BATON ROUGE – The LSU Lady Tigers are the NCAA’s new No. 1-ranked team in the wake of their victory at the 2012 SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships on Sunday, while the Tigers have moved into the No. 6 spot following their runner-up finish as the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association released its latest Top 25 power ranking on Tuesday.
The Lady Tigers piled up 161.5 points in four days of competition at the Bernie Moore Track Stadium for the weekend to win their third-straight SEC Outdoor team title and their fifth crown in six seasons.
It marked their league-leading 13th victory at the SEC Outdoor Championships all-time and their 25th SEC team title in program history as they also lead the way with 12 wins at the SEC Indoor Championships.
Junior standout Kimberlyn Duncan was the catalyst in LSU’s onslaught on Championship Sunday with an incredible performance in sweeping the 100-meter and 200-meter titles in record-setting fashion, while also anchoring the Lady Tigers to a defense of their conference title in the 4×100-meter relay. She was the top scoring Lady Tiger with 22.5 points in leading the team to victory.
Duncan shattered the SEC Championships meet record in the 100-meter dash and set a personal best in an amazing run of 10.96 seconds (+1.9), eclipsing the previous meet record of 11.03 set by Olympic silver medalist Kerron Stewart of Auburn in 2003 and her own Bernie Moore Track Stadium record of 11.05 set just three weeks ago at the LSU Alumni Gold held on April 21.
She then followed with a dominating victory in the 200-meter final as she defended her title with a career-best wind-aided run of 22.12 (+2.6) to solidify her national lead in both sprints.
Senior Semoy Hackett earned All-SEC honors by finishing second place to Duncan in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes with seasonal-best times in both events. She clocked the NCAA’s No. 5-ranked run of 11.10 in the 100-meter final before clocking the No. 2-ranked time of 22.74 in the 200-meter final. She also ran on LSU’s winning 4×100 relay to score a total of 18.5 points for the weekend.
Two other Lady Tigers claimed SEC event titles with their efforts on Sunday afternoon as junior Charlene Lipsey set a seasonal best and personal best of 2 minutes, 2.60 seconds to capture the 800-meter crown and sophomore Jasmin Stowers defended her SEC title in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 12.96.
The Lady Tigers also wrapped up the meet by claiming the SEC Outdoor title in the 4×400-meter relay, as they clocked a seasonal-best time of 3:29.25 to emerge as the NCAA’s No. 2-ranked relay in 2012.
Other Lady Tigers who improved their seasonal bests with medal-winning performances at the conference meet were senior Rebecca Alexander with a time of 51.83 for second place in the 400 meters, senior Cassandra Tate with a time of 56.82 for second place in the 400-meter hurdles, junior Brittany Porter with a wind-aided effort of 20 feet, 9 ¼ inches for second place in the long jump and senior Samia Stokes after posting a personal-best mark of 181-0 for third place in the discus.
Trailing the Lady Tigers in the top five of this week’s USTFCCCA Top 25 power ranking is No. 2 Kansas, No. 3 Oregon, No. 4 Florida and No. 5 Clemson. Rounding out the Top 10 in the ranking is No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 8 Arizona, No. 9 Texas Tech and No. 10 Arizona State.
The Tigers scored 118 points to capture their fourth second-place finish in six seasons at the SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships as they climbed three spots to No. 6 in the latest USTFCCCA men’s power ranking released Tuesday after entering the meet with a No. 9 national ranking.
Senior Barrett Nugent made history as he became the first LSU Tiger all-time to win three-straight league titles in the 110-meter hurdles with his victory on Sunday. He defended the SEC Outdoor crown he won as a sophomore in 2010 and as a junior in 2011 while running a winning time of 13.40w, to stop the clock nearly three tenths of a second ahead of his nearest competitor.
While became the first LSU Tiger to win three SEC titles in the 110 hurdles, Nugent became the first SEC athlete to win three-straight since South Carolina’s Terrence Trammell from 1998-2000.
Freshman Aaron Ernest was the team’s top point scorer for the weekend as he took home All-SEC honors with runner-up finishes in both the 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash. He set a new personal record over the 100 meters with a time of 10.23 (+1.6), before adding a second runner-up finish in the 200-meter dash with a career-best wind-aided time of 20.39 to rank No. 6 in the NCAA this season.
Two Tigers also set seasonal bests while earning All-SEC honors in the jumps as senior Kyron Blaise had a best mark of 54-1 ¼ for second place in the triple jump and junior Damar Forbes posted a top mark of 26-8 ¼ for second place in the long jump as both now rank among the NCAA’s Top 5 this spring.
The Texas A&M Aggies are the new No. 1-ranked team in this week’s USTFCCCA Top 25 men’s power ranking in the wake of their winning performance at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships. Rounding out the top five in the men’s ranking is No. 2 Florida, No. 3 Indiana, No. 4 Arkansas and No. 5 Texas Tech as the Tigers are on the cusp of the top five in the No. 6 position this week.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers will now turn their attention to the NCAA Championships, as they make their trip to Hodges Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., on May 24-26 for the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds being held at the University of North Florida with the first and second rounds of the national meet.
The semifinal and final rounds with the 2012 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, are slated to run June 6-9 at Drake Stadium at Drake University.
USTFCCCA Top 25
WOMEN
Team (Points) Last Week
1. LSU (314.25) 2
2. Kansas (273.55) 5
3. Oregon (262.24) 7
4. Florida (237.62) 4
5. Clemson (236.42) 1
6. Texas (234.15) 3
7. Texas A&M (214.12) 8
8. Arizona (172.03) 9
9. Texas Tech (157.58) 6
10. Arizona State (149.66) 10
11. Stanford (140.80) 14
12. Tennessee (140.16) 19
13. Arkansas (140.14) 11
14. Central Florida (130.72) 18
15. Louisville (128.56) 12
16. Oklahoma (120.62) 13
17. Illinois State (119.45) 15
18. Illinois (109.02) 36
19. Southern Illinois (106.83) 22
20. Baylor (104.20) 23
21. Georgia (99.28) 21
22. Ohio State (98.62) 24
23. Southern California (92.23) 16
24. Iowa State (91.15) 20
25. Florida State (91.04) 17
MEN
Team (Points) Last Week
1. Texas A&M (297.72) 2
2. Florida (252.92) 1
3. Indiana (215.96) 8
4. Arkansas (201.50) 6
5. Texas Tech (201.21) 3
6. LSU (199.62) 9
7. Texas (197.87) 10
8. Florida State (194.84) 4
9. Wisconsin (193.79) 15
10. Nebraska (163.80) 17
11. Southern California (158.94) 7
12. Ole Miss (158.09) 11
13. Auburn (155.28) 13
14. Arizona State (150.79) 5
15. Arizona (147.87) 14
16. Mississippi State (138.02) 12
17. Virginia Tech (124.67) 16
18. Penn State (120.38) 29
19. Kansas (119.24) 23
20. Oregon (115.65) 22
21. Minnesota (114.01) 25
22. Stanford (113.43) 18
23. Oklahoma (104.96) 20
24. Baylor (94.93) 30
25. Ohio State (94.49) 31