Indoor Champion Arkansas Moving Up Outdoor National Rankings

NEW ORLEANS – The month of March saw the Arkansas women win their first national team title in track & field with an NCAA Division I Indoor crown. With one April weekend of outdoor competition in the books – and the Countdown to Tracktown approaching nine weeks – the Razorbacks are again working their way toward the top.

Led by a trio of collegiate leaders over the past two weekends, Arkansas moved up four spots to an all-time program best No. 3 rank in the first regular-season edition of the National Team Computer Rankings – well within striking range of SEC rivals No. 1 defending national champion Texas A&M and No. 2 Florida.

The updated rankings were released Monday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). The rankings are designed to project how teams might finish at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships, which will be held in Eugene, Oregon, June 10-13, and broadcast via ESPN’s multimedia platforms.

In her first-ever 10,000-meter race this past weekend, Dominique Scott ran 32:11.60 at the Stanford Invitational to move to the No. 6 spot on the all-time collegiate performers list. She was fifth overall as the first collegian, and was 17 seconds faster than No. 2 collegian Chelsea Blaase of Tennessee.

She was joined atop the collegiate leaderboards the weekend prior by indoor pole vault champion Sandi Morris and heptathlete Alex Gochenour.

Powered by that trio, Arkansas improved their team rankings score to 301.32 – just 25 points behind Texas A&M and 11 behind Florida. The Razorbacks will be back in action this weekend, hosting the John McDonnell Invitational against No. 13 Oklahoma State and No. 17 Missouri. On the men’s side, No. 7 Arkansas and No. 15 Oklahoma State will battle.

Team rankings points are determined by assigning higher point totals to athletes ranked higher in the national descending order lists for their event(s), and then adding up all the athletes’ totals for each teams. This system does not equate to the scoring system used at the NCAA Championships. A full breakdown can be found here.

NCAA Division I National Team Rankings Top 5 – Men 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Texas A&M Florida Oregon LSU Southern Cal View Complete Men’s National Rankings   NCAA Division I National Team Rankings Top 5 – Women 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Texas A&M Florida Arkansas Texas Kentucky View Complete Women’s National Team Rankings

Checking in behind Texas A&M, Florida and Arkansas were No. 4 Texas (down a spot from the preseason) and stationary No. 5 Kentucky. Dropping out of the top five was Oregon, which fell two spots to No. 6.

Oregon will host Kentucky this weekend for the Pepsi Team Invitational. The meet will likely pit Oregon standout jumper and sprinter Jenna Prandini against Kentucky sprint star Dezerea Bryant and/or jumpers Sha’Keela Saunders and Kenyattia Hackworth.

Each of the top four men’s teams remained constant from the preseason in No. 1 Texas A&M, No. 2 Florida, defending champion No. 3 Oregon and No 4 LSU. Moving up two spots to No. 5 was Southern California. On only three occasions have the Trojans been ranked higher in the history of the rankings, which date back to 2008: No. 4 ranks in 2012 and 2010.

The Trojans finished fourth at NCAAs a year ago in head coach Caryl Smith Gilbert’s first season at the helm in Los Angeles after having not been ranked in the top-10 throughout the season.

Propelling the Trojans’ podium push will be the dynamic sprinting duo of BeeJay Lee and Andre De Grasse. Including the top returning marks of the 2014 season (which will remain a part of the formula through the week three rankings), De Grasse is ranked No. 3 both at 100 and 200 meters, and Lee is No. 5 in those respective events.

The Trojans also got a boost from frosh high jumper Randall Cunningham – son of the former NFL quarterback of the same name – checking in at No. 6 after a runner-up finish at Florida this past weekend.

The Trojans and No. 4 LSU will square off this weekend at Arizona’s Jim Click Shootout.

Meanwhile at the top of the men’s rankings, Texas A&M got a boost from long jumpers Olabanji Asekun and Latario Collie, who checked in on the USTFCCCA lists (which, again, include preseason marks) at No. 2 and No. 10, respectively.

The No. 1 Aggie men and women will take on perhaps the nation’s deepest field this weekend at the Arizona State Sun Angel Classic. The men will square off with No. 20 Arizona State and No. 23 Northern Arizona, while the women will tango with No. 12 Kansas State and No. 24 Boise State.

At No. 3, the defending champion Oregon men (310.24 points) lost some ground on the Aggies (414.59) and No. 2 Gators 372.32), but looks can be deceiving. Defending 10k champion Edward Cheserek and reigning indoor 3000/5000-meter champion Eric Jenkins ran the 10k at Stanford in an attempt to simply get qualifying times for the West Prelims, with no regard for actual placement in the race or highly ranked performances.

Because the 2014 marks are included, Cheserek still checked in at No. 3 based on his 2014 NCAAs performance, but Jenkins didn’t run the 10,000 a year ago. Consequently, he’s ranked 30th and contributes less than a point to the team total. Expect much more from him at NCAAs.

Further down the rankings, the biggest top-25 gainers were the No. 16 South Carolina men, who leapt 14 spots from a week ago. Also making big strides were the No. 18 Mississippi State men (up 10) and Alabama women (up 11); the No. 21 Virginia Tech women (up 10) and the No. 23 Northern Arizona men (up 11).

The first Regional Index of the outdoor season was also released. The regional rankings utilize the same formulas as the national rankings, but applied to each of the nine regions used in cross country. Essentially, it aims to project how a regional championship meet would likely play out in the same way the National Computer Rankings aim to project the NCAA Championships.

These rankings are often more accurate in projecting how conference meets will play out.

The first full regional rankings can be found here.