Florida Men, Kansas Women Enter DI Prelims as Favorites in Computer Rankings

May 20, 2013


NEW ORLEANS – Competition for the top spots in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division I National Team Computer Rankings for the both the men and the women has grown tighter following the announcement of declared student-athletes for the NCAA East and West Preliminary Rounds.

NCAA East Preliminaries
Accepted Entries: MEN | WOMEN
Entry Leaders: By Team | By Conf NCAA West Preliminaries
Accepted Entries: MEN | WOMEN
Entry Leaders: By Team | By Conf
National Ranking PDFs: Top 25 | Full by Team | By Event
Week-by-Week PDFs: By Rank | By Team | All-Time
Rankings Central | National Championships Central
All-Division Collegiate Bests: Full PDF | Best Marks by Football Players

The Florida men and Kansas women held on to their top rankings from last week, but both squads’ leads shrunk as teams lower in the rankings made surges toward the top, despite fielding fewer prelims competitors than most of their top-five competition.

Based on Prelims data entry, the computers still favor the Gator men to defend their title, but by a very slim margin over No. 2 Texas A&M and, to a slightly lesser extent, the No. 3 Oregon men. The No. 2 Texas A&M women also positioned themselves in the rankings right behind Kansas, with indoor champion Oregon at No. 3.

The National Team Computer Rankings are a projection of how teams could fare at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. An explanation of the rankings system can be found here.

Florida, Texas A&M, Oregon Tighten Battle for No. 1

The computer projections show Florida with the best chance to take home the NCAA team title for a second straight season, but the Gators lack the depth of some of the other top five teams. The Gators will send 22 student-athletes to Greensboro, N.C., to compete at the East Prelims, compared to SEC outdoor champion Arkansas’ 29 at Greensboro and No. 3 Oregon’s 30 and No. 2 Texas A&M’s 29 at the West Prelims in Austin, Texas.

What the Gators lack in entries in terms of quality they make up in quality, with 13 top-10 nationally ranked competitors including No. 1 Omar Craddock in the triple jump and No. 2 Marquis Dendy in the long jump — also No. 8 in the triple jump.

No. 2 Texas A&M will send the largest contingency of sprinters and hurdles in the country with 13, including three top-four-ranked talents in No. 2 Deon Lendore at 400 meters, No. 3 Ameer Webb at 200 (also No. 8 at 100) and No. 4 Wayne Davis II in the 110 hurdles.

No. 3 Oregon’s strength in numbers will come from its middle distance and distance crews. The Ducks’ eight middle-distance representatives are the most in the country, led by 800 collegiate leader Elijah Greer, and No. 6 Mac Fleet atop a list of six qualifiers at 1500 meters.

Nonetheless, the computers scored Florida at 324.67, barely ahead of Texas A&M at 320.34 and slightly farther clear of Oregon at 296.14. The scoring system does not correlate with the system used to determine the team champion at the NCAA Finals at Oregon in June.

At No. 4, Arkansas will bring the only double-digit jumping corps with 10. Among those 10 are No. 4 Andrew Irwin in the pole vault and Tarik Batchelor at No. in the long jump and No. 11 in the triple jump.

Florida State at No. 5 has the fewest entries of any of the top five teams with 19, with five entries apiece in the sprints/hurdles and the jumps events.

BYU jumped into the rankings at No. 19 with a division-best 14 entries in the distance events at the West Prelims, while Minnesota will field a division-high nine throwers this weekend.

Kansas Remains Atop Close Women’s Race

Just as in the men’s rankings, the team sitting at the top of the chart, Kansas, has fewer entries to the Prelim rounds than do its competitors, but is still favored by the computers. With 22 entries, the Jayhawks will field the fewest student-athletes of any top-six team later this week, but like their counterpart Florida men, Kansas has the advantage of a group of 13 top-10 nationally ranked performers.

