BATON ROUGE - The LSU track and field teams kicked off the outdoor season last weekend with an appearance in the Louisiana Classics in Lafayette and are ready to return home this weekend to play host to the LSU Tiger Relays on Friday and Saturday at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium. Friday's action is scheduled to kick off at 10:30 a.m. CT in the field and 2:15 p.m. on the track. The meet continues Saturday at 9 a.m. with the field events and the first events on the track at 1 p.m. After wrapping up the indoor season with a third-place finish by the Lady Tigers and a fourth-place finish by the Tigers at the NCAA Indoor Championships two weeks ago, LSU now turns its attention to the outdoor season as the teams begin their preparation for the 2010 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships scheduled to run June 9-12 in Eugene, Ore. The LSU Tiger Relays will serve as the outdoor season opener for many of LSU's athletes as those Tigers and Lady Tigers who competed at the NCAA Indoor Championships were rewarded with a week off to rest during the team's appearance at the Louisiana Classics a week ago. Such nationally-ranked programs as Louisville and Memphis will highlight another competitive collegiate field at this year's edition of the LSU Tiger Relays. The meet has also established a strong reputation for high school competition in recent years, as well as a series of age group races in the 100-meter dash at the tiny tots, sub-bantam, bantam, midget, youth and master's levels. More than 700 athletes are expected to compete in the high school competition. "We are always excited to return home for what we consider our true outdoor season opener with the LSU Tiger Relays," said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. "This meet serves as the true opener to our outdoor season each year. We like to give our athletes a couple of weeks to recover from the indoor season. Every one of those athletes will have the opportunity to compete for us this weekend. We look forward to that." Despite kicking off its outdoor campaign last weekend, the Tigers and Lady Tigers elected not to run their vaunted 4x100-meter relay teams at the Louisiana Classics. The Tigers have dominated the 4x100 relay at the NCAA Championships in recent years as they followed their national title in 2008 with a national runner-up finish in 2009. They are expected to compete this weekend with a lineup of sophomore Barrett Nugent, senior Will Coppage, junior Gabriel Mvumvure and freshmanJohnathan Johnson in their first competition of the 2010 campaign. The Lady Tigers will run with a group of senior Samantha Henry, freshman Kimberlyn Duncan, freshmanTakeia Pinckney and junior Kenyanna Wilson this weekend in the sprint relay. In addition to running the 4x100-meter relays, the Tigers and Lady Tigers will also run the 4x200, 4x400, 4x800, sprint medley and distance medley relays as they prepare for the Texas Relays next weekend. "The LSU Tiger Relays gives us the opportunity to prepare for what we will see in such meets as the Penn Relays and Texas Relays in the coming weeks," Shaver said. "It's a lot of fun for our athletes to run these different kinds of relays while also giving them a great opportunity to compete." Among the Tigers and Lady Tigers expected to compete in individual events this weekend are six athletes who earned All-America honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships two weeks ago. Three Lady Tiger All-Americans will line up in the 100-meter dash after qualifying for the 60-meter final at the NCAA Indoor Championships, including Henry, Wilson and Pinckney. All-American high jumper Brittani Carteris also scheduled to compete this weekend for the Lady Tigers. The Tigers will also feature a pair of NCAA Indoor All-Americans as Nugent is expected to run the 110-meter hurdles along with his service on the sprint relay and junior Zedric Thomas is slated to compete in the long jump. After wrapping up the LSU Tiger Relays on Saturday, the teams will make their annual appearance in the 83rd Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays set to run April 1-3 at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas.
