The LSU men’s and women’s track and field teams are competing against the best collection of talent they have faced this season in the Razorback Invitational this weekend.
The two-day event begins at 11 a.m. tomorrow and extends through Saturday at Randall Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers are coming off last week’s Rod McCravy Invitational where they broke one school record and combined to secure three event wins, eight indoor personal bests and eight performances ranking among the NCAA’s elite.
LSU track and field coach Dennis Shaver said the surplus of talent at this week’s meet will force his team to perform better than it did last week.
“There’s a lot of really good teams there, just like at the McCravy meet,” Shaver said. “Every meet we go to the overall competition level will get a little stiffer, and I think that’s what our team needs to get prepared for the [Southeastern Conference Championships] and the postseason.”
This weekend’s meet will get the team ready for the postseason in more ways than elevating competition level. The NCAA Indoor Championships are held at the same track March 13-14.
Shaver is looking for the men’s 60-meter hurdles and women’s 4×400-meter relay runners to show an improvement this week.
The hurdlers are expected to perform better after being granted extra rest this week. Last weekend, sophomore Jordan Moore finished in fifth place, while senior Joshua Thompson finished in sixth after he won the event title in his first two meets.
Shaver is pushing the women’s 4×400-meter relay team to improve on last weekend’s seventh-place finish when they crossed the line more than 10 seconds off the lead.
But the reigning NCAA Indoor Champion men’s 4×400-meter relay lineup will experience a shake up because of its success early in the season.
“There are several things that we got accomplished in a big way in Kentucky, so we won’t try to do those again this weekend,” Shaver said. “The men’s 4×400 had success in getting a top time and getting qualified, so we won’t be running our best people.”
Despite running an NCAA Indoor Championship qualifying time, LSU lost to Florida by six one-hundredths of a second last weekend, and the Tigers’ second-string lineup is looking for revenge.
Shaver expects sophomore Morgan Schuetz to be more consistent in the women’s 800-meter race. Schuetz holds the best time in the nation in the event, but she is looking to defeat Florida junior Claudia Francis after finishing half of a second behind her last week.
“I feel like she didn’t run as well as she is capable of against bigger competition,” Shaver said. “She is going to get better competition this week too, so it will be a great challenge.”
You can reach Jacob Hamilton on Twitter @jhamilton_TDR.