USTFCCCA Track & Field
Preseason Rankings |
|
| |
| Junior Lindsay Vollmer |
| Women’s Top 10 |
| No. |
School |
Conf. |
Final ’13 |
| 1. |
Texas A&M |
SEC |
2 |
| 2. |
Oregon |
Pac 12 |
3 |
| 3. |
Texas |
Big 12 |
15 |
| 4. |
Florida |
SEC |
11 |
| 5. |
Kentucky |
SEC |
– |
| 6. |
Georgia |
SEC |
11 |
| 7. |
USC |
Pac 12 |
21 |
| 8. |
LSU |
SEC |
4 |
| 9. |
Arizona |
Pac 12 |
6 |
| 10. |
Kansas |
Big 12 |
1 |
| Men’s Top 10 |
| No. |
School |
Conf. |
Final ’12 |
| 1. |
Arkansas |
Big 12 |
3 |
| 2. |
Florida |
SEC |
1 |
| 3. |
Texas A&M |
SEC |
1 |
| 4. |
Oregon |
Pac 12 |
4 |
| 5. |
Florida State |
SEC |
9 |
| 6. |
Wisconsin |
SEC |
15 |
| 7. |
Georgia |
SEC |
49 |
| 8. |
LSU |
SEC |
7 |
| 9. |
UCLA |
Pac 12 |
12 |
| 10. |
Alabama |
SEC |
11 |
| 26. |
Kansas |
Big 12 |
28 |
|
|
Preseason Rankings
NEW ORLEANS – The NCAA’s defending outdoor track & field champion, the Kansas Jayhawk women, were slotted 10th in the preseason outdoor rankings by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Association (USTFCCA) Tuesday. The KU men will open the 2014 outdoor campaign just outside the top-25 as they find themselves at No. 26 in the rankings.
The KU women start their outdoor season inside the nation’s top-10 with the help of four All-Americans returning from last season’s NCAA Championship team. Lindsay Vollmer is back for her junior year in hopes of defending her heptathlon national title from a year ago. Senior Diamond Dixon, already a 12-time All-American, is the three-time defending Big 12 champion in the outdoor 400 meters and will look to complete the four-year sweep at the conference meet in May.
Senior Jessica Maroszek tallied a league title in the discus throw last season before collecting First Team All-America honors with her fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships in 2013. The Seymour, Wis., native had a strong finish to her final indoor campaign after posting scoring performances at the Big 12 Indoor Championships in both the shot put and weight throw with personal best marks. Sprinter Tianna Valentine is back for her second season in a Jayhawk uniform. She, along with Dixon, was a part of the KU’s All-American 4×100-meter relay team that smashed the school record and took fourth at the national championships last season.
On the men’s side, Kansas returns 14 of the 16 scorers from last year’s team that took fifth at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships. The headliner, junior Michael Stigler, was the NCAA runner-up in the 400-meter hurdles a year ago and is coming off an indoor season that saw him claim the Big 12 indoor title in the 600 yards.
Other key returners include pole vaulters Alex Bishop and Casey Bowen, both of whom qualified for the NCAA championships last season; senior javelin specialitist Johann Swanepoel, a first-team All-American in 2012 and senior Josh Munsch, who ran to All-Big 12 honors in the 1,500 meters a year ago.
The Jayhawks will kick off the 2014 outdoor season this week at the 87th Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays. Action from Austin, Texas will begin Wednesday morning at 10:30 a.m., as Vollmer begins competition in her first heptathlon since her NCAA title run last June. Follow the Jayhawks this weekend and throughout the outdoor season by logging on to KUAthletics.com and following on Twitter and Instagram at @KUTrack.
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