The LSU men’s and women’s track and field teams kick off the second half of their indoor seasons at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic this weekend.
The event begins at 5 p.m. Friday and concludes Saturday evening at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The Tigers enter the meet after earning four event wins, 21 indoor personal bests and seven performances at the Razorback Invitational last weekend.
For this weekend, LSU will be without the men’s and women’s middle- and long-distance runners because of the high-altitude track.
“When you train at sea level and go to altitude, you’re not going to get good results [in distance races],” said LSU track and field coach Dennis Shaver. “We have traveled the last few weekends in a row, and the traveling wears people out. We’re going to rest them up, because next week they’re going to an oversized track at Iowa State where they’ll try to qualify for nationals.”
Sophomore distance runner Morgan Schuetz is the lone national qualifier who won’t be competing this weekend. Her 800-meter time is the 10th fastest in the nation, and she is No. 19 in the mile.
The short-distance runners and field event athletes will make the trip and are expected to turn in impressive performances. At last year’s meet at the same track, nine Lady Tigers and five Tigers turned in personal-best performances.
Among the athletes looking to improve on their seasonal-best marks are sophomore jumper Nataliyah Friar and freshman hurdler Daeshon Gordon.
Friar tallied a mark of 40 feet and two-thirds inches in the women’s triple jump last weekend, which ranks No. 15 nationally.
In the women’s 60-meter hurdles at last week’s meet, Gordon cut two-tenths of a second off her previous indoor best by crossing the line at 8.30 seconds, a performance that ranks No. 14 nationally and makes her the second-fastest freshman in the nation.
Shaver said he is going to put some runners who have already posted national qualifying times in their main event in different events, which will help with their primary event.
Sophomore sprinter Tremayne Acy is among the athletes in secondary events. Last weekend, Acy clocked in at 20.85 seconds for a lifetime best in the men’s 200-meter dash and jumped up to a No. 7 national ranking in the event.
“I’m not running the [200-meter race] this meet,” Acy said. “I’ll be running just the [60-meter race], so I can try to get a top-10 ranking in that, too.”