The Jayhawks feature a foursome of No. 2-ranked competitors in Diamond Dixon (400), Natalia Bartnovskaya (pole vault), Francine Simpson (long jump) and Andrea Geubelle (triple jump) — three of whom have won NCAA titles in the past in Dixon, Bartnovskaya and Geubelle.

Behind the strength of those entries, the Kansas women checked in with a team score of 332.83, projected as the favorites by the computers slightly ahead of No. 2 Texas A&M at 311.09, No. 3 Oregon at 280.81 and No. 4 LSU at 252.91. Again, the scoring system used by the computers is not the same as that used at the NCAA Finals.

With division-best 30 entries, the No. 4 LSU women are geared up for a run at a title. The Lady Tigers’ sprinting/hurdling corps of 12 is tied for the largest in the country with Texas A&M, led by reigning The Bowerman winner Kimberlyn Duncan at No. 1 at 200 meters and No. 3 at 100 meters.

No. 2 A&M’s sprints group is equally strong with four top-10 entries at 100 meters and a pair of top-10 sprinters at 200 meters. In total the Aggies have 29 entries into the Prelim rounds, second-most of any team in the division.

The Oregon women are slightly ahead of Kansas in terms of Prelims competitors with 23 spread well across all disciplines. The track events give the Ducks their biggest boost behind No. 1 English Gardner at 100 meters and Phyllis Francis at 400 meters, and No. 2 Laura Roesler at 800 meters and Jordan Hasay at 10,000 meters. With the meet likely to go down to the wire as it did with the Ducks’ indoor NCAA title, Oregon has an ace up its sleeve with its 4×400 relay team, ranked No. 1 in the country.

No. 5 Florida and No. 6 Arizona each qualified 26 to their respective Prelims. Arizona’s 11 throws entries is the largest total in the country.

No. 14 Iowa State qualified the largest number of distance runners with 10 — led by 10,000 meters No. 1 Betsy Saina — while No. 13 UCLA qualified a nation-best 10 jumpers. Michigan boasts the largest number of middle-distance competitors with six.

Biggest Jump (Men): 14 – No. 19 BYU
Biggest Jump (Women): 8 – No. 18 Wichita State



USTFCCCA NCAA DIVISION I
MEN’S OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD NATIONAL TEAM COMPUTER RANKINGS (TOP 25)
2013 Week #8 — May 20 (Pre-NCAA Prelims)
next ranking: May 28

Rank School Points Conference Head Coach (Yr) Last Week
1 Florida 324.67 SEC Mike Holloway (11th) 1
2 Texas A&M 320.34 SEC Pat Henry (9th) 2
3 Oregon 296.14 Pac-12 Robert Johnson (1st) 3
4 Arkansas 241.22 SEC Chris Bucknam (5th) 4
5 Florida State 228.65 ACC Bob Braman (10th) 5
6 Southern California 220.85 Pac-12 Ron Allice (19th) 6
7 LSU 162.19 SEC Dennis Shaver (9th) 7
8 Texas 159.44 Big 12 Bubba Thornton (18th) 8
9 Wisconsin 137.23 Big Ten Ed Nuttycombe (29th) 9
10 Nebraska 136.75 Big Ten Gary Pepin (30th) 10
11 Virginia Tech 131.26 ACC Dave Cianelli (12th) 12
12 Georgia 126.02 SEC Wayne Norton (14th) 11
13 Mississippi 118.48 SEC Brian O’Neal (1st) 14
14 Penn State 117.89 Big Ten Beth Alford-Sullivan (7th) 13
15 UCLA 109.87 Pac-12 Mike Maynard (4th) 15
16 Texas Tech 101.95 Big 12 Wes Kittley (14th) 16
17 Alabama 98.20 SEC Dan Waters (2nd) 17
18 California 94.26 Pac-12 Tony Sandoval (21st) 18
19 BYU 85.58 Independent Mark Robison (13th) 33
20 TCU 85.34 Big 12 Darryl Anderson (9th) 19
21 Kansas 83.61 Big 12 Stanley Redwine (13th) 21
22 Arizona 83.19 Pac-12 Fred Harvey (11th) 27
23 Ohio State 83.12 Big Ten Ed Beathea (2nd) 20
24 Colorado 80.35 Pac-12 Mark Wetmore (18th) 29
25 Oklahoma 77.65 Big 12 Martin Smith (8th) 26
dropped out: No. 22 Oklahoma State, No. 23 Cornell, No. 24 Iowa, No. 25 Arizona State



