The LSU track and field team returns home for the first time in two weeks when the Tigers finish the home slate with the Tiger Twilight Classic this weekend.
Field events start at 1 p.m. and track events start at 4 p.m. The field of ten other schools includes Southeastern Conference rival Alabama and in-state rivals Louisiana Tech and UL-Lafayette.
LSU coach Pat Henry said the team looks to rest some of its top athletes this weekend after competing in two big meets, including the Penn Relays where the Tigers placed first in five relays. He said with the Southeastern Conference meet only two weeks away, the Tigers need to be healthy when it counts.
“There’s some things that we want to accomplish still, but there’s some people we won’t load up — we won’t double up,” Henry said. “We’ve had a great year, and we have time to get healthy, and if people are able to get healthy, then we’ll be able to go when it counts.”
Henry said the team still has some areas it can improve on, mainly in the men’s 4×100-meter and 4×400-meter relays. He said injuries to Bennie Brazell, Robert Parham and Pete Coley have plagued the Tigers in those events.
“We have a couple of people that have been injured, and it’s caused some situations within the group that kept us from being as successful as we wanted to be,” Henry said. “Any time you have three guys that are that big of contributors and have been hurt at one time or another, it affects the way the group continues to advance.”
The meet will also be the final home showing for a handful of LSU seniors. Among the team’s seniors are All-Americans Traun Smith and Althea Thomas. Henry said both Smith and Thomas have made some great contributions to the team the past four years.
“Both have been involved in some national championship teams, and so their experiences are big for them and will be things that they will remember for the rest of their life,” Henry said. “Any time you have your last competition at your home, there’s always going to be some kind of special feeling for you.”
Thomas said she hopes to make her last meet at LSU productive and memorable. She has mixed feelings about running in her last home meet but wants to put on a show for the home crowd.
“I guess it will be a bittersweet kind of experience,” Thomas said. “I expect to better my time in the hurdles possibly Saturday and run a good race in front of the home crowd — in front of my family.”