BATON ROUGE — Despite a fourth place finish at the SEC Indoor Track and Field Championships, the Lady Tigers moved up five places in the national rankings all the way to the No. 2 spot. At the same time the Tigers, SEC runners-up this past weekend, moved up one spot from sixth to fifth in the Trackwire national poll released on Wednesday.
Heading into last weekend’s SEC Indoor Championships the SEC boasted four of the top 10 teams in both polls. After a remarkable showing at the conference meet, the league now boasts four of the top five teams in each poll and both No. 1s.
Arkansas continues to lead the men’s poll while South Carolina extended its lead in the women’s poll. Alabama holds the No. 2 spot in the men’s poll, while Tennessee and LSU rank fourth and fifth.
In the women’s poll, Arkansas follows South Carolina and LSU in the third spot, while Florida moved up to fifth in the latest rankings.
In addition, South Carolina, Ole Miss, Auburn and Georgia are all ranked in the top 25 in the men’s poll, putting eight of the 11 teams in the top 25 in the nation. A total of six teams are ranked in the women’s poll.
Wednesday’s rankings set the stage for next week’s NCAA Indoor Championships in Fayetteville, Ark., on March 9-10. Arkansas is the defending men’s champion while UCLA grabbed the women’s crown a year ago. The Lady Tigers finished fourth while the Tigers are coming off back-to-back seventh place finishes.