BATON ROUGE – LSU’s women’s track and field team cashed in on an impressive weekend at the LSU Twilight in Baton Rouge and Alex Wilson Invitational in South Bend, Indiana, by climbing to No. 4 in this week’s Top 25 power rankings released Monday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
The men’s team also checks in with a No. 8 national ranking ahead of the SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships this weekend as they continue to compete as one of the top teams in collegiate track and field.
The Lady Tigers have reached their highest ranking of the 2017 indoor season following a weekend during which they smashed their school record in the distance medley relay with the No. 4-ranked time in the country this season at Notre Dame’s Loftus Sports Center on Saturday. Their team of freshman Ruby Stauber (1,200 meters), senior Travia Jones (400 meters), sophomore Hollie Parker (800 meters) and senior Morgan Schuetz (mile) was third overall at the Alex Wilson Invitational with a school record of 10 minutes, 57.66 seconds.
That time broke the Lady Tigers’ previous indoor school record of 11:05.34 set just last year as they qualified to run the DMR at the NCAA Indoor Championships for the first time in school history in 2016.
Sophomore Jordan McClendon and freshman Nickolette Dunbar also improved their qualifying position for the NCAA Indoor Championships while competing at the LSU Twilight meet at the Carl Maddox Field House in Baton Rouge on Friday as McClendon won the weight throw with a career-best 69-3 ¼ and Dunbar won the shot put with a seasonal-best of 54-1 ¾.
McClendon moved herself into the No. 13 spot in the NCAA rankings in the women’s weight throw this season with a nearly three-foot personal best that also put her within four feet of Denise Hinton’s 3-year-old LSU school record of 73-11 in the event. Dunbar finished the meet on the cusp of the Top 16 of the national rankings in her event in the No. 17 spot following the weekend.
The Top 16 athletes in each individual event and Top 12 relays in both the 4×400-meter relay and distance medley relay will earn qualification to the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships in two weeks.
Like the Lady Tigers, the Tigers also highlighted their weekend with a school-record run in the distance medley relay at the Alex Wilson Invitational as they broke their previous best by four seconds with the 12th-fastest time in the NCAA this season. Senior Blair Henderson (1,200 meters), sophomore Jaron Flournoy (400 meters), junior Jack Wilkes (800 meters) and sophomore Dajour Braxton (mile) ran 9:31.66.
LSU’s teams are now ready for the start of the championship season this week as they make their return to the Vanderbilt Multipurpose Facility to compete at the 2017 SEC Indoor Track & Field Championships running Friday and Saturday. They also appeared at Vanderbilt’s Commodore Invitational held Jan. 13-14 earlier this season.
USTFCCCA Top 25 (as of Feb. 20)
MEN
Team (Points) Last Week
1. Florida (153.59) 1
2. Arkansas (144.99) 3
3. Oregon (105.79) 2
4. Georgia (100.92) 6
5. Texas A&M (84.58) 4
6. Kansas (83.33) 8
7. Colorado (79.44) 7
8. LSU (76.98) 5
9. Alabama (70.34) 20
10. Indiana (66.58) 18
11. Colorado State (66.01) 12
12. Tennessee (61.26) 10
13. UTEP (60.17) 9
14. Texas (57.31) 11
15. Virginia (57.24) 14
16. Texas Tech (57.21) 13
17. Southern California (50.97) 15
18. Iowa (50.40) 16
19. Washington (49.98) 23
20. Oklahoma State (47.21) 22
21. Virginia Tech (46.37) 17
22. Stanford (45.03) 26
23. Southern Illinois (44.84) 21
24. Houston (44.12) 19
25. Syracuse (43.54) 24
WOMEN
Team (Points) Last Week
1. Oregon (244.40) 1
2. Arkansas (171.22) 3
3. Georgia (167.77) 2
4. LSU (128.88) 5
5. Southern California (119.70) 4
6. Kentucky (100.76) 6
7. Baylor (78.10) 8
8. Texas (77.88) 7
9. Alabama (73.34) 9
10. Texas A&M (69.97) 12
11. Florida (67.02) 10
12. Kansas State (63.22) 13
13. Ole Miss (61.56) 11
14. Penn State (54.11) 15
15. Miami, Fla. (52.17) 14
16. Indiana (49.24) 17
17. BYU (43.16) 29
18. Michigan (39.88) 16
19. Furman (37.35) 20
20. Arizona (33.78) 21
21. Purdue (33.60) 23
22. Colorado (31.24) 22
23. Stanford (30.98) 18
24. Illinois (30.88) 24
25. Villanova (30.05) 19