After a solid performance last week to kick off the second half of the season, the LSU men’s and women’s track and field teams will compete in the Randal Tyson invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas, the LSU High Performance Meet in Baton Rouge and the Iowa state Classic in Des Moines, Iowa, this weekend.
The teams are coming off of a weekend at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic in Albuquerque, where they grabbed five top-16 rankings and 14 indoor personal bests. LSU will look to do more of the same against more stiff competition in several locations across the country this weekend.
LSU’s distance runners will try to qualify for the NCAA meet at the Iowa State Classic. The team will be fresh after coach Dennis Shaver decided to hold it out of action last weekend at the high-altitude New Mexico Collegiate Classic.
LSU’s hurdlers will also be competing in Arkanasas.
The men and women throwers will be at the LSU High Performance Meet in Baton Rouge, a one-day event that will begin Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Carl Maddox Field House.
The rest of the team will be at the two-day Randal Tyson Invitational, which will begin today and conclude Saturday evening at the Randal Tyson Track Center at the University of Arkansas. This is LSU’s second trip to Arkansas this season, and the NCAA Indoor National Championships will take place there March 13-14.
“We continue to take the steps to get to where we need to be team-wise as we look ahead to the championship season,” Shaver said in a news release.
Senior sprinter Aaron Ernest has been leading the way thus far for the Tigers, capturing the top NCAA ranking for the 200-meter dash last weekend. He is now in the national title hunt and will look to defend his No.1 ranking for the first time this season.
Sophomores Nataliyah Friar and Ka’Lynn Jupiter are also headed into the weekend off event victories for the Lady Tigers in the long jump and 400-meter dash, respectively.
Senior sprinter Tremayne Acy is coming off his personal best performance in the 60-meter dash last week. He enters the weekend ranked in the top 11 for both the 200-meter dash and the 60-meter dash.
Freshman sprinter Aleia Hobbs is leading the way in the 200-meter dash for the Lady Tigers recently, winning the bronze medal last weekend and cracking the top 10 of the NCAA rankings. She ran a personal best time of 7.27 seconds at the New Mexico Collegiate Classic.
All LSU’s teams are hitting the home stretch of their indoor season. They will look for strong performances throughout the nation this weekend before returning home together for the LSU Twilight Meet on Feb. 20. After, it’s on to the Southeastern Conference Championships in Lexington, Kentucky, the following weekend.