In the Tigers’ cage

After twice competing in meets with temperatures in the 40s, the Portland State track and field team has headed south in search of warmer weather and an opportunity to challenge some of the best athletes in the nation.

This weekend the Vikings will compete at Louisiana State University in the Tiger Invitational located in Baton Rouge, La., where it was 86 degrees and partly cloudy on Thursday.

Head coach Kebba Tolbert arrived in Baton Rouge Wednesday night with the few Vikings competing Thursday in the multi-event portion of the meet (decathlon/heptathlon) and talked about what it meant to be competing at LSU.

“It’s a chance to be somewhere different and see an established program and have a nice weather meet,” Tolbert said. “They have one of the best facilities in the country, and it gives us a chance to go after some of those regional and conference qualifying marks. The level of competition helps to push them to their personal bests.”

Being pushed by the competition should not be a problem. LSU’s women are ranked second in the nation by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, and the Tiger men are ranked fourth.

Since 1987, the LSU women’s squad has won 13 national championships as a team and the men have finished fifth or higher in each of the last eight seasons. The meet will also feature the Auburn Tigers, whose men and women are ranked 12 and 16, respectively.

Tolbert expects the Vikings to compete well and place in several events. Sophomore Nkeiru Ugwoaba competed last week in the long jump, but will take her first attempts in the triple jump since placing second at the Big Sky Indoor Championships at the end of February with a leap of 41’5″.

“She should place in the triple jump,” Tolbert said of Ugwoaba. “She went a foot past the qualifying mark in indoors, and this is her first outdoor meet.”

Sophomore Tiffany Bigham, who currently has the fourth-best discus throw in the Big Sky at 141’0″, should place as well according to Tolbert. The school record holder, senior Caressa Sims, has not thrown the hammer in a meet since March 22. But her heave of 164’8″, nearly 20 feet less than her previous record, was still good enough to qualify for the Big Sky Championships coming up in mid May.

On the men’s side, junior Vince Kinney and sophomore Nick Trubachik will be competing in the decathlon for the first time this season after racing in the heptathlon during the indoor season. Kinney, from Lynwood Wash., was three points shy of breaking the school record in the heptathlon, and Trubachik set a new personal best by over 300 points.

“They had a really good year indoors, and I think they’re ready to do well,” Tolbert said.

Three-time Big Sky champion Trevor Rollinger should benefit from the boost in competition level. The Yakima, Wash., native is two years removed from his personal best time in the 400m hurdles, though he won the Big Sky title last spring by nearly a full second. He ran his race in 54.41 seconds three weeks ago, good enough to qualify for the conference championships, yet nowhere near his best of 51.74 seconds.

Competing at one of the best facilities in the nation is a treat for the Vikings, who split their practice times between Duniway Park and Lincoln High School.

“If they found a million dollars and built us a track, we’d be really excited,” Tolbert said. “It’s a challenge, but we don’t make excuses. The kid next to you doesn’t care if you don’t have a home track or have to train in cold weather.”