April 2, 2002

Holding down three No. 1 positions nationally, in Trackwire’s first national rankings for the 2002 outdoor track and field season, South Carolina is No. 4 on the women’s side and No. 11 on the men’s side. At the NCAA Indoor Championships, USC’s women were fourth, while the men finished sixth.

USC travels to the Sea Ray Relays in Tennessee this weekend before returning home to host the SC State Colleigate Championship on April 10.

On the NCAA list USC is No. 1 in three events. In the 400m, Demetria Washington is No. 1. Freshman Lashinda Demus and Tiffany Ross are 1-2 in the women’s 400m hurdles. Finally, the women’s 4x400m relay, which ran the sixth fastest collegiate time ever last weekend at the Florida Relays, is also ranked No. 1.

On the men’s side, USC is No. 4 in the men’s 4x100m relay and No. 4 in the men’s 4x400m relay. The NCAA’s defending champion in the 800m, USC’s Otukile Lekote, has not run an 800m race outdoors after winning the NCAA’s indoor title a few weeks ago.

Women’s Trackwire Top 15 1 USC 84 2 LSU 69 3 UCLA 52 4 South Carolina 46 5 Rice 30 6 Kansas State 29 7 Nebraska 27 8 Washington State 22 9 Auburn 21 Indiana 21 BYU 21 12 Florida 20 Stanford 20 14 Arizona 19 Texas 19

Men’s Trackwire Top 15 1 Tennessee 77 2 LSU 75 3 SMU 36 4 Arkansas 32 5 Mississippi State 27 6 Georgia 26 Oregon 26 8 UTEP 25 9 Eastern Michigan 20 Clemson 20 11 South Carolina 19 Baylor 19 13 Alabama 18 14 TCU 17 Auburn 17