BATON ROUGE – The LSU Track & Field teams are hitting their stride as they prepare for the start of the SEC Indoor Championships this weekend with the Tigers up one spot to No. 3 and the Lady Tigers up a whopping 10 spots to No. 12 in the latest Top 25 national power rankings released Monday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
The teams moved up in this week’s rankings thanks to a combined seven performances over the weekend that currently rank among the qualifying positions for the NCAA Indoor Championships.
The Top 16 athletes in each individual event and Top 12 relay teams in both the 4×400-meter relay and distance medley relay on both the men’s and women’s sides will earn the right to compete at the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships being held in two weeks. LSU’s teams turned in seven such performances during the LSU Twilight on Friday and Notre Dame’s Alex Wilson Invitational on Saturday.
To date, the Tigers feature eight athletes and relays and the Lady Tigers feature seven athletes and relays currently among the qualifying positions heading into the final weekend at the SEC Indoor Championships.
Sophomore All-Americans Mikiah Brisco and Daeshon Gordon set the pace for the teams at the Carl Maddox Field House on Friday as both raced to personal bests with two of the NCAA’s 10 fastest times this season in the 60-meter hurdles. Brisco clocked a personal best of 8.06 seconds to win the event title with the No. 4-ranked time nationally, while Gordon followed in third place with a personal best of her own at 8.10 for the No. 6-ranked time in collegiate track and field this season.
Junior Johnnie Jackson got the ball rolling for the Tigers at the LSU Twilight meet when he unleashed a big personal best of 70 feet, 5 ¾ inches to win the men’s weight throw title in the first event of the day to move to No. 13 in the national rankings this season. Fellow junior Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake added a Top 16 time on the track with a PR of 6.65 in the 60 meters to tie for the No. 14 spot nationally.
The Lady Tigers continued their momentum at Notre Dame on Saturday when junior Morgan Schuetz ran an indoor personal best of 2 minutes, 4.05 seconds in the 800 meters after anchoring the Lady Tigers to a school record of 11:05.34 in the women’s distance medley relay with teammates Hollie Parker, Travia Jones and Hannah Deworth.
Schuetz’s indoor PR of 2:04.05 in the 800 meters ranked No. 11 nationally while LSU’s DMR school record of 11:05.34 emerged from the weekend on the cut line at No. 12 nationally upon their return to Baton Rouge.
Senior All-American Cyril Grayson also cracked the NCAA’s Top 10 with his performance at the Alex Wilson Invitational when he sprinted to an indoor PR of 46.51 in the men’s 400-meter dash. Grayson catapulted to the No. 10 position in the national rankings in the event while slashing more than four tenths of a second off of his previous personal best in the event.
The championship season gets underway this weekend with a return trip to Fayetteville, Arkansas, as the Tigers and Lady Tigers will compete at the SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships running Friday and Saturday at the Randal Tyson Track Center at the University of Arkansas. They will then wrap up the indoor season in two weeks at the 2016 NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships being held for the first time at the Birmingham Crossplex in Birmingham, Alabama, from March 11-12.
USTFCCCA Top 25 (as of Feb. 22)
MEN
Team (Points) Last Week
1. Arkansas (130.11) 1
2. Oregon (112.39) 6
3. LSU (98.55) 4
4. Tennessee (97.07) 2
5. Texas A&M (84.44) 3
6. Texas (83.28) 5
7. Texas Tech (73.07) 7
8. Georgia (66.31) 8
9. Southern California (63.50) 9
10. Florida (58.87) 10
11. Virginia Tech (56.98) 12
12. Washington (55.20) 19
13. Southeastern Louisiana (54.69) 13
14. Syracuse (51.87) 11
15. Purdue (49.78) 22
16. Oklahoma State (47.58) 24
17. Penn State (45.05) 14
18. NC State (41.78) 18
19. Stanford (40.96) 16
20. Tulsa (38.83) 21
21. Air Force (36.41) 23
22. TCU (36.31) 20
23. Virginia (35.33) 36
24. Southern Illinois (35.07) 29
25. Minnesota (34.86) 28
WOMEN
Team (Points) Last Week
1. Oregon (156.38) 2
2. Georgia (153.20) 3
3. Florida (152.14) 1
4. Arkansas (138.16) 4
5. Texas (95.07) 5
6. Michigan (92.11) 9
7. Kansas State (86.79) 6
8. Tennessee (83.85) 7
9. NC State (74.14) 8
10. Southern California (72.19) 10
11. Oklahoma State (69.41) 12
12. LSU (67.18) 22
13. Notre Dame (65.66) 15
14. Georgetown (65.13) 11
15. Kentucky (58.49) 13
16. Duke (54.09) 17
17. Washington (51.34) 14
18. Miami, Fla. (47.79) 16
19. Boise State (46.67) 18
20. Texas A&M (44.12) 19
21. Akron (42.74) 23
22. Wisconsin (37.50) 24
23. New Mexico (36.37) 33
24. Baylor (36.04) 30
25. Purdue (35.85) 21