BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s swimming and diving team moved up one spot to No. 21 in the latest TYR/CSCAA Division I national rankings released Tuesday, while the Lady Tigers held the No. 23 position in the women’s poll.
Even though the LSU men (6-5) came up short in a back-and-forth meet with No. 20 Texas A&M last Saturday, the Tigers closed out the dual-meet season with five victories in their last seven contests and should be battle-tested for next month’s SEC Championships having faced six nationally-ranked opponents this year.
The Lady Tigers (10-4) fell to the eighth-ranked Aggies in their last meet but have enjoyed a fine regular season in which they have recorded double-digit victories for the first time since 1998-99.
The LSU women will wrap up the dual-meet season this weekend when they host Houston, Rice and Tulane on Friday at 5 p.m. (CST) and Saturday at 11 a.m. With a weekend sweep the Lady Tigers will post their highest dual-meet win total in program history.
The pollsters chose to release a second poll for the month of January after several dual matchups between elite teams last week shook up the top 10. While the Stanford women remained on top of the women’s poll, California’s strong showing over Pac-10 rival Arizona propelled the Bears to No. 1 in the men’s poll.
No. 3 Auburn became the highest-ranked squad among seven Southeastern Conference teams in the men’s poll after gaining three spots following its 167-133 victory over No. 5 Florida. The Lady Bulldogs of Georgia held on to the No. 2 position in the women’s poll to headline a group of six SEC women’s squads in the rankings.
The final poll of the regular season is projected to be released on Feb. 17, 2011.
TYR/CSCAA Division I National Rankings
Men’s Poll
1. California (7)
2. Stanford (6)
3. Auburn (7)
4. Texas
5. Florida
6. Arizona
7. Tennessee
8. USC
9. Georgia
10. Virginia
11. Ohio State
12. North Carolina
13. Indiana
13. Michigan
15. Minnesota
16. Alabama
17. UNLV
18. Louisville
19. Texas A&M
20. Florida State
21. LSU
22. South Carolina
23. Purdue
24. Iowa
25. Navy
Women’s Poll
1. Stanford (23)
2. Georgia (6)
3. USC (3)
4. California
5. Auburn
6. Texas
7. Arizona
8. Florida
9. Texas A&M
10. Tennessee
11. Virginia
12. North Carolina
13. Minnesota
14. Indiana
15. Michigan
16. Louisville
17. Wisconsin
18. Ohio State
19. Purdue
20. Arkansas
21. UCLA
22. SMU
23. LSU
24. San Diego State
25. Penn State
25. Arizona State