Baton Rouge, La. – No. 3 and No. 5 – those are the two rankings that currently describe the LSU track and field program. The women catapulted nine spots into the No. 3 slot, and the men maintained their position at No. 5 in the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association National Rating Index that was released on Monday. LSU is the only program with both its women’s and men’s teams in the top five.
The No. 3 ranking for the women is the best mark received by the program in the ratings since the final rankings of the 2013 season. Performances by the trio of Tonea Marshall, Kortnei Johnson and Sha’Carri Richardson at the Tyson Invitational last weekend vaulted the women into their current positioning. All three of the women notched top-10 national marks in Fayetteville. Johnson went 7.17 (NCAA No. 2) in the 60 meters and 23.08 (NCAA No. 7) in the 200 meters on her way to winning the 60 meter dash title. Richardson, only a freshman, registered a second-place finish in the 60 meters (7.23) and a third-place showing in the 200 meter dash (23.08) against the top sprinters in the nation; her season best of 7.20 rates as the fourth fastest in the NCAA. Marshall, also competing against competition that she will see at the SEC and NCAA meets, matched her personal best of 8.04 seconds in the 60 meter hurdles to place third in the finals and register the No. 4 time in the NCAA.
The men stayed put inside the top five for the third-consecutive week with their No. 3 ranking. Jaron Flournoy was LSU’s only representative that registered a NCAA top-10 mark last weekend at the Tyson Invitational. Flournoy circled the 200 meter track once in 20.69 seconds to claim gold in the event and set a season-best mark. The time of 20.69 checks in at the No. 6 position on the national rankings. Rayvon Grey (long jump) and Mondo Duplantis (pole vault) still own NCAA leading marks in their respective events as well.
In the fourth week of rankings, this was the first time all season long that only marks from this season were utilized in the rankings system. For the initial first three polls of the regular season, marks from the previous season were counted. The LSU track and field team will host its final indoor meet of the 2019 season on Friday (Feb. 15) with the LSU Twilight.