards to finishing the season strong and preparing for the SEC Outdoor Championships on May 15.
“There’s a lot of SEC schools coming in, so I think it will be a great competition,” Stowers said. “I think I’m running really good toward the end of the season … and I still have more to come in Nationals and the SEC.”
Two of the three invited SEC schools, Florida and Texas A&M, stand as LSU’s biggest competition in the conference. On the women’s side, Florida and Texas A&M rank No. 2 and No. 3, respectively. On the men’s side, Florida and Texas A&M rank No. 1 and No. 2, respectively.
Junior thrower Rodney Brown recognizes LSU’s opportunity in Saturday’s meet to grade itself against three SEC counterparts two weeks before the conference championship.
“I feel like this meet coming up is our stepping stone for the whole team in general,” Brown said. “I think it sets us up to compete well at the SECs. You get the marquee win at this meet and then you have the confidence to go into the SEC meet and do what you know you’re capable of.”
Brown is coming off a lifetime-best performance at the Penn Relays last Saturday in which the 2013 All-American’s discus throw of 210 feet, 9 inches broke LSU’s 25-year-old record, set a new meet record and won him College Men’s Athlete of the Meet for Individual Events.
With the toss, Brown emerged as the NCAA’s No. 2 discus thrower in 2014 and created a strong threat to defending national champion Julian Wruck of UCLA.
However, like several other LSU track and field athletes that seek gold at the finish line of the SEC and NCAA Championships, Brown’s path to a national title can only be taken one step, or throw, at a time.
“Stay within myself,” Brown said. “I can only control myself, so I go into a competition and I try to do all the things that I’ve learned and focus on what I know I can do. Hopefully it’s good enough to put me in a top spot.”