May 15, 2007

The South Carolina women maintained its No. 3 ranking in this week’s trackwire.com poll and the South Carolina entered the top 25 for the first time this season in a three-way tie for No. 24 with Kansas and McNeese State. South Carolina is off this weekend in preparation of the NCAA East Region meet in Gainesville, Fla. May 25-26.

“It’s great our men are ranked. Our goals are still to be in the top 25 outdoors and I am glad people are recognizing their performances from this past weekend’s SEC Championship,” said USC Head Coach Curtis Frye. “It will be tough to hang on, but it’s a good indication for all their hard work. The women are going have a hard time hanging onto third, but rankings are what they do on paper and there are a lot of things that can happen between now and the NCAA Championships.”

Individually, South Carolina has both relays ranked No. 1 nationally and four women are ranked in the trackwire.com Dandy Dozen and three men and the 4x400m relay.

Both of the women’s relays, the 4x100m and the 4x400m, are ranked No. 1 in the country after topping LSU and Auburn for the SEC titles. The women ranked in the Dandy Dozen: Shalonda Solomon (100m, No. 10 and 200m, No. 6); Natasha Hastings (400m, No. 1); Krystal Cantey (400m hurdles, No. 5) and Chiquita Martin (400m hurdles, No. 12).

The men’s 4x400m relay is ranked No. 3 nationally in the Dandy Dozen. The men ranked in the Dandy Dozen: Thomas Hilliard (400m hurdles, No. 4; 110m hurdles, No. 8); Jussi Heikkila (400m hurdles, No. 8) and Derek Pressley (Triple Jump, No. 12).

Proving the absolute strength of track and field in the Southeastern Conference, on the women’s side LSU is No. 1, USC is No. 3, with Auburn No. 4, Georgia No. 6, Arkansas No. 13, Tennessee at No. 19 and Ole Miss at No. 24. On the men’s side, LSU is No. 2, Auburn No