The LSU track and field team will be represented by seven individuals and a relay team in the NCAA indoor championships that begin Friday.
Favour Ofili and Michaela Rose will try to cap strong indoor seasons and bring home NCAA titles in the two-day competition in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
To qualify for nationals, athletes had to be among the top 16 in their respective events on the NCAA descending order lists. The top 12 teams in relays also made it.
Ofili is ranked second in the 200 meters, while Rose also has clocked the second-fastest time nationally in the 800 meters this winter.
Ofili, who also qualified in the 60 with a personal-record time of 7.15 seconds, has posted a school-record time of 22.36 seconds in the 200. She set both PRs at the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 10.
Rose secured her spot in the NCAA championships with a school-record time of 2 minutes, 00.18 seconds when she won the 800 at the David Hemery Valentine Invitational in Boston. That time is the third-fastest in collegiate history.
In addition to Ofili and Rose, Leah Phillips qualified in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.02 seconds that ranks sixth in the NCAA this winter.
The LSU women also have a 4×400-meter relay team in the meet as the team of Hannah Douglas, Ofili, Rose and Kennedi Sanders have a best of 3:29.94 this season. That ranks 11th nationally.
Qualifiers on the men’s side are triple jumper Apalos Edwards, shot putter John Meyer, long jumper Brandon Hicklin and sprinter Godson Oghenebrume.
Edwards is third nationally with a PR of 55 feet, 3 inches, Meyer ranks fourth in the shot with a school-record mark of 66-10, Hicklin is seventh in the long jump at 26-1¾ and Oghenebrume is 13th in the 60 with a PR of 6.58 seconds.
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