BATON ROUGE – With the field now set for the semifinal rounds of the NCAA Championships to be held June 8-11 in Des Moines, Iowa, the Lady Tigers are No. 3 and the Tigers are No. 4 in the final power ranking released Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
The semifinal and final rounds for the 2011 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships are set to run June 8-11 at Drake Stadium on the campus of Drake University in Des Moines.
LSU qualified a total of 28 entries into the national semifinals with its performance this past weekend in a competition at the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds held at Indiana’s Billy Hayes Track in Bloomington.
With 15 entries into the national semifinals, the Lady Tigers are tied for the third-most semifinalists in the country. The newly No. 1-ranked Oregon Ducks are tied with No. 8-ranked Texas with 16 semifinalists in the meet, while No. 2-ranked Texas A&M is tied with the Lady Tigers with 15 national semifinalists.
The Tigers have earned a No. 4 national ranking as they prepare to head to Des Moines next week. After a weekend in which it advanced 13 entries into the NCAA semifinals, the Tigers are tied for the fourth most entries into the semifinal round with No. 3 Florida State. No. 1-ranked Texas A&M leads the way with 19 entries, while No. 2-ranked Florida follows closely behind with 17 entries into the national semifinals.
LSU will return to Drake Stadium for the first time since a 2008 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships appearance when the Lady Tigers captured their last national championship.
USTFCCCA Top 25
WOMEN
Team (Points) Last Week
1. Oregon (311.97) 3
2. Texas A&M (308.49) 1
3. LSU (289.40) 2
4. Arkansas (215.06) 8
5. Oklahoma (199.64) 6
6. Clemson (187.34) 4
7. Southern California (184.34) 7
8. Texas (165.27) 11
9. Arizona (160.84) 5
10. Baylor (158.72) 9
11. Arizona State (151.97) 10
12. Nebraska (141.79) 13
13. Auburn (140.88) 12
14. Stanford (130.88) 20
15. Tennessee (130.50) 15
16. Kansas (113.12) 16
17. Florida (95.81) 19
18. Washington State (91.16) 14
19. Kansas State (84.83) 17
20. Southern Miss (83.65) 33
21. Indiana (82.12) 29
22. Ohio State (81.90) 27
23. Southern Illinois (80.40) 21
24. Central Florida (80.06) 23
25. Wichita State (77.07) 36
MEN
Team (Points) Last Week
1. Texas A&M (372.60) 1
2. Florida (350.16) 2
3. Florida State (269.39) 3
4. LSU (232.42) 4
5. Texas Tech (221.14) 5
6. Southern California (192.74) 6
7. Arkansas (174.59) 7
8. Virginia Tech (169.23) 13
9. Texas (161.89) 8
10. BYU (140.04) 16
11. Stanford (145.19) 11
12. Arizona (144.53) 9
13. Oregon (143.59) 14
14. Washington (124.51) 19
15. Baylor (120.18) 12
16. Georgia (99.06) 20
17. Nebraska (98.49) 10
18. New Mexico (90.27) 25
19. Ole Miss (89.70) 18
20. Kansas (85.59) 15
21. UCLA (83.06) 22
22. Auburn (83.06) 29
23. Illinois (74.44) 35
24. UT-Arlington (73.61) 31
25. Kansas State (72.45) 26