While several track and field athletes will be making their season debuts, a few will not compete Friday in the Bayou Bengal Invitational at the Carl Maddox Field House. LSU is also hosting the LSU Combined Events this week. The Combined Events started Thursday and finish Friday afternoon. The Bayou Bengal Invitational is scheduled to start at Friday 3 p.m. Junior sprinter Trindon Holliday and junior thrower Ricky Jean-Francois will make their season debuts Friday. Both athletes are coming off helping the LSU football team to a 38-24 victory in the Bowl Championship Series National Championship game. Jean-Francois was named Defensive Most Valuable Player of the game. Neither Holliday nor Jean-Francois competed in any indoor meets in 2007. “We’re just looking to get Trindon [Holliday] and Ricky [Jean-Francois] into a low-key meet to see where their fitness is at right now for their events,” said LSU coach Dennis Shaver. “We’re just looking for them to shake off a little rust, especially Ricky because he hasn’t thrown in two years.” Shaver said most of the team will run Friday, but those who have automatically qualified for the NCAA championships will take it easy. The Lady Tigers are again ranked No. 1 in the nation by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The Tigers dropped five spots to No. 10 in the nation this week. “I have to weigh whether I can get more accomplished with them to prepare them for the NCAA [championships] by running them here on Friday or by just doing a training session with them,” Shaver said. Some notable automatic qualifiers who will not be running Friday include senior hurdler Jessica Ohanaja, sophomore sprinter Samantha Henry and senior sprinter Richard Thompson. Henry is coming off a strong performance this past weekend at the Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark., running the world’s fastest time this season in the 200-meter dash. She was recently named Southeastern Conference Female Runner of the Week for the second consecutive week. Henry said she can still improve her running mechanics and has more left to accomplish the rest of the season. “[I’m] looking to improve on my times and hopefully go and win [a national championship],” Henry said. “Another thing is to keep focused and keep grounded. I can’t let all this attention start to get to me.” Thompson also performed well this past weekend, breaking his own school record in the 60-meter dash. He was named SEC Male Runner of the Week for his accomplishment. “[It] was a shock, but at the same time it feels really good, and I hope that I continue to improve as the season goes along,” Thompson said. “6.62 is now the record, so hopefully I’ll be able to get below that.” Ohanaja improved this past weekend after a disappointing performance at the Purple Tiger Classic. She dropped her time in the 60-meter hurdles from 8.27 seconds to 8.14 seconds. Ohanaja said she performed better at the Razorback Invite because of better training and attitude. “We only had one hurdles session [before the Purple Tiger Classic] so we didn’t have a lot of time to go over the hurdles,” she said. “I said just get more focused this meet and get an automatic time so I won’t have to be stressed about if I just have provisional [qualifying].”
—-Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]