School Spirit On Tap

Many of the national powers in college track & field — including Arkansas, Brigham Young, LSU, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Baylor, Villanova, Georgetown and the national champions from Texas A&M, will converge on The Armory for the 12th annual New Balance Collegiate Invitational Feb. 3-4, 2012.

They will be welcomed by New York City's leading teams, including Columbia, Fordham, Iona, Manhattan, St. Francis and St. John's as well as regional schools that include Albany, UConn, Essex County, Marist, Rutgers and Princeton.

At least 20 defending NCAA individual champions are expected to compete, led by:

• Tina Sutej, the collegiate recordholder in the pole vault, from Arkansas
• Kimberlyn Duncan, 200-meter champion and anchor of the winning 4x1 for LSU
• Juliet Bottorff, 10,000-meter champion for Duke
• Miles Batty, indoor winner of the mile and DMR anchor for BYU.

Some schools will be attending for the first time, joining the 125-plus teams returning. The new squads include:

• Clemson, coached by Lawrence Johnson
• Central Florida, led by Caryl Smith Gilbert
• Nevada, coached by Shantel Twiggs
• Alabama, with new head coach Dan Waters, a former A&M assistant
• Iowa State, coached by Corey Ihmels
• Southern U., coached by Olympic long jumper Brian Johnson
• Alabama State, coached by Ritchie Beene
• Mississippi State, coached by Steve Dudley

Clemson (ACC women), Central Florida (Conference USA women) and Alabama State (SWAC women) are among at least 15 different conference-championship teams from the 2011 spring outdoor season who will be in attendance. The others include:

• Texas A&M (Big 12 M/W)
• LSU (SEC women)
• BYU (Mountain West M/W)
• Hampton (MEAC women)
• Georgia State (Colonial women)
• Monmouth (Northeast Conf. M/W)
• Albany (America East M/W)
• Rider (MAAC men)
• Duke (IC4A men, ECAC women)
• Princeton (Heps women)
• George Mason (Colonial men)
• Houston (Conference USA men)

Pat Henry's Texas A&M squad went on to sweep both NCAA outdoor team titles last June. The Aggies took both 4x4s to key those victories, and they return Michael Preble, Jeneba Tarmoh and Ikubun Mayungbe from those relay teams.

LSU returns Semoy Hackett, Rebecca Alexander and Duncan from its winning 4x1, while Villanova returns Emily Lipari, Ariann Neutts and Christie Verdier from its championship indoor DMR. (The anchor of that squad, Sheila Reid, has exhausted her indoor eligibility.)

Hackett ran the 4x1 in the 2008 Olympic Games and in the 2009 and 2011 World Championships for her native country, Trinidad.

Other NCAA champions expected to compete include:

• Men Leonard Korir (Iona), 5k/10k; Barrett Nugent (LSU), HH, and Marquise Goodwin (Texas), '10 LJ
• Women Lacey Bleazard (BYU) indoor 800, Brianna Rollins (Clemson) indoor 60H, and Neely Spence (Shippensburg), Div. II 5k.

Hackett is one of numerous veterans of the meet who competed in last summer's World Championships, both for the United States and other nations, including 18 medalists:

• Gold Jason Richardson (South Carolina), HH; Bershawn Jackson (St. Augustine's), 4x4; Trey Hardee (Texas), Dec; Shalonda Solomon (South Carolina), 4x1; Francena McCorory (Hampton), 4x4; Jessica Beard (Texas A&M), 4x4; Lashinda Demus (South Carolina), 400H; Natasha Hastings (South Carolina), 4x4, and Keshia Baker (Oregon), 4x4
• Silver Walter Dix (Florida State), 100/200; Ashton Eaton (Oregon), Dec; Melaine Walker (Essex/Jamaica), 400H
• Bronze Ngoni Makusha (Florida State/Zimbabwe), LJ; Allodin Fothergill (UMES/Jamaica), 4x4; Riker Hylton (LSU/Jamaica), 4x4; Renaud Lavillenie (France), PV; Kelly-Ann Baptiste (LSU/Trinidad), 100; Matthew Centrowitz (Oregon), 1500

Others who have competed in the New Balance meet over the past decade who competed in Daegu included:

• Men Justin Gatlin (Tennessee), Erison Hurtault (Columbia/Dominica), Tabarie Henry (Texas A&M/USVI), Demetrius Pinder (Texas A&M/Bahamas), Andrew Bumbalough (Georgetown), Aries Merritt (Tennessee), Ronald Forbes (Florida International/Cayman Islands), Richard Thompson (LSU/Trinidad), Fabrice Lapierre (Texas A&M/Australia)
• Women Kerron Stewart (Essex/Jamaica), Alice Schmidt (UNC), Kenia Sinclair (Seton Hall/Jamaica), Lauren Fleshman (Stanford), Shalane Flanagan (UNC), Nickiesha Wilson (LSU/Jamaica), Tina Sutej (Arkansas/Slovenia), Cleopatra Borel-Brown (Maryland-Baltimore Country/Trinidad), Jenny Dahlgren (Georgia/Argentina), Hyleas Fountain (Georgia)