BATON ROUGE – Following a strong performance at the 2013 SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships last weekend, the Lady Tigers have held steady at No. 4 and the Tigers have climbed five spots to No. 7 in the latest U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Top 25 power rankings released Tuesday.
The Lady Tigers earned a runner-up finish and the Tigers scored a fourth-place finish at the SEC Outdoor Championships ending Sunday at Audrey J. Walton Stadium in Columbia, Mo.
Lady Tiger senior Kimberlyn Duncan will end her career as one of the most decorated athletes to ever compete at the SEC Championships as she defended her sprint double in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes this past weekend to match LSU greats Muna Lee and Peta-Gaye Dowdie with her school-record-tying 11th and 12th SEC event titles as a Lady Tiger.
After defending her 100-meter title with a winning time of 11.32 on Sunday afternoon, Duncan tied the SEC Outdoor Championships meet record with a seasonal-best time of 22.35 (+1.3) in running away with the 200-meter title and tying the 14-year-old meet record set by Georgia’s Debbie Ferguson in 1999.
Duncan made history with her NCAA-leading performance as she became the first sprinter in SEC history to win three-straight SEC Outdoor titles in the women’s 200-meter dash.
Junior Natoya Goule joined Duncan as an SEC champion in her debut for the Lady Tigers at the SEC Outdoor Championships as she cruised to the easy victory for the women’s 800-meter final by running 2 minutes, 1.12 seconds and continue her quest toward an NCAA title sweep in the event. The reigning NCAA Indoor champion is the nation’s No. 1-ranked 800-meter runner with a personal best of 2:00.76 set this season.
Senior Damar Forbes and sophomore Rodney Brown were the breakout performers of the meet for the Tigers as each was crowned an SEC Outdoor champion for the first time in his collegiate career.
Forbes soared to the top of the NCAA rankings as he jumped a career-best wind-aided mark of 27 feet, 4 ½ inches on his sixth and final jump of the competition to win his first career SEC long jump championship. After claiming four SEC silver medals prior to this year’s SEC outdoor meet, Forbes took the SEC Outdoor crown with the NCAA’s No. 1-ranked long jump mark under all conditions this spring.
Forbes also led off LSU’s winning 4×100-meter relay team as he joined sophomore Aaron Ernest, freshman Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake and junior Shermund Allsop to run a seasonal-best time fo 38.98 to capture the title over Alabama (39.08) and pre-meet favorite Texas A&M (39.11). The Tigers won their eighth SEC sprint relay title all-time and first relay crown since the 2008 season.
Brown became the first Tiger in 20 years to claim the SEC discus title when he threw 203-1 on his third attempt to take a lead of nearly nine feet over Kentucky’s defending champion Andrew Evans (194-4). He held that lead through the finals to dethrone Evans and take home the gold medal as the SEC’s premier discus thrower this season.
Brown’s victory also snapped a streak of five-straight seasons in which a Kentucky Wildcat has won the men’s discus crown at the SEC Outdoor Championships.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers are now preparing to make their run at a national championship as they return to action May 23-25 with the NCAA East Preliminary Rounds being held at Irwin Belk Track at North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro. The semifinal and final rounds of the 2013 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships return to Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., from June 5-8 as the University of Oregon serves as a host to the finale of the 2013 collegiate season.
USTFCCCA Top 25 Power Rankings (as of May 14)
WOMEN
Team (Points) Last Week
1. Kansas (330.02) 1
2. Texas A&M (302.40) 2
3. Oregon (270.21) 7
4. LSU (240.94) 4
5. Florida (228.78) 3
6. Arkansas (213.38) 6
7. Arizona (211.50) 5
8. Georgia (206.53) 10
9. Central Florida (195.36) 12
10. Arizona State (186.23) 9
11. Texas (155.83) 8
12. UCLA (150.20) 13
13. Stanford (147.70) 14
14. Clemson (142.29) 11
15. San Diego State (114.92) 22
16. Florida State (113.16) 16
17. Iowa State (106.96) 15
18. Illinois (92.89) 20
19. Southern California (87.82) 21
20. Texas Tech (84.62) 17
21. Washington (78.23) 24
22. Oklahoma (77.42) 23
23. Baylor (76.26) 19
24. Michigan State (75.61) 29
25. Illinois State (75.29) 39
MEN
Team (Points) Last Week
1. Florida (314.46) 1
2. Texas A&M (300.07) 2
3. Oregon (275.51) 4
4. Arkansas (246.83) 5
5. Florida State (224.45) 3
6. Southern California (188.57) 8
7. LSU (155.21) 12
8. Texas (153.76) 6
9. Wisconsin (148.05) 10
10. Nebraska (132.41) 13
11. Georgia (132.04) 7
12. Virginia Tech (123.31) 9
13. Penn State (114.07) 11
14. Ole Miss (111.66) 16
15. UCLA (108.59) 15
16. Texas Tech (103.51) 14
17. Alabama (95.97) 20
18. California (90.77) 44
19. TCU (82.08) 17
20. Ohio State (78.36) 23
21. Kansas (76.90) 22
22. Oklahoma State (76.87) 27
23. Cornell (76.16) 19
24. Iowa (75.68) 18
25. Arizona State (75.58) 30