BATON ROUGE — The Tigers are sixth and the Lady Tigers are 17th in the first track and field rankings of the outdoor season.
The Tigers sit just outside the top five with 30 points. NCAA Indoor champions, Arkansas, sit atop the men’s standings with 85 points. Florida (62), Arizona (42), Arizona State (32) and Indiana (30) round out the top five.
Tennessee, winner of the women’s indoor national crown, enters the outdoor season ranked No. 1 with 51 points. The Vols are trailed by South Carolina (49), Florida (39), BYU (39) and Nebraska (38). The Lady Tigers follow with 13 points.
Individually, LSU has eight athletes and three relay teams listed among the nation’s top 12.
The men have a trio of athletes listed at No. 2 in their signature events. Olympians Bennie Brazell and Kelly Willie are ranked in the 400 hurdles and the 400 meters, respectively, while the SEC Men’s Freshman Runner of the Year, Xavier Carter, is ranked in the 200 meters.
For the women, senior RaNysha LeBlanc owns the Lady Tigers’ top ranking. She is listed at No. 4 in the 100 hurdles this week.
Three freshmen are also ranked as Ashley Owens comes in at No. 6 in the 100 meters, Deonna Lawrence is 10th in the 400 meters and Kelly Baptiste is 12th in the 200 meters.
Also listed is sophomore Tina Harris. She is ninth in the long jump.
In the relay events, both the Tigers and Lady Tigers’ are No. 4 in the 4×400-meter relay. In addition, the Tigers are ranked eighth in the 4×100-meter relay.
The LSU track and field team returns to action this week when it travels to Austin, Texas for the 78th annual Texas Relays.