Texas A&M Women Build Upon D1 Rankings Lead, While Men’s Race Tightens

NEW ORLEANS – Both the Texas A&M men and women made gains in the most recent U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division I National Team Computer Rankings, with the women extending their lead at the top of the list and the men moving closer to regaining the No. 1 spot.

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The Aggies used strong performances at the Penn Relays to bolster their respective positions in the rankings, while their closest competitors both lost ground. The No. 1 defending champion Florida men are still No. 1, but their lead over Texas A&M has slipped from nearly 40 team points to less than 20, while the Aggie women were able to grow their lead to nearly 50 team points.

The National Team Computer Rankings are a projection of how teams could fare at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. This is the first week that does not feature marks from 2012, except for combined events. An explanation of the rankings system can be found here.

Texas A&M Men Gaining on Defending Champion Florida

After finding themselves No. 2 by more than 40 team points last week following the removal of preseason data from the rankings system, the No. 2 Aggies are back in the hunt for the No. 1 ranking after a weekend at the Penn Relays and Bobcat Classic that resulted in a 13.4 net increase in their team score to 322.98.

Meanwhile the No. 1 Gators were only able to record two performances that improved event rankings positioning, causing the defending champs to slide 10.83 points to 341.84 — reducing the gap between the SEC foes to fewer than 20 points.

Florida State was the biggest mover in this week’s top five, gaining 14.86 net points for a 249.47 team score and moving up two spots to No. 3 behind freshman Zak Seddon’s No. 2 steeplechase performance at the Payton Jordan (8:34.42) and senior Michael Fout’s No. 5 10,000 meters race (28:52.77).

Indoor champion Arkansas and Oregon were both jumped by Florida State, resulting in the Razorbacks (246.96) dropping to No. 4 and the Ducks (232.59) to No. 5.

Texas A&M Women Build On Lead at No. 1

The Texas A&M women claimed the No. 1 spot from Kansas last week, and they started to pull away from the Jayhawks this week. Behind the fourth-best long jump in the country from freshman LaQue Moen-Davis with a 21-1½w (6.46m, 3.3m/s) at the Penn Relays, the Aggies increased their team score 15.99 team points to 320.94.

The Jayhawks, who were not fully in competition this past weekend, slid 16.36 net points to 274.14.

Making the biggest move in the women’s top five this week were the Florida women, who turned in a number of great showings at the Arkansas Spring and Stanford Payton Jordan invitationals to jump three spots to No. 2 with a 45.07 net gain for a 263.83 team score. The distance crew provided the biggest push, with junior 1500 runners Cory McGee and Agata Strausa moving to No. 2 (4:10.55) and No. 4 (4:11.27), respectively.

LSU remained steady at No. 4 after not recording a time or mark that improved on any of its student-athlete’s top-ranked performances, resulting in a 14.14 net loss for a 243.44 team score.

Arizona rounded out the top five after slipping two spots and falling 22.52 net points to 238.28.

Biggest Jump (Men): 18 – No. 11 Wisconsin
Biggest Jump (Women): 4 – No. 16 Iowa State, No. 19 Southern California