Women's Track Team Listed at No. 10 in Preseason Outdoor Rankings

March 22, 2012

National Track and Field Rankings

USTFCCCA Women’s Preseason Rankings No. School Conf. 2011 NCAA Finish 1. Oregon Pac 12 2 2. LSU SEC 3 3. USC Pac 12 6 4. Clemson ACC 7 5. Arkansas SEC 14 6. Oklahoma Big 12 4 7. Texas A&M Big 12 1 8. Texas Big 12 8 9. Texas Tech Big 12 54 10. Kansas Big 12 23 11. Florida SEC 34 12. UCF Conf USA 17 13. Baylor Big 12 38 14. Tennessee SEC 11 15. Auburn SEC 14 16. Georgia SEC 40 17. Arizona State Pac 12 19 18. Arizona Pac 12 5 19. Kansas State Big 12 13 20. Nebraska Big Ten 32 21. Stanford Pac 12 8 22. Southern Miss Conf USA 10 23. UTEP Conf USA — 24. West Virginia Big East 20 25. Florida State ACC 20

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Coming off the most successful indoor season in team history, the University of Kansas women’s track and field team opens the 2012 outdoor season in the top-10 of the national rankings released by the USTFCCCA Thursday. The women will begin the season as the nation’s 10th-ranked team.

Kansas’ women will look to duplicate their record-setting indoor season where they placed third at the Big 12 Conference Championships and second at the NCAA Championships – the highest finishes in team history at either event.

The team returns all five athletes: senior Rebeka Stowe (Steeplechase), juniors Heather Bergmann (javelin) and Andrea Geubelle (triple jump) and sophomores Diamond Dixon (400 meters) and Jessica Maroszek (discus), who earned individual First Team All-America honors in the 2011 outdoor campaign. Also back for the Jayhawks are three members of the All-American 4×400-meter relay team that took third at the NCAA Outdoors Championships last year in senior Shayla Wilson, junior Denesha Morris and Dixon.

The Big 12 is currently the top women’s conference with seven teams in the top 25, five of which (Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Kansas) making up the top 10. The Oregon Ducks, who are the defending NCAA Indoor Champions, begin the outdoor season at No. 1.

The NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships will be held June 6-9 in Des Moines, Iowa, and hosted by Drake University. Preliminary rounds will be conducted May 24-26 in Austin, Texas (West site) and Jacksonville, Fla. (East site).

The KU men and women will kick-off the 2012 outdoor season this weekend at the Baker Relays in Baldwin, Kan. The meet, which will take place on Saturday, March 24, will feature the return of several of the men’s top throwers, including All-Americans Mason Finley and Johann Swanepoel. Action from Liston Stadium will begin at 11 a.m. with the women’s hammer throw and men’s shot put. Stay updated on the team’s progress at kuathletics.com/track and through 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.