LAFAYETTE – Louisiana’s Ragin’ Cajuns men’s and women’s track and field squads close out the regular season portion of their 2012 outdoor campaign on Saturday, April 28 as they host the Cole-Lancon Invitational at the Ragin’ Cajuns Track/Soccer Facility.
The Cole-Lancon meet honors former legendary UL coaches Bob Cole and Charles Lancon who combined for a total of 30 conference championships.
It’s the first of two remaining home meets for Louisiana. The Ragin’ Cajuns Track/Soccer Facility is set to host the 2012 Sun Belt Conference Outdoor Championships Friday-Sunday, May 11-13.
Saturday’s action gets underway at 10 a.m., with the start of the field events. Running events are slated for a 1 p.m., start and will operate on a rolling schedule through approximately 4:15 p.m.
Joining the Cajuns for the Cole-Lancon meet this weekend will be squads from LSU, Nicholls State and Northwestern State.
"This is our last meet before the conference meet and a small meet is exactly what we need to put our final preparations in,” first-year head coach Lon Badeaux said. “We didn't want to have the grind of a long drawn out meet, but the quality of our opponents gives us the perfect competition before the conference meet.
“It will be nice to be home and to honor our seniors,” Badeaux added.
The Cole-Lancon Invitational is the second meet that UL has hosted in Badeaux’s inaugural season as top boss. The Cajuns hosted the Louisiana Classics meet back in March.
Key competitors for the Cajuns on Saturday include 2012 indoor All-Americans Chris Roy (pole vault) and Albert Fournette (shot put).
Freshman Joshua Sigler coming off his first collegiate outdoor individual title after he finished first in the long jump with a distance of 7.53m/24-8 ½ at the Southeastern Lion Invitational last weekend, will be competing in the high jump and triple jump.
Roy and Michael Vani – the Cajuns’ top pole vaulters – lead a quartet of Cajuns taking part in the men’s pole vault.
Freshman Mayme Cook, a product of Notre Dame High in Crowley, has performed well in the women’s javelin throw this season notching a distance of 40-plus meters each time out. In March, Cook recorded a javelin throw of 46.58/152-10 in her Ragin’ Cajuns Track/Soccer Facility debut (Louisiana Classics).
In track events, Justin Jones (100 meter dash) and Keyondrick Boykins (110 meter hurdles) highlight the Cajuns entries. Amanda Roberts, coming off a first place finish in the 400 meter dash at Southeastern last weekend, is slated to run the 200 and 400 meter dash at the Cole-Lancon.
Louisiana is scheduled to have relay teams run the 4x100 on both the men’s and women’s side.