Cajuns Begin Action Monday at SBC Indoor Championships

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns track and field team will begin competition on Monday at the 2016 Sun Belt Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Birmingham CrossPlex.

Action gets underway on Monday with the heptathlon at 9 a.m. CT followed by the men's weight throw at 10 a.m. CT. The first running event begins at 4:15 p.m. CT with the women's 800-meter preliminaries.

Action will continue on Tuesday at 9 a.m. CT with the conclusion of the heptathlon followed by the pentathlon at 9:20 a.m. CT. The first running event final will commence at 4 p.m. CT with the women's 400-meter dash.

"I think it looks great for us on the men's side," head coach Lon Badeaux said. "We're going to have to have a great meet to win it. We've got so much high-quality talent on the men's side … that's a good and a bad thing. We're going to coach aggressively and we're going to coach to win it."

Louisiana has received top Sun Belt performances this season from Tristan Whitehall (men's shot put) and school-record holder Hanoj Carter (200-meters) with Jeryl Brazil (60-meter dash), Angus Sinclair (heptathlon) and defending SBC 60-meter hurdles champion Tyler Hughes all recording impressive performances.

Ricky Theyard, ranked third in the SBC in the triple jump, looks to score points for the Ragin' Cajuns in both the triple and long jumps, with Dionte Heath (high jump), Beau Robinson (5,000-meter run) and Kyle Baudoin (pole vault) all ranked among the top-5 among league athletes.

"We've got the people in the spots (we need), but we're going to need to get a surprise," Badeaux said. "We do have some hidden points with some guys getting healthy after not competing much this season, and some guys who are competing in new events. We're going to have that element of surprise."

On the women's side, Kaitlyn Moreau is set to defend her title in the pentathlon – the first-ever recorded by a Ragin' Cajuns athlete. Teammate Jasmin Fusilier earned all-SBC honors in the pentathlon after a third-place finish with Taylor Walker claiming third-place in the women's triple jump to claim all-SBC honors.

Alena Hrusoci (400-meter dash), Claire Hodges (1-mile run) and Courtney Musgrove (5,000-meter run) are ranked among the top 10 in their respective events in the Sun Belt, with all-conference performers Alexandra Harrell and Lindsey Harmon looking to score points in the high jump.

"The women's side is just thin, we've had a lot of weird injuries … just weird things happen, and it's really starting to show with our depth," Badeaux said. "We're going to have to focus on our main point scorers. The good thing for the women is that we're kind of loaded up in a couple of events that we're going to do really well in. We're suited better as an outdoor team at this point, but I'm not disappointed. We're going to have to really maximize where we can score."

Texas State is the returning women's team champions as they laid claim to the 2015 team title with 147.5 points. Arkansas State is the men's returning team champions as the Red Wolves won the men's title with 132.5 points.

Four sessions of the 2016 Men's and Women's Indoor Track & Field Championships can be seen live via the Sun Belt web telecast. Session 1 will begin at approximately 2:50 p.m. CT with session 2 scheduled to start at approximately 6:51 p.m. CT. Live coverage on day two begins at 12 p.m. CT for the first session. The final session of the championship on Tuesday will begin at 2:35 p.m. CT.

Live action can be viewed by visiting the Indoor Track and Field Championship Central page at SunBeltSports.org or by clicking on one of the links below during the scheduled times.

Fans can also follow along with the action via the official Sun Belt twitter account (@SunBelt). Meet results will be posted throughout the championship so fans are encouraged to check the championship central page often for updated results, photos and more.

Web Telecast Schedule
Day 1 Session 1 – 2:50 p.m. CST start.

Day 1 Session 2 – 6:51 p.m. CST start.

Day 2 session 1 – 12 p.m. CST start time.

Day 2 session 2 – 2:35 p.m. CST start.

Cajuns Begin Action Monday at SBC Indoor Championships

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Kyle Baudoin

Jeryl Brazil

Hanoj Carter

Jasmin Fusilier

Lindsey Harmon

Alexandra Harrell

Dionte Heath

Claire Hodges

Alena Hrusoci

Tyler Hughes

Kaitlyn Moreau

Courtney Musgrove

Beau Robinson

Angus Sinclair

Ricky Theyard

Taylor Walker

Tristan Whitehall

Footer

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics