BATON ROUGE — Both the LSU men’s and women’s track and field teams will enter next week’s NCAA Championships ranked among the top 10 in the country as the Tigers are listed at No. 4 and the Lady Tigers are 10th in the final Trackwire 25 poll of the season.
It marks the second straight week the Tigers hold down the No. 4 spot. The Lady Tigers re-enter the national standings after spending the last five weeks unranked.
The men’s top five is led by Arkansas with 65 points. The Razorbacks are followed by Florida State (51), Florida (40), and the Tigers and Tennessee who are knotted at No. 4 with 38 points apiece.
Texas tops the women’s standings with 55 points. They are trailed by defending national champion UCLA (48), Miami (43), South Carolina (41) and Nebraska (32). The Lady Tigers tallied 24 points.
Individually, the Tigers and Lady Tigers have a combined seven athletes and three relay teams ranked among the top 12 heading into the national meet.
Freshman Xavier Carter earned the country’s No. 1 ranking in the 200 meters after consecutive wins at the SEC and NCAA Mideast Regional Championships.
Junior Kelly Willie slipped one spot to No. 2 in the 400 meters, while senior Bennie Brazell dropped a spot to No. 5 in the 400-meter hurdles.
Carter, Willie and Brazell all run on both the Tigers’ 4×100 and 4×400-meter relay teams that are each ranked No. 2 in the nation.
In addition, sophomore Alleyne Lett is listed at No. 10 in the decathlon.
For the women, freshman Kelly Baptiste jumped to No. 2 in the 100 meters and No. 5 in the 200 meters following personal best efforts in both events at the regional championships.
Baptiste also anchors the 4×100 team that improved three spots to No. 4 this week.
Others Lady Tigers in the rankings include Tina Harris in the long jump (No. 6) and Tanya Osbourne in the 800 meters (No.5).
LSU wraps up the 2005 schedule next week when it travel to Sacramento, Calif., for the NCAA Championships, June 8-11.
Men’s Trackwire 25
1. Arkansas, 65
2. Florida State, 51
3. Florida, 40
4. LSU, 38
4. Nebraska, 38
6. Tennessee, 30
6. BYU, 30
8. Arizona, 28
9. Indiana, 26
10. Stanford, 25
11. Auburn, 23
12. Wisconsin, 22
12. UCLA, 22
14. Texas Tech, 21
14. Oregon, 21
14. Texas, 21
17. Arizona State, 20
18. USC, 17
19. Mississippi State, 16
19. Georgia, 16
19. Boise State, 16
22. Baylor, 15
23. Michigan, 13
23. Virginia Tech, 13
25. Kansas State, 12
Women’s Trackwire 25
1. Texas, 55
2. UCLA, 48
3. Miami, 43
4. South Carolina, 41
5. Nebraska, 32
6. Tennessee, 31
7. Stanford, 30
8. BYU, 28
9. Georgia, 27
10. LSU, 24
11. USC, 16
11. Columbia, 16
13. North Carolina, 15
14. Texas Tech, 14
14. Alabama, 14
14. NC State, 14
14. Florida International, 14
14. Cal Poly, 14
14. Georgia Tech, 14
20. Florida, 13
21. Wyoming, 12
21. Illinois, 12
23. Washington State, 11
23. Kansas State, 11
23. Arkansas, 11
23. Arizona, 11