BATON ROUGE -- The remaining LSU track and field athletes who have yet to qualify for next weekend’s NCAA Indoor Championships will have one final opportunity to do so at one of three last chance meets in Baton Rouge, Fayetteville, Ark., or Ames, Iowa.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers will play host to the LSU NCAA Indoor Qualifier on Friday, while five athletes will be sent to the Arkansas Last Chance Qualifier in Fayetteville on Friday and four athletes will look to qualify at the Cyclone National Qualifier in Ames on Saturday.
Members of LSU’s jumps group will be attempting to improve their provisional qualifying marks at the LSU NCAA Indoor Qualifier at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse.
Sophomore Will Coppage is looking to get off the NCAA bubble as he has already qualified provisionally in the long jump with a seasonal best mark of 25 feet, 4 ¾ inches that ranks No. 14 in the NCAA this season. The top 16 performers in each event will advance to the national meet.
Also looking to put himself in a position to compete for the Tigers at the NCAA Championships next weekend is junior Jeremy Hicks, who boasts a seasonal best provisional qualifying mark of 24-11 ¾ that currently ranks 29th on the national descending order list.
“This weekend will give several of our athletes the opportunity to improve their standing so that they can help us compete for a national championship next week,” said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. “Our jumpers have a great opportunity at home this weekend to get something done. We need those to step it up if we hope to be in the hunt next weekend.”
The men’s distance medley relay team looks to improve its NCAA provisional qualifying time as it travels to the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville on Friday.
The foursome of senior Elkana Kosgei (1,200 meters), sophomore Armanti Hayes (400 meters), sophomore Jamaal James (800 meters) and sophomore John Kosgei (mile) set a new school record in the event with a time of 9 minutes, 35.31 seconds at the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 16.
Senior Michael Hendry will also compete at the Arkansas Last Chance Qualifier as he hopes to improve his seasonal best time of 1:51.02 in the 800 meters.
“We’re certainly familiar with the track at Arkansas since we’ve already competed in three meets at the Tyson Center this year,” Shaver said. “We’re sending our DMR team to the meet because the only DMR teams that will be able to run fast this weekend are all going to be in Arkansas. We probably need to auto in that event if we hope to have the DMR at the NCAA meet.”
Four LSU athletes are scheduled to make the trip to Iowa State’s Cyclone National Qualifier at the Lied Athletic Center in Ames on Saturday, including senior Deonna Lawrence, junior Reuben Twijukye, junior Kayann and freshman Brittany Hall.
Lawrence (53.99) hopes to improve her provisional time in the 400 meters, while Twijukye (1:49.02), Thompson (2:07.52) and Hall (2:08.08) hope to better their top times in the 800 meters.
The track at the Lied Athletic Center is conducive to running fast times as it features a 300-meter oval with 42-inch lanes, making it one of the largest and fastest indoor surfaces in the world.
“We just don’t have an adequate facility to be able to get anything done on the track in a last chance meet,” Shaver said. “The oversized track that they have at Iowa State will give our athletes the chance to open up and really run. It’s a much better environment for running faster times. We expect a lot of fast times to come out of that meet this year.”
The indoor season comes to an end next weekend as the nation’s best teams meet at the Randal Tyson Track Center for the 2008 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships beginning March 14. The Tigers and Lady Tigers are each looking to win their first NCAA indoor title since 2004 as the event returns to Fayetteville for the eighth year in a row.