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Florida Men and Texas Women Projected as Team Title Favorites Heading Into NCAA Prelims - USTFCCCAPublished by
Florida Men & Texas Women Projected as Team Title Favorites Heading Into NCAA PrelimsBy Kyle Terwillegar, USTFCCCA May 27, 2014 NEW ORLEANS – They may not have the most entries into the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships Preliminaries, but where the Florida men and Texas women fall short in quantity they more than make up in quality to remain at No. 1 in the week eight edition of the National Team Computer Rankings released Tuesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
Neither the defending co-champion Gators or the Texas women cracked the top five on the list of total entries in the East or West Prelims sites. Behind the strength of nation-leading totals of entries ranked within the top 10 nationally, however, both squads find themselves the favorites as the journey toward national titles officially begins this weekend at the East Prelims site at North Florida and the West Prelims site at Arkansas. The purpose and methodology of the rankings is to create an index that showcases the teams that have the best potential of achieving the top spots in the national team race. Rankings points do not equate with NCAA Championships team points. A full description of the rankings can be found here. Texas’ women found themselves quite a ways down the total entries list, as the Longhorn women (381.57 team rankings score) qualified 19 entries into the meet – 16 fewer than No. 3 Oregon’s (343.09) 35 entries.
The Longhorns, however, kept their grip on the top spot in a particularly close women’s national team title race with three top-ranked entries and seven entries ranked among the top three nationally, tied with No. 4 Texas A&M (329.27, 31 entries) on both counts for the nation lead. The Longhorns also checked in with 13 ranked in the top 10 to equal Oregon’s nation-leading count. Illustrative of how tight the battle for the women’s team title will likely be, each of the top five teams qualified at least 10 entries ranked in the top 10 and at least five ranked in the top three. Texas maintained an advantage of only approximately 30 team rankings points over No. 2 Florida (351.81, 24 entries), while each of the next three teams made double-digit gains in Oregon (343.09), Texas A&M (329.27, 31 entries) and No. 5 Kentucky (274.18, 25 entries). The remainder of the women’s top 10 remained just as tightly bunched with No. 6 LSU (214.72, 29 entries), No. 7 Georgia (213.82, 17 entries), No. 8 Arkansas (189.04, 24 entries), No. 9 Southern California (169.24, 22 entries) and No. 10 Stanford (153.09, 15 entries).
Though the Florida men (364.95 team rankings score) with 20 entries into the East Prelims also checked in well behind No. 3 Oregon’s (256.96) 36 into the West, the Gators likewise own the advantage inentries currently ranked among the top 10 nationally. Florida’s 14 top-10 entries are well clear of rival defending national co-champion No. 2 Texas A&M (299.03, 28 entries) with nine, and Oregon and No. 4 Arkansas (238.88, 29 entries) with eight each. Four performers ranked No. 1 in the nation for Florida is double that of both Texas A&M and No. 8 Oklahoma State (168.80, 14 entries), and its five performers ranked among the top three nationally is tied for the most with Texas A&M. Florida improved its team rankings score marginally based on the release of the Prelims entries, while rival Texas A&M was the biggest beneficiary of the field announcement with a more than 20-point improvement from a week ago. No. 3 Oregon and No. 4 Arkansas both saw their team scores drop, while Texas Tech (177.40, 27 entries) logged a six-point improvement to round out the top five. The Red Raiders head a pack of 10 teams with team rankings scores separated by just 50 points to set up a lot of potential drama in jockeying for podium positioning in the top four. Particularly, Tech was able to narrowly remain ahead of No. 6 Georgia (176.75, 25 entries) and No. 7 Texas (175.07, 27 entries). Oklahoma State, No. 9 LSU (163.80, 21 entries) and No. 10 BYU (155.80, 32 entries) completed the top 10.
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