LAFAYETTE, La. – Georgia State's 24-member track and field team will compete for the Sun Belt Conference Championship in the three-day event Friday-Sunday, May 13-15 on the campus of UL Lafayette.

“We focus all year long on getting better and peaking for our best performances at this championship meet,” head coach Chris England said. “The time is now to do that and I hope our best is yet to come this weekend.”

After finishing second in the Sun Belt Championship Meet in each of the past two years, GSU has a history now of performing well when it counts. “With a pair of runner-up finishes at the championship, many of those upperclassmen on the team who were part of those are ready to win a championship,” England noted. “Realistically, we're probably one of five teams with a legitimate chance to win. But, when a meet is spaced out over three days and each individual event has eight scoring places in each event, each individual on the team plays a vital role.”

Competing in the Sun Belt Championship is a different environment from the season, as all the other meets are based on individual performances and trying to gain NCAA ranking status to earn a Regional bid. “This is the one that the team score counts and it ends up depicting how your season was. Setting school records would be great, but these three days are about the team, not the individual.”

For Georgia State, this meet also scores one point in the new “Rivalry Series” with Georgia Southern. Should GSU finish ahead of Georgia Southern in the final team score, that point would guarantee the inaugural rivalry series win for the Georgia State athletics program.

Outdoor track and field can involve dealing with weather conditions, so that is always a factor. This week's temperatures in Louisiana call for temperatures in the upper 80's and humidity around 60%. Friday's opening day has a high chance for thunderstorms.

Georgia State has balance for scoring in most areas. Sprinter Ravin Gilbert is a five-time conference champ in her career, including the 100m and 200m races last year. Nuria Ramirez was the indoor Sun Belt champ in the 800m run. Stephanie Berger was all-conference in cross country. Tyler Watson and Kassandra Pierre have ranked high in the hurdles. GSU's sprint relay teams are strong. Throwers LaPorscha Wells, a four-time Sun Belt champ, and Alysiah Whittaker have been record breaking. Jumper Ashlan Rosier has a top five jump in the Sun Belt.  But, GSU will have to overcome other teams scoring big in events the Panthers have no entrants (pole vault, triple jump).

This meet doesn't end the season totally, since those individuals who meet the NCAA East qualifying standards will go on to compete May 26-28 in Jacksonville, Fla. But, this weekend takes more importance as the team-scoring event and benchmark of the success. With 20 veterans who have competed in stressful conference championships before, GSU will be focused and ready to work together as a team.