LSU track and field coach Dennis Shaver said this weekend will mark the first time his team will be tested on such a large stage — a meet Shaver thinks will be a good representation of what the NCAA Indoor Championships will be like in March.The No. 10 Tigers and No. 5 Lady Tigers will compete today in the annual New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York.”It’s an exciting track meet,” Shaver said. “It brings a lot of people into the Armory, and it’s good for our student-athletes to go to that kind of venue because it’s a carnival atmosphere.”More than 100 universities from around the country will compete in the invitational, which begins at 10:30 a.m.Some of the competition on the women’s side includes No. 1 Texas A&M, No. 2 Tennessee, No. 4 Oregon and No. 11 South Carolina. The men will square off against No. 3 Oregon, No. 5 Texas A&M and No. 14 South Carolina, among other teams. “This is the first meet our team is going to come together and realize the possibilities as to what it is we can do at a championship meet,” Shaver said.The Tigers will look for sophomore weight thrower Walter Henning and junior sprinter Trindon Holliday to build on their success last weekend in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.Henning, a King’s Park, N.Y., native, set an NCAA season-best throw of 73 feet 4 1/3 inches at the Challenge.”I’m from New York, so I’ve competed at this place every single weekend in high school, and I’m really excited to go back there.”He said most of his family will make the nearly hour drive to the Armory to support him. Holliday set an NCAA season-best time with a 6.56-second 60-meter dash performance last weekend in College Station, Texas.The Zachary native, who will also run the 200-meter dash this weekend for the first time in his career, said he is eager to run against some excellent competition.Shaver said he has been impressed with Holliday’s fast start this season.”Trindon ran a time last week that he didn’t run until the NCAA meet last year,” he said. “So it’s more than obvious that he is a little bit more fit to sprint fast than he was last year at this time.”Shaver attests Holliday’s success to his ability to change his sprint mechanics.”I think he’s a better student of sprinting now than he was a year ago,” he said. “A year ago we would try to get him to do certain things, and we just weren’t able to get him to do it.”With the departure of former LSU standout sprinter and 2008 Olympic silver medalist Richard Thompson, the spotlight now shines on Holliday. He remains humble, despite all the attention.”I’m OK with the spotlight being on me,” Holliday said. “I don’t consider myself as being the superstar. I just see myself as another athlete that’s performing well.”The Lady Tigers will look for a repeat performance of last year’s invitational, when they won the overall team title. “We graduated nine quality seniors last year from our team, and this year we’re still in that area of unknown about how all of them are going to respond to competition,” Shaver said. “We have a good nucleus of people. It is going to be exciting to see some of the younger kids start stepping up also.”Shaver said this weekend will allow him to put individuals into specialty events that he hasn’t done with some people up to this point.”They just haven’t had an opportunity to show it, and this meet they will,” he said.——Contact Sean Isabella at [email protected]