BATON ROUGE, La. –The LSU track and field team has arrived in Eugene, Oregon, ahead of the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships that will take place Wednesday through Saturday (June 8-11). LSU has the second most entries in the meet with a total of 25 (14 women’s, 11 men’s).
Meet Schedule| Live Results/Heat Sheets|Competition Guide
The meet will take place at Hayward Field for the second straight season. The men will have competition days on Wednesday and Friday while the women are set to compete on Thursday and Saturday. The four-day meet will be covered in its entirety on the ESPN networks. The meet will be shown live on Wednesday and Thursday on ESPNU, Friday’s coverage will be on ESPN2, and Saturday’s finale will air on ESPN. Dedicated live streams to field events will also be available as well. For full listings of the TV info, visit ncaa.com.
National Rankings
Both the LSU women and LSU men enter the meet ranked No. 5 in the nation. To see how the Tigers have progressed during the season in the national rankings, visit lsusports.net.
LSU At The NCAA Outdoor Championships
The LSU men captured the fifth outdoor national title in program history last June with a dominant performance at the national meet. The Tigers scored 84 team points that included six event national titles in one of the most electrifying showings in NCAA history. LSU won the meet by 31 points which was the largest winning margin since 1994. LSU’s four other men national titles have come in 1933, 1989, 1990, and 2002.
The LSU women have won 14 national titles to lead the NCAA; the next closest programs are Texas and Texas A&M with four apiece. The women’s program won 11 straight outdoor national titles from 1987-97 to go along with titles in 2000, 2003, and 2008.
LSU has an illustrious history of winning big at the NCAA outdoor meet. The LSU women have won 61 NCAA outdoor event titles (40 ind., 21 relays) dating back to 1985, and the men own 59 NCAA outdoor event NCAA titles (43 ind., 16 relays).
Athletes With NCAA Outdoor Titles
LSU has three athletes currently on the roster that have won NCAA outdoor individual titles. Lisa Gunnarsson became LSU’s first female pole vaulter to ever win an NCAA outdoor title in 2021 with a clearance of 14’ 5.25” (4.40 meters).
Sean ‘Squirrel’ Burrell set the U20 world record in the 400 meter hurdles to claim his first national title with a lifetime best readout of 47.85. Tzuriel Pedigo won the javelin on his sixth and final throw in 2021 with a career-best heave of 252’ 7” (76.98 meters). All three will be competing in Eugene this week.
NCAA Primer
LSU has positioned itself well with 25 total entries at the national meet. Only the top 24 individuals in the country advance to the NCAA meet in their respective events, so it’s an accomplishment to even make it to this meet. A full competition guide of LSU’s athletes can be viewed above.
We’ll start with the most polarizing sprinter in collegiate track and field right now –Favour Ofili. She’ll be entered in a total of eight races as she’ll run the 100 meters and 200 meters individually and also on the 4×100 and 4×400 meter relays. Ofili completed the sprint triple at the SEC Championships with wins in the 100 meters (10.93/PR), 200 meters (22.04), and 4×100 meter relay (42.59). She’s the favorite in the 200-meter dash as her collegiate record-setting time of 21.96 from mid-April is the fastest ever by a collegiate sprinter in season. In the 100 meters, she rates as the ninth fastest at the national meet with the aforementioned time of 10.93.
Defending champion Lisa Gunnarsson enters the meet with the national lead in the pole vault with a lifetime best clearance of 15’ 3” (4.65 meters) all the way back in March. She’s coming off a second-place showing at the SEC meet with a final clearance of 14’ 1.75” (4.31 meters).
Alia Armstrong (100-meter hurdles) and Katy-Ann McDonald (800 meters) enter the meet ranked No. 1 in the national standings and looking for their first career national titles. Armstrong owns a windy season-best time of 12.33 that is more than a tenth faster than her closest competitor. She’s in good form as she ran a windy 12.46 to win the SEC title a little under a month ago. McDonald’s lifetime best of 2:00.98 came at the Bryan Clay Invitational in April. McDonald scored points for LSU in the 800 meters (4th) and 1,500 meters (3rd) at the SEC meet, but her focus will solely be on the 800-meter event in Oregon.
Defending national champs Tzuriel Pedigo (javelin) and Sean ‘Squirrel’ Burrell (400 meter hurdles) will attempt to recreate some electrifying performances once again this week. Pedigo enters the national meet ranked fifth in the nation with a season-best of 253’ 9” (77.34 meters). Burrell has been coming into form and gaining a little momentum as the season has progressed. He clocked a season-best of 50.07 at the SEC Championships.
Eric Edwards Jr. enters the national meet ranked No. 3 in the land with a season-best of 13.24w. He clocked a career-best wind-legal time of 13.28 to win the SEC title in May, so he’s right where he needs to be. John Meyer will don the Purple and Gold at the outdoor national meet for the first time in his career; he’ll compete in the shot put and he’s projected fourth right now thanks to his career-best heave of 67’ 3.25” (20.50 meters) from back in April.
Sean Dixon-Bodie, a fourth-place finisher in the triple jump at the 2021 outdoor national meet, enters ranked fifth this season. He’s trending upward as he notched a career-best leap of 54’ 6.75” (16.63 meters) two weeks ago at the NCAA East Preliminaries. Lastly, Dorian Camel comes into the national meet with a No. 5 ranking in the 200 meters thanks to his career-best of 20.00 that he ran in late April.
The remaining 14 entries for LSU rank outside the top five but that doesn’t mean they won’t have an impact on the meet. In order to score points for your team, an athlete must finish inside the top eight of her/his event. Below, you can see the rankings for LSU’s other entries.
Name –Rank –Event –Time/Mark
Women’s 4x100m Relay –No. 3 –42.59
Da’Marcus Fleming –No. 8 –100 Meters –10.02
Nyagoa Bayak –No. 8 –High Jump –6’ 1.25” (1.86m)
Jake Norris –Hammer Throw –230’ 4” (70.20m)*
Eli Gaughan –Javelin –230’ 6” (70.27m)*Men’s 4x400m Relay –3:02.97*
Tionna Beard-Brown –100 Meters –11.22*
Symone Mason –100 Meters –11.34*
Serena Bolden –Long Jump –20’ 7.75” (6.29m)*
Morgan Smalls –Long Jump –21’ 7.25” (6.58m)*
Garriel White –400m Hurdles –56.73*Women’s 4x400m Relay –3:29.88*
Apalos Edwards –Triple Jump –53’ 4.50” (16.27m)*
Morgan Smalls –High Jump –6’ 0.50” (1.84m)*
*Ranked outside the top 10
(LSU Athletics Media Release)