Kansas Women Jump to No. 6 in USTFCCCA National Rankings

Feb. 14, 2012

National Track and Field Rankings

USTFCCCA Weekly Rankings No. School Conf. Last 1. Oregon Pac 12 1 2. Clemson ACC 3 3. LSU SEC 2 4. Arkansas SEC 4 5. Texas A&M Big 12 9 6. Kansas Big 12 24 7. Florida SEC 32 8. Tennessee SEC 17 9. Texas Tech Big 12 8 10. Southern Illinois Mo. Valley 11 11. UCF Conf USA 5 12. Texas Big 12 6 13. Iowa State Big 12 14 14. BYU Mnt. West 7 15. Arizona Pac 12 10 16. Wisconsin Big Ten 29 17. Stanford Pac 12 23 18. Ohio State Big Ten 18 19. California Pac 12 70 20. Georgetown Big East 27 21. Florida State ACC 12 22. Washington Pac 12 28 23. Michigan State Big Ten 48 24. South Carolina SEC 44 25. UC Santa Barbara Big West 30

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Coming off some of the best individual performances of the season, the University of Kansas women’s track and field team moved up 18 spots to rank sixth in the USTFCCCA national rankings released on Tuesday. The ranking ties the highest ever by a Stanley Redwine coached team, as the 2008 women’s squad hit the six spot in March of that year.

Propelling the Jayhawks up the women’s rankings are a host of athletes who are among the top-15 nationally in their individual events. Leading the way is junior Andrea Geubelle, who ranks No. 2 nationally in the triple jump and also boasts the 12th-best mark in the long jump. Sophomore Diamond Dixon is also having an All-American caliber season, as she holds the fifth-fastest 400 meter time in the NCAA. Dixon also helped pace the women’s 4×400-meter relay team of Denesha Morris, Paris Daniels and Taylor Washington to the fastest indoor time in school history last weekend in Arkansas. The quartet ran a 3:33.65, which has already assured them a spot at the NCAA Indoor Championships in March and currently ranks fourth in the U.S.

Sophomore Demi Payne has had an outstanding start to the 2012 campaign, as she has collected four victories in the pole vault this year and has hit a new personal-best clearance in every meet. Her top height of the season, 4.22 meters (13-10 ft.), is the third-best in school history and puts her at No. 10 in the nation this season.

Junior Francine Simpson leads the Big 12 in the long jump, having hit a mark of 6.32 meters (20-9 ft.) earlier this year. That puts the Chapelton, Jamaica native at No. 6 in the NCAA.

Alena Krechyk rounds out the KU women’s top-15 nationally ranked individuals. The senior has broken the school record in the weight throw twice this year, hitting a top mark of 20.42 meters (67-0 ft.) two weeks ago in New York. The record heave is the 14^th-best throw in the nation in 2012 and is No. 3 in the Big 12.

The KU women are accompanied by five other Big 12 schools that are ranked in the top 25 this week, including Texas A&M (5^th) and Texas Tech (9^th) who join the Jayhawks in the top 10.

The women travel to College Station, Texas for the 2012 Big 12 Indoor Championships Feb. 24-25. The Jayhawks will have 26 men and women competing on both sides hoping to bring the Jayhawks their first Big 12 conference championship. Stay updated on all of the team’s progress at the Big 12 meet through the meet central blog and follow on twitter at KU_Track.

About the USTFCCCA Rankings
The 2012 USTFCCCA Rankings for NCAA Division I squads were devised and are compiled by the communications director of the USTFCCCA, Tom Lewis. Each team is assigned “power points” based on each individual performance on the official NCAA-qualifying list. For the indoor season, spots one through 35 in each event on the national-descending order list receive points based on its position in the national rankings. Additional power points are assigned to each performance based on comparisons with the rest of the field in that event