BATON ROUGE - Just one week after wrapping up the 2010 indoor season with an appearance at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships, the LSU track and field teams will kick off the outdoor campaign Saturday with a short trip to Lafayette, La., to compete in the Louisiana Classics.
The meet will be held at the Ragin' Cajuns Track Stadium on the campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and is scheduled to get underway at 10 a.m. CT.
With an appearance at the Louisiana Classics on Saturday, the Tigers and Lady Tigers will start their march toward the 2010 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships to be held at Hayward Field at the University of Oregon in Eugene from June 9-12.
"Our plan for our first outdoor meet is to rest many our athletes who competed last week at NCAAs. We also want to give our other athletes the opportunity to compete this weekend and show us what they can do early on," said LSU head coach Dennis Shaver. "I'm very proud of the way our athletes competed as a team at the NCAA Indoor meet and look for that to continue as we head outdoors.
"This is an important step for us as we make that transition. We plan for everyone to see some action next weekend when we host our first home meet at the LSU Tiger Relays."
Among those scheduled to compete this weekend for LSU include seven student-athletes who represented the program at the NCAA Outdoor Championships a year ago.
Senior Kayann Thompson and junior Brittany Hall will lead the way after picking up All-America honors a week ago at the NCAA Indoor Championships while running on LSU's 4x400-meter relay team that finished as the national runner-up. Hall is slated to run both the open 400 meters and the leadoff leg of the 4x400-meter relay, while Thompson will line up in the 1,500-meter run this weekend.
As a part of LSU's powerful middle distance crew, both Thompson and Hall saw action in the 800 meters and 4x400-meter relay at the NCAA Outdoor meet a season ago.
Also competing for the Lady Tigers at the Louisiana Classics in their specialty events are NCAA veterans Katelyn Rodrigue and Tenaya Jones. Rodrigue has competed in the pole vault at the NCAA Outdoor meet in each of the last three seasons, while Jones qualified for the first time in the 100-meter hurdles in 2009.
The Tigers will feature a trio of NCAA Championships qualifiers from a season ago, including junior Gabriel Mvumvure (200 meters, 400 meters), sophomore Ade Alleyne-Forte (400 meters) and sophomore Aaron Moore (javelin). Each will make their outdoor debut for the Tigers on Saturday.
The Louisiana Classics also provides LSU's throwers an opportunity to compete for the first time in 2010 as junior Mark DeBlanc, sophomore Anthony Martel and sophomore Ryan Roubion will join Moore in the javelin throw. Sophomore Samia Stokes will lead the Lady Tiger throwers by competing in the discus after concentrating on the 20-pound weight throw during the indoor season.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers will return to Baton Rouge next weekend as they play host to the LSU Relays scheduled to run from March 26-27 at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium on campus.
