Final Weekend of January Shakes Up Men’s DI National Rankings

NEW ORLEANS – The month of January has officially come to a close, and what a month it was for the Texas A&M men’s indoor track & field team.

After starting the year at No. 9 in the preseason USTFCCCA National Team Computer Rankings, the Aggies have stormed all the way to No. 2 in the most recent edition of the rankings announced Monday.

NCAA Division I National Team Rankings Top 5 – Men 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Florida Texas A&M Texas Virginia Tech LSU 132.21 pts 104.30 pts 101.90 pts 97.21 pts 96.72 pts View Complete Men’s National Coaches’ Poll

Only preseason No. 1 Florida now stands between the crew from College Station and the top of the rankings. The Gators maintained their rankings perch with 132.21 ranking points, while A&M checked in with 104.30 to overtake now-No. 3 Texas with 101.90.

Virginia Tech (97.21) remained No. 4. No. 5 LSU (96.72) passed No. 6 Oregon (94.98) to round out the top five.

The Longhorns were idle this past weekend, while Florida, A&M, LSU and Oregon all squared off at the Arkansas Razorback Invitational. Virginia Tech was in action at Clemson, Penn State and the JDL Fast Track.

Texas A&M improved from its No. 3 rank a week ago as sprinters Devin Jenkins and Fred Kerley worked their way into the top 15 of the USTFCCCA individual rankings for their respective events. Those individual rankings include both current season marks and the top previous-season marks made by returners. The previous-season data will be removed following next week’s edition.

No. 5 LSU likewise closed out January strong after checking in at No. 14 in the preseason. Quarter-miler Michael Cherry made a big splash in his Bayou Bengal 400-meter debut with a collegiate-leading 45.78 to boost the Tigers up one spot from a week ago.

Despite falling a spot, No. 6 Oregon also had a strong showing in Fayetteville as 2014 NCAA/USATF Outdoor 110-meter hurdles champ Devon Allen showed great promise in his return after a year lost to a football injury. Two-time Bowerman Finalist Edward Cheserek was strong as always, running 3:57 in the mile and bringing along another sub-four-minute miler in Blake Haney and nearly one more in Sam Prakel.

No. 7 TCU moved up three spots as defending 60-meter national champion Ronnie Baker flexed his muscle with a collegiate-leader at 200 meters. No. 8 Arkansas also moved up three spots behind four different top-15 performances on the USTFCCCA Individual Rankings.

No. 9 Tennessee fell one spot, and No. 10 Georgia dropped three to round out the top 10.

Defending NCAA Cross Country champion Syracuse leapt 34 spots to No. 19 – its first-ever top-25 appearance. Collegiate mile leader Justyn Knight led three sub-four milers for the Orange, while fellow cross country stud Colin Bennie moved to No. 12 on the USTFCCCA Individual Rankings in the 3000.

The only men’s team to make a more significant jump into the top 25 was ACC rival No. 25 NC State, which improved 35 positions. Luis Vargas ran the No. 2 performance at 3000 meters in the USTFCCCA Individual Rankings (after converting from flat track to banked track) to propel the Wolfpack into the national rankings.

Also new to the top-25 was No. 23 Southern Illinois, up eight spots from last time.