March 31, 2011
BATON ROUGE - Competing at the LSU Invitational this Saturday will provide Texas A&M with an early test in the outdoor season as the Tigers host a scored meet that also includes Army, Connecticut, Illinois and Iowa.
With a newly installed track surface at Bernie Moore Track Stadium the meet will feature the first of three encounters between LSU (women No. 3, men No. 5) and Texas A&M (women No. 1, men No. 2) during the month of April. Following this weekend's scored meet, the two programs will square off at the Texas Relays next weekend and again during the Penn Relays at the end of the month.
During the indoor season LSU visited College Station for a dual meet in which the Aggies swept the Tigers. Then at the NCAA Indoor, held at A&M's Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium, LSU placed third in the women's field and fourth in the men's field while Texas A&M men finished second and the Aggie women were fifth.
In the Aggies last visit to Baton Rouge, during the 2009 Alumni Gold Invitational, Texas A&M won three of the four relay races. They swept the 4 x 100 relays and the men claimed the 4 x 400 by a very narrow margin - 0.008 of a second over LSU.
Heading into this weekend the Tigers are the current collegiate outdoor leaders in the men's 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 with times of 38.87 and 3:03.77 as well as the women's 4 x 400 with a 3:35.90. Each of those leading marks where established this past weekend during the LSU Relays.
The Aggie men sport a best of 3:04.92 in the 4 x 400, but have yet to record a time in the 4 x 100 after an exchange zone violation and a dropped baton the past two weeks. The A&M women have a season best of 43.90 in the sprint relay and a 3:38.23 in the 4 x 400.
Texas A&M women's 4 x 100 relay enters the meet with a winning streak of 23 finals, dating back to the 2008 Penn Relays when the Aggies finished second to LSU, 42.59 to 42.69. The Aggies have also won the NCAA title in this event the past four years.
Meanwhile, the A&M men's 4 x 400 relay has claimed gold in the past three NCAA Championship meets (2010 Indoor, 2010 Outdoor, 2011 Indoor) while compiling a winning streak of 14 races since a close loss to Mississippi State at the 2010 Penn Relays.
This weekend will be the outdoor debut over 400 meters for Jessica Beard, who claimed her first individual NCAA gold in this event on the Aggies home track last month. Teammates Ibukun Mayungbe and Andrea Sutherland will be in the race with Beard as they compete against LSU's tandem of Jonique Day and Siedda Herbert and the Illinois duo of Ashley Kelly and Ryisha Boyd.
Demetrius Pinder, the men's NCAA Indoor champion at 400 meters, will also contest his first race over this distance outdoors. Pinder is the current collegiate outdoor leader in the 200 with a 20.54 career best and this past weekend he defeated Olympian Jeremy Wariner over that distance with a 20.73 clocking.
Joining Pinder in the men's 400 will be an Aggie contingent of Tabarie Henry, Bryan Miller, Joey Roberts and Michael Preble as they race against LSU's top trio of Riker Hylton, Caleb Williams and Robert Simmons.
The hurdle field includes national champion Andrew Riley of Illinois, who won the NCAA 110 hurdles last season and recently claimed the NCAA Indoor 60 hurdle title, along with 2010 NCAA 110 hurdle runner-up Barrett Nugent of LSU, and A&M's Wayne Davis II, who placed eighth in the NCAA Indoor 60 hurdles and recently set a career best of 13.89 in the collegiate 110 hurdles.
Current 100m hurdle collegiate leader Jasmin Stowers of LSU has already run 13.15 while Aggie Donique' Flemings, who ran 13.33 twice a year ago.
The women's short sprint races feature interesting match-ups between the Tigers crew of Kimberlyn Duncan, Semoy Hackett and Kenyanna Wilson against A&M's Jeneba Tarmoh (100), Dominique Duncan (200) and Ashley Collier (200).
Aggie sprinters Prezel Hardy, Jr. (100/200), Michael Bryan (100/200), Tran Howell (200) and Carlyle Roudette (200) contend with LSU's crew of Horatio Williams, Gabriel Mvumvure, Rynell Parson and Keyth Talley.
Bernie Moore Stadium is usually a good location for jumping events and the fields have some talented jumpers. In the long jump the Aggie men's group of Melvin Echard, Julian Reid and Tyron Stewart challenge the Tigers' Zedric Thomas (25-5.5), Damar Forbes (25-4) and Kyron Blaise (24-10), who have the top three collegiate marks this season.
The women's triple jump has a pair of top five jumpers this season in LSU's Melissa Ogbourne (42-9.75) and A&M's Sasha-Kay Matthias (41-6.5). The women's pole vault will feature a pair of top 10 collegians with LSU's Rachel Laurent at 14-2.5 (4.33) and A&M's Laura Asimakis at 13-4.25 (4.07). In the men's vault the Tigers have the collegiate leader in Marcus McGehee at 17-4.5 (5.30).
In the javelin the Aggie tandem of Sam and Emalie Humphreys return to action. Sam is the current American and collegiate leader with a 245-2 (74.73) effort while Emalie is ninth-best collegiately with a 160-4 (48.87) mark.
LSU will have the edge in the men's hammer as defending NCAA champion Walter Henning, who has a best of 239-5, leads the Tigers while A&M is led by school record holder Casey Strong, who looks to improve upon his 190-4 effort from this past weekend.
Erica Parker, currently 11th collegiately with a 2:08.62, headlines a competitive group in the 800 as she runs with five other Aggies. In the men's 800, Oscar Ramirez and Sam Mutschler pace a group of seven A&M runners. Natosha Rogers leads a group of seven Aggies in the women's 1500 while Will Barry paces four A&M runners in the men's 1500.