Georgia Joins The Top Five in NCAA DI National Team Rankings

NEW ORLEANS – As eventful as this past weekend in college track & field was in terms of individual performances – including a new collegiate record plus historic marks in the combined events – the week two NCAA Division I National Team Computer Rankings released Monday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) were equally tranquil.

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 Texas Arkansas Georgia View Complete Women’s National Team Rankings

Defending national champion Texas A&M’s women remained atop the rankings, followed closely by a stationary Florida at No. 2.

Each of the top six teams in the men’s rankings – led by No. 1 Texas A&M, No. 2 Florida and defending champion No. 3 Oregon – remained constant from a week ago and no new teams cracked the top 10. No. 7 Florida State was the highest-ranked team to move up, improving two slots from a week ago.

The Aggies’ and the Ducks’ women head a pack of eight teams bunched closely near the top of the rankings, which underwent some minor shuffling as athletes continued to open up their outdoor seasons. Texas and Arkansas swapped spots at No. 3 and No. 4, while Georgia moved up three spots to No. 5 behind an historic, collegiate-leading heptathlon performance from Quintunya Chapman, and collegiate-leading long and triple jump marks from frosh Keturah Orji.

Approximately 75 points separate the defending champion Aggies at No. 1 (318.55 points) from No. 8 Oregon (244.45), which fell two spots from last time. Historically, teams with more than 200 points in the USTFCCCA rankings have gone on to contend for the NCAA title or at least one of the four podium finishes – setting up what could be a very dramatic team race at this year’s championships June 10-13 in Eugene, Oregon.

Another group of closely bunched teams extends beyond those top eight, led by top-10 newcomer Kansas State at No. 9 after heptathlete Akela Jones provided a three-spot boost. At 172 points, the Wildcats are within 35 points of No. 10 Baylor, No. 11 Florida State and No. 12 Stanford – which were all displaced one spot from a week ago to make room for KSU.

The formula used in the USTFCCCA National Team Computer Rankings does not equate to the scoring system used at the NCAA Championships, and is only meant to project how a team might fare at the NCAA Championships. For a breakdown of the system, click here.

No team in the rankings’ top-25 improved more than the North Carolina women, who jumped 19 spots to No. 22 behind heptathlete Xenia Rahn. Michigan State’s women were the next-biggest gainer, improving eight positions to No. 18.

The men’s rankings saw little movement in the top 25, and what little movement there was came only in small degrees. No. 13 South Carolina made the biggest jump of the week with a three-position improvement.

This week’s Regional Rankings were more volatile, with a third of the 18 total men’s and women’s regions ending up with a new team at No. 1.

For the men, Georgia (South Region), South Carolina (Southeast) and Oregon (West) all topped their respective regions this week, as did the women of Kansas (Midwest), Texas Tech (South Central) and Harvard (Northeast).