BATON ROUGE — The LSU women’s track and field team heads into the NCAA Outdoor Championships as the consensus No. 2 team in the country, while the men’s squad wraps up the season in the No. 3 spot in the final Trackwire 25 released Thursday.
The final Trackwire 25 power ranking of the outdoor season was released after both teams finished the season ranked No. 2 in the final U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Top 20 released Wednesday.
The women’s squad from Arizona State takes over the top spot in this week’s rankings after spending the last five weeks in second with 62 points, while LSU is tied with Texas A&M for the No. 2 spot at 37 points followed by South Carolina and Texas at No. 4 with 33 points.
Florida State remains the clear favorite on the men’s side with 59 points after going wire to wire as the nation’s No. 1 squad during the outdoor season. Auburn moves into the second spot this week with 38 points, while No. 3 LSU (35), No. 4 USC (31) and No. 4 Tennessee (31) round out the nation’s top five.
Key to the Lady Tigers’ national championship run will be nine athletes and two relay teams that are nationally ranked in this week’s Trackwire Dandy Dozen, which is a ranking of the top 12 athletes and relay teams in each individual event contested at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
Sophomore hurdles standout Nickiesha Wilson leads the way for the squad as she is the nation’s top-ranked performer in the 400-meter hurdles while also coming in at No. 6 in the 100 hurdles. Wilson is joined in the sprint hurdles by Jessica Ohanaja at No. 2 and Angel Boyd at No. 12.
Senior Sherry Fletcher is also ranked in more than one event this week as she is the sixth-ranked sprinter in the country in the 100-meter dash while also being ranked eighth in the 200 meters. In addition, junior Kelly Baptiste will contend for All-America honors in the 100 meters as she re-enters the rankings this week at No. 9 in the event.
Junior quarter-miler Deonna Lawrence is the nation’s 11th-ranked performer in the 400 meters for the second straight week, while freshman LaTavia Thomas will lead the Lady Tigers’ effort in the middle distances at the national meet as she is ranked No. 7 in the 800-meter run.
In the field events, junior Andrea Linton falls to No. 12 in the country in the triple jump, while freshman Katelyn Rodrigue becomes the first Lady Tiger in program history to crack the nation’s top 12 in the pole vault as she is also ranked No. 12 heading into the NCAA Championships.
The Tigers are also looking to win their first outdoor national championship since the 2002 season as a total of seven athletes and two relay teams enter the national meet ranked in the top 12 in their respective specialty events.
Sophomore sprint sensation Trindon Holliday will battle for this year’s 100-meter title as he trails only top-ranked Walter Dix of Florida State in the event while boasting the second-fastest wind-legal time in the nation and sixth-fastest time in the world this season at 10.07 seconds.
Senior Siraj Williams is the only other Tiger sprinter ranked in this week’s Dandy Dozen as he comes in at No. 10 in the 400-meter dash for the second straight week after finishing third in the event at the NCAA Mideast Regional Championships this past weekend.
Senior Alleyne Lett is among this year’s national title hopefuls in the 110-meter hurdles as he moves up three spots to No. 4 in this week’s rankings in the event, while fellow senior national title contender Isa Phillips is looking for his second career All-America honor as he is the nation’s third-ranked 400-meter hurdler.
Sophomore Chad Radgowski and freshman Preston Chatham look to lead the Tigers in the field events at this year’s NCAA Outdoor Championships as they enter the meet ranked No. 7 and No. 8, respectively, in the javelin. Sophomore Jeremy Hicks is also ranked No. 12 in the long jump.
The squads continue to boast four of the nation’s premier relay teams heading into the final meet of the season as the men are among the national favorites as they rank fourth in the 4×100 and second in the 4×400-meter relay. The Lady Tigers drop to fifth this week in the sprint relay, while they also drop one spot into third in the 4×400.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers will be in the national title hunt at the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which returns to Hornet Stadium on the campus of Sacramento State University in Sacramento, Calif. The four-day meet is scheduled to run next week from June 6-9.
Trackwire 25
WOMEN
1. Arizona State, 62
t2. LSU, 37
t2. Texas A&M, 37
t4. South Carolina, 33
t4. Texas, 33
6. Michigan, 31
7. Stanford, 30
8. Georgia, 23
9. Southern California, 22
t10. UCLA, 21
t10. Auburn, 21
t10. Texas Tech, 21
t13. Oregon, 20
t13. Virginia Tech, 20
t15. Washington State, 18
t15. Houston, 18
t17. California, 15
t17. Nebraska, 15
t17. Penn State, 15
20. BYU, 13
t21. Arkansas, 12
t21. UTEP, 12
23. TCU, 11
t24. Weber State, 10
t24. Sam Houston State, 10
MEN
1. Florida State, 59
2. Auburn, 38
3. LSU, 35
t4. Tennessee, 31
t4. Southern California, 31
6. Louisville, 27
7. Arizona State, 26
t8. Oregon, 24
t8. North Carolina, 24
10. UCLA, 21
t11. Washington, 20
t11. Ole Miss, 20
t11. BYU, 20
14. Baylor, 19
t15. Oklahoma, 18
t15. Wisconsin, 18
t15. Liberty, 18
t15. Kansas, 18
19. Texas Tech, 17
20. Florida, 16
21. Arizona, 15
22. Kansas State, 14
23. Cornell, 13
24. Texas, 12
t25. Arkansas, 11
t25. Northern Iowa, 11
t25. Michigan, 11
t25. South Carolina, 11