Jayhawk men rise to No. 11 in latest NCAA rankings
Link USTFCCCA Top 25
NEW ORLEANS – Top-five performances from Jayhawk throwers Gleb Dudarev and Nicolai Ceban helped the Kansas men’s track & field squad jump nine spots to 11th in the latest top-25 rankings released by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Monday. The ranking marks the highest regular-season standing for the men’s program, indoors or outdoors, since the current ranking system began in 2008.
The Jayhawk men’s team currently features eight athletes and a relay squad that rank inside the NCAA’s top-15 in their respective events. The number includes three Jayhawks who have marks that put them inside the top-five in their events, all done with performances over the last two weekends.
After entering the NCAA’s top-25 list for the first time in seven years last week, the previously-ranked No. 20 Kansas men jumped nine spots largely due to stellar outings from a pair of throwers at the Jayhawk Classic last Friday in Lawrence.
Dudarev and Ceban, each competing for the first time in 2017, posted personal best marks en route to victories. Dudarev kicked off his KU career with a winning toss of 23.00 meters (75-5½) in the weight throw, the second-best mark by a collegian this year and the best by a Jayhawk in nearly a decade. Ceban tallied his win by way of a personal-best throw of 19.85 meters (65-1½). The mark ranks the Jayhawk third on this season’s NCAA shot put list.
Senior Jake Albright took the Jayhawk Classic off, but maintained his position near the top of the collegiate pole vault ranks. His vault of 5.54 meters (18-2) from the Rod McCravy Memorial on Jan. 21 sits the Bucyrus, Kansas product at No. 2 on the national list.
Kansas is the highest ranked of the five Big 12 teams that found themselves among this week’s top-25. The Jayhawks were followed by Texas Tech at No. 14, Texas at No. 16, Oklahoma State at No. 18 and Oklahoma at No. 22.
The Jayhawk men and women will journey to Lincoln, Nebraska this weekend for the Husker Invitational inside the Bob Devaney Sports Center Feb. 3-4.
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