BATON ROUGE — The LSU track and field teams will kick off the championship season at the SEC Championships this weekend with the Lady Tigers ranked No. 2 and the Tigers ranked No. 4 in the latest collegiate track and field power ranking released Wednesday.
They are scheduled to line up in the competition for the first time on Friday afternoon following a 20-day layoff from the regular season finale at the 114th Penn Relays on April 26.
Hutsell-Rosen Track on the campus of Auburn University will play host to the 2008 SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships as the four-day meet is scheduled to get underway with the multi-events on Thursday and concluding with the presentation of awards on Sunday evening.
The Lady Tigers enter the weekend as the defending champions after running away with the SEC Outdoor title a year ago, and they are looking to sweep conference titles this season after being crowned SEC Indoor champions back in March.
The Tigers, who finished runner-up to Tennessee a year ago, find themselves in a position to snap an 18-year drought with their first SEC Outdoor championship since 1990. A win by the Tigers and Lady Tigers this weekend would mark the first time since 1990 that LSU has swept the men’s and women’s championships at the SEC Outdoor meet.
The squads will be well-rested as the 20-day layoff between the regular season finale and the start of the championship season is the longest by an LSU team in two decades.
The weekly power ranking released by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association is based on seasonal best performances of collegiate athletes nationwide and their ranking on the weekly NCAA men’s and women’s performance list. The Texas A&M men and Arizona State women hold the top spots for the second straight week.
USTFCCCA Top 25
WOMEN
1. Arizona State, 325.92
2. LSU, 314.95
3. Texas A&M, 254.53
4. Southern California, 243.07
5. Texas Tech, 216.24
6. Virginia Tech, 215.54
7. UCLA, 200.25
8. Stanford, 162.48
9. Florida, 144.34
10. Minnesota, 142.65
11. UTEP, 142.44
12. Miami (Fla.), 132.40
13. Arkansas, 126.22
14. Penn State, 122.94
15. Oregon, 120.28
16. Texas, 115.99
17. Florida State, 115.45
18. Baylor, 108.28
19. Ole Miss, 104.18
20. Oklahoma, 104.03
21. TCU, 102.65
22. Michigan, 102.14
23. Tennessee, 101.77
24. North Carolina, 95.30
25. Auburn, 90.59
MEN
1. Texas A&M, 251.58
2. Florida State, 250.81
3. Florida, 238.03
4. LSU, 234.11
5. Southern California, 201.37
6. Arizona State, 197.07
7. UCLA, 184.39
8. Auburn, 165.96
9. UTEP, 161.55
10. Baylor, 142.37
11. Colorado, 136.04
12. Texas, 135.32
13. Oregon, 133.91
14. Tennessee, 125.06
15. Arkansas, 121.95
16. Arizona, 116.12
17. Kentucky, 115.24
18. TCU, 113.37
19. Clemson, 103.09
20. Washington State, 102.22
21. Liberty, 100.24
22. South Carolina, 97.50
23. Texas Tech, 96.60
24. Georgia, 93.33
25. UT-San Antonio, 92.12