SEC Preview (Women)

(Kimberlyn Duncan of LSU)

Having LSU as the headliner of your conference has to be a bit intimidating, all those National Championships and Individual Champions. However this is the SEC, there are several national contending programs along with them individual champions in their own right. Over the past several years the conference has grown to be more an more competitive in every section of track and field. This was at one point a conference known just for speed. With the addition of Arkansas in the early 90's, a focus on distance became important, there was consistent growth and improvement in the field events as well. Now the conference is a powerhouse for all events.

This coming season looks to be an exciting one, especially in the sprints. Now that Texas A&M has joined the conference things have heated up even more. Senior Kimberlyn Duncan of LSU is one of the rising young stars for USA Track and Field. Duncan a known 200 meter specialist has shown steady improvement each year in the 100 meters while at LSU. She will need her best to fend off freshman star Shayla Sanders of Florida and  Ashley Collier of Texas A&M.

Florida being no slouch will bring a bevy of talented runners to the competition this season. The Lady Gators have a strong core of 400 meter runners in Ebony Eutsey, Lanie Whitaker and freshman Robin Reynolds. Eutsey was highly sought after recruit in 2010, although she has yet to win a SEC title she is poised for a breakout year. 

Her teammate Cory McGee leads a strong distance contingent that had a solid cross country campaign under first year coach Paul Spangler. McGee is the top returning 1,500 meter runner from last outdoor season and will look to claim her first conference title and continue the success of Florida distance running. Laura Roxberg of Missouri was the Big 12 Champion last season and will look to challenge McGee for the the crown as the conference newcomer. Natosha Rogers of Texas A&M another newcomer will be in the mix for the long distance titles in the 5,000 and 10,000 meter races after claiming both events at the Big 12 Championships last season.

The hurdles are always an intriguing event in the SEC. This season the top three performers from last outdoor season all return, defending champion Jasmine Stowers of LSU, Ivanique Kemp of Arkansas and Ugonna Ndu of Florida. All three have the speed for major improvement this season with their time and will face a strong challenge from conference newcomer Donique Flemings of Texas A&M the 2012 Big 12 Champion. This event should be very exciting this season, if Stowers wants to defend her title she may have to run a personal best to do it.

In the field events the jumps usually takes all the press for this conference. It is quite understandable with recent and pass Olympic and NCAA champions it is hard to not consistently look at all the great talent in the conference year in and year out. This year the throws takes another step to match the jumpers. Sophomore Tori Bliss of LSU and  Junior Hileen James of Georgia look to headline the throwing events. Bliss ironically from a jumping powerhouse in LSU is part of growing throws program at LSU that has had recent NCAA Champions and All-Americans on the men's side and looks to repeat the success on the women's side.

Ciarra Brewer of Florida returns for her second season after a successful freshman campaign that saw her claim All-American honors in the triple jump and the SEC Outdoor title. Brewer will be under a new coach Nic Petersen who guided Whitney Gipson to NCAA titles both indoors and outdoors in the long jump last season. Expect for Petersen to continue the jumping success at Florida and improve Brewer's long jump performance as well. She will face a heavy challenge from Colleen Felix of rival Georgia and Felix's teammate Maria Augutis.

This season SEC Track and Field may have one for the history books, with the addition of Texas A&M and Missouri this should be one of the most competitive seasons ever for the SEC in almost every event.