BATON ROUGE – LSU Track & Field is poised for another successful season in 2017 while returning two of the nation’s top teams as the Tigers are the No. 3-ranked men’s team and the Lady Tigers are the No. 7-ranked women’s team in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association’s preseason indoor rankings.
The Tigers are coming off a trophy-winning fourth-place team finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships a year ago, while the Lady Tigers tied for 14th place overall at indoor nationals to cap the 2016 season.
The Tigers are better positioned to compete for a national championship this indoor season after opening the 2016 season as the 14th-ranked men’s team in the USTFCCCA’s preseason rankings a year ago. They totaled 28 points for fourth place nationally in the final men’s standings for their best finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships since earning four-straight fourth-place finishes from 2008-11.
LSU’s men are led by their sprint squad that returns NCAA Indoor 200-meter silver medalist Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and NCAA Indoor 400-meter bronze medalist Michael Cherry for their senior seasons. Both will line up as Bowerman Award contenders during the 2017 season after receiving votes in the release of the first Bowerman Award Watch List last week.
The Tigers are also the defending NCAA Indoor Champions in the 4×400-meter relay as Cherry is joined by fellow senior LaMar Bruton, who also returns from last year’s winning relay team at the national meet.
Junior Mikiah Brisco returns as the top scoring Lady Tiger from last year’s NCAA Indoor Championships as she was a national finalist in both the 60-meter dash and 60-meter hurdles as a sophomore in 2016. She clocked personal bests in both NCAA finals with times of 7.17 seconds as the NCAA Indoor Bronze Medalist in the 60 meters and 8.04 as the fifth-place finisher nationally in the 60 hurdles a year ago.
Also the reigning SEC Women’s Indoor Runner of the Year, Brisco made history as the first Lady Tiger in program history to sweep SEC Indoor titles in both events at the same SEC Indoor Championships last year, as she was awarded the SEC’s Cliff Harper Trophy as the top individual point scorer in the conference meet.
LSU’s teams are bolstered by a host of other athletes who have earned All-American honors as NCAA scorers in their careers, including seniors Tremayne Acy and Renard Howell and sophomore Jaron Flournoy for the Tigers and seniors Nataliyah Friar, Rushell Harvey, Travia Jones, Jada Martin and Morgan Schuetz; junior Aleia Hobbs and sophomores Kortnei Johnson and Rachel Misher for the Lady Tigers.
USTFCCCA 2017 Preseason Indoor Rankings
Men
Team (Points)
1. Florida (151.28)
2. Oregon (140.45)
3. LSU (123.55)
4. Arkansas (99.02)
5. Syracuse (78.15)
6. Southern California (74.34)
7. Texas (71.79)
8. Georgia (71.47)
9. Colorado State (67.62)
10. Stanford (63.33)
11. Texas A&M (63.03)
12. Texas Tech (58.84)
13. Tennessee (57.58)
14. Oklahoma State (55.88)
15. Cornell (53.01)
16. Virginia Tech (52.26)
17. Alabama (50.23)
18. Minnesota (46.34)
19. Virginia (44.50)
20. Penn State (42.55)
21. Ohio State (40.33)
22. South Carolina (38.48)
23. Southeastern Louisiana (37.41)
24. Oklahoma (36.15)
25. Washington (35.99)
Women
Team (Points)
1. Oregon (194.96)
2. Arkansas (178.61)
3. Georgia (155.90)
4. Southern California (111.00)
5. Texas (88.96)
6. Florida (84.87)
7. LSU (84.20)
8. Kentucky (71.06)
9. Notre Dame (68.99)
10. Purdue (66.34)
11. Oklahoma State (65.84)
12. Michigan (55.02)
13. Baylor (54.99)
14. Miami, Fla. (54.14)
15. Tennessee (53.39)
16. NC State (51.79)
17. Georgetown (47.35)
18. Kansas State (46.93)
19. Washington (46.36)
20. Boise State (45.08)
21. Ole Miss (44.54)
22. Alabama (44.19)
23. Stanford (41.71)
24. South Carolina (38.34)
25. Oklahoma (38.10)