BATON ROUGE -- A trip to this year’s NCAA Championships will be on the line for members of the LSU track and field teams as they begin competition at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships on Friday at Missouri’s Audrey J. Walton Stadium.Track & Field Teams Look to Defend Titles at NCAA Regional
The two-day meet will get underway Friday with the field events at 11 a.m. followed by the afternoon’s first running events at 3 p.m. This season’s regional champions will be crowned following Saturday’s action.The top-five finishers in each individual event and the top-three relay teams at each of the four regional sites across the country will automatically qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, Calif., from June 6-9.“We really look at this meet as the first stage of the NCAA Championships,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “It’s important for our athletes to put themselves in a position to finish in the top five and advance to Sacramento and help our teams win a national championship.”There is still a chance that an athlete can earn a trip to the NCAA Championships even if he or she fails to qualify automatically this weekend. The NCAA will issue an additional four at-large bids to individuals and relay teams placing within the top eight at the regional meet based on the national descending order list.“With the performances we’ve had this season, I believe that if our athletes make it to final and finish that they’ll be in Sacramento,” Shaver said. “But we don’t want to leave anything to chance. They understand that they need to finish in the top five to assure themselves a spot at the national meet.”Both the Tigers and Lady Tigers will attempt to defend their regional crowns against some stiff competition as the Mideast Region features 78 men’s teams and 81 women’s squads with athletes vying for a berth in the national meet.The top-ranked Lady Tigers will lead a field that features six teams ranked in the latest Trackwire 25 power ranking as they are joined by No. 4 Auburn, No. 10 Michigan, No. 13 Arkansas, No. 19 Tennessee and No. 24 Ole Miss in the competition this weekend.The LSU women have dominated this meet since its inception in 2003 as they have won three of the four Mideast Regional team titles in that span. After taking top honors in 2003 and 2004, the squad made it a hat trick last season by winning the team title at Tennessee’s Tom Black Track at LaPorte Stadium with 71 points for the weekend.The competition may be tougher on the men’s side as the No. 2-ranked Tigers will take on eight opponents ranked in the latest Trackwire 25 led by led by No. 3 Auburn, No. 6 Tennessee, No. 7 Louisville, No. 12 Arkansas, No. 12 Wisconsin, No. 16 Ole Miss and No. 24 McNeese State.The Tigers won their first regional team title in the brief history of the meet as they blew away the rest of the field at Tennessee a year ago with 95.5 points for the meet. They have never placed lower than third in the four years of the meet’s existence.“I’m looking to give our teams the best chance to win in Sacramento,” Shaver said. “If we are able to win again this year, it will be a result of our athletes taking care of their business. We’re not going to try to overdo it this weekend. We just want the kids to do whatever it takes for them to advance to the NCAA meet.”Individually, LSU has qualified a total of 21 women and 19 men to compete at this year’s regional championships along with both 4x100 and 4x400-meter relay teams. The squads feature five athletes and three relay teams that own the top marks in the Mideast heading into the meet.Sophomore Trindon Holliday is the regional favorite in the 100-meter dash after clocking the third-fastest time in the world this season at 10.08 seconds at the SEC Outdoor Championships two weeks ago. That is also the fastest wind-legal time in the NCAA this season.Freshman Jamaal James also has the NCAA’s fastest time in the 800-meter run this season at 1 minute, 47 seconds, while senior Isa Phillips tops the region in the 400-meter hurdles at 49.54 and sophomore Chad Radgowski is the top javelin thrower with a seasonal best of 239 feet, 8 inches.For the Lady Tigers, junior Andrea Linton owns the Mideast Region’s top mark in the triple jump with a leap of 44-1 ¼ en route to winning her first career individual Southeastern Conference title with her seasonal best jump two weeks ago.The men’s 4x400-meter relay team has never lost a race at the regional meet as it seeks a fifth straight title after defending its SEC crown with a regional best time and the second-fastest time in the NCAA this season at 3:03.62. In addition, both the women’s 4x100 (43.26) and 4x400 (3:28.89) have posted the top times in the Mideast Region.Live results and a live webcast for all of this weekend’s action will be provided by Missouri’s official athletic website, mutigers.cstv.com. Be sure to check back with www.LSUsports.net for complete meet recaps following both days of the competition.