SEC on the horizon

• By SHELDON MICKLES
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: Feb 29, 2008 - Page: 3C

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The road to the NCAA Indoor Championships begins today in Fayetteville, Ark., for the LSU track and field teams. And it’s a familiar road at that for the Tigers and Lady Tigers.

The top-ranked Lady Tigers and fourth-ranked Tigers, who have already competed in the Randal Tyson Track Center twice this winter, will go into the Southeastern Conference Championships looking to build momentum for nationals — which, you guessed it, will be held March 14-15 in Fayetteville.

As usual, the competition figures to be strong during the three-day meet that begins today with the women’s heptathlon and the first four events of the men’s heptathlon. The meet continues Saturday and ends Sunday.

“This conference meet is going to be very competitive — as always,” LSU coach Dennis Shaver said earlier this week. “Going into the championship season you need to get into a competitive scoring environment. But at the same time, you have to keep in mind the national championships.”

Which means this: Shaver wants to win the SEC titles, but he won’t do it at the risk of diminishing their chances to hoist national title trophies on the night of March 15.

“You want to run the races and win,” he said, “but you have to be cautious about what you run your athletes in.”

Last season, the Lady Tigers finished third and the Tigers were fourth in the SEC meet. But the women are further along this season and are among the favorites to win this weekend and in two weeks as well.

“We certainly hope to improve on both those finishes last year,” Shaver said. “But this is a real competitive meet. The depth is good, the quality is good and the points don’t come very easy.”

That’s because the conference is loaded with nationally-ranked squads on both the men’s and women’s sides.

In addition to No. 1 LSU, which won the SEC outdoor title last May and then finished second to Arizona State at the NCAA meet, this week’s meet includes No. 4 Tennessee, No. 9 Arkansas, No. 14 Florida, No. 15 Ole Miss, No. 22 Kentucky and No. 25 South Carolina.

The Lady Tigers will be going after their first SEC indoor title since 1999.

On the men’s side, No. 4 LSU will go against No. 3 Tennessee, No. 9 Florida, No. 14 Arkansas, No. 17 Kentucky and No. 20 Georgia.

Shaver expects the Lady Tigers to fight it out with Tennessee and Arkansas. On the men’s side, he looks for a mad scramble between Arkansas, LSU, Tennessee and possibly Kentucky.