Men’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank Conference Points Top 25 Teams
1 SEC 1644.18 7
2 Pac-12 1073.75 6
3 Big Ten 817.99 4
4 Big 12 740.37 5
5 ACC 579.18 2
6 Big East 234.87
7 Ivy 152.95
8 Mountain West 139.70
9 Missouri Valley 135.27
10 Southland 130.30



USTFCCCA NCAA DIVISION I
WOMEN’S OUTDOOR TRACK & FIELD NATIONAL TEAM COMPUTER RANKINGS (TOP 25)
2013 Week #8 — May 20 (Pre-NCAA Prelims)
next ranking: May 28

Rank School Points Conference Head Coach (Yr) Last Week
1 Kansas 332.83 Big 12 Stanley Redwine (13th) 1
2 Texas A&M 311.09 SEC Pat Henry (9th) 2
3 Oregon 280.81 Pac-12 Robert Johnson (1st) 3
4 LSU 252.91 SEC Dennis Shaver (9th) 4
5 Florida 228.34 SEC Mike Holloway (6th) 5
6 Arizona 227.52 Pac-12 Fred Harvey (11th) 7
7 UCF 206.14 Conference USA Caryl Smith Gilbert (6th) 9
8 Arkansas 205.16 SEC Lance Harter (23rd) 6
9 Arizona State 191.69 Pac-12 Greg Kraft (17th) 10
10 Georgia 184.82 SEC Wayne Norton (14th) 8
11 Texas 168.62 Big 12 Rose Brimmer (1st) 11
12 Stanford 166.21 Pac-12 Chris Miltenberg (1st) 13
13 UCLA 155.93 Pac-12 Mike Maynard (1st) 12
14 Iowa State 150.49 Big 12 Corey Ihmels (6th) 17
15 Clemson 136.55 ACC Shawn Cobey (1st) 14
16 San Diego State 123.67 Mountain West Shelia Burrell (4th) 15
17 Florida State 106.42 ACC Bob Braman (10th) 16
18 Wichita State 103.17 Missouri Valley Steve Rainbolt (13th) 26
19 Washington 101.25 Pac-12 Greg Metcalf (11th) 21
20 Texas Tech 92.36 Big 12 Wes Kittley (14th) 20
21 Southern California 87.00 Pac-12 Ron Allice (19th) 19
22 Baylor 82.89 Big 12 Todd Harbour (8th) 23
23 Oklahoma 80.75 Big 12 Martin Smith (8th) 22
24 Michigan State 77.06 Big Ten Walt Drenth (7th) 24
25 Illinois State 74.89 Missouri Valley Elvis Forde (10th) 25
dropped out: No. 18 Illinois




Women’s Conference Index Top 10
Rank Conference Points Top 25 Teams
1 SEC 1535.17 5
2 Pac-12 1314.08 7
3 Big 12 978.92 6
4 ACC 467.92 2
5 Big Ten 444.18 1
6 Conference USA 334.19 1
7 Big East 302.27
8 Missouri Valley 266.18 2
9 Mountain West 198.03 1
10 Ivy 144.56





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kyle@ustfccca.org
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Kyle Terwillegar

U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association

Communications Assistant

1100 Poydras St., Suite 1750

New Orleans, LA 70163

(O) 504-599-8905 (F) 504-599-8909

Email: kyle@ustfccca.org

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