BATON ROUGE – After dominating the competition at the 2008 SEC Indoor Championships this past weekend, the Lady Tigers strengthen their position at No. 1 in the latest U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Top 25 released Wednesday.
The Lady Tigers are the nation’s top-ranked team for the sixth straight week after finishing 17 points ahead of the third-ranked and SEC runner-up Tennessee Lady Volunteers to win their first SEC Indoor title since 1999 and their 11th in program history.
The Tigers enjoyed a successful weekend of their own after finishing runner-up to Arkansas in the team standings en route to earning their third straight No. 4 national ranking.
The squads have put themselves in a position to sweep this year’s indoor national titles when they return to the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark., next weekend. They have combined for a total of 16 automatic qualifiers and 25 provisional qualifiers for the NCAA Indoor Championships following their appearance in the SEC meet.
The Tigers and Lady Tigers added to their postseason rosters this past weekend as the women are among the national leaders with 13 automatic qualifiers and 12 provisional qualifiers and the men boast three automatic qualifiers and 13 provisional qualifiers of their own.
LSU added four NCAA automatic qualifiers at the SEC Indoor Championships, including senior Kelly Baptiste in the 200 meters (23.07), senior Elkana Kosgei in the 800 meters (1:48.18), junior Andrea Linton in the long jump (20-10) and the women’s 4x400-meter relay team (3:31.89).
Any LSU athlete who has not qualified for the national meet will have one final opportunity to do so as the Tigers and Lady Tigers return to Baton Rouge to play host to the LSU NCAA Indoor Qualifier at the Carl Maddox Fieldhouse on Friday. The NCAA Indoor Championships returns to the Randal Tyson Track Center for the eighth straight season beginning March 14.
USTFCCCA Top 25
WOMEN
1. LSU, 183.77
2. Arizona State, 157.77
3. Tennessee, 126.79
4. Michigan, 125.33
5. Texas A&M, 102.89
6. Stanford, 98.37
7. Minnesota, 81.68
8. Kansas, 80.24
9. Florida State, 78.27
10. Florida, 72.03
11. Penn State, 69.48
12. Texas, 64.19
13. Arkansas, 62.83
14. Texas Tech, 60.48
15. Virginia Tech, 56.69
16. Ole Miss, 53.70
17. UTEP, 51.12
18. Oregon, 50.52
19. South Carolina, 42.73
20. Washington, 40.07
21. Arizona, 39.27
22. Kentucky, 38.50
23. Georgia Tech, 37.83
24. Alabama, 36.48
25. Kansas State, 33.99
MEN
1. Arizona State, 110.84
2. Tennessee, 108.08
3. Florida State, 105.65
4. LSU, 104.87
5. Florida, 93.03
6. Stanford, 85.22
7. BYU, 75.76
8. Arkansas, 73.67
9. Texas, 69.75
10. Northern Iowa, 68.37
11. Washington, 64.95
12. Oregon, 64.54
13. Oklahoma, 58.99
14. Texas Tech, 53.13
15. Baylor, 52.16
16. Clemson, 49.88
17. Boise State, 48.42
18. Wisconsin, 48.23
19. Georgia, 48.12
20. Arizona, 47.69
21. Georgetown, 45.09
22. Nebraska, 44.52
23. Liberty, 44.25
24. Kansas, 42.96
25. Michigan, 42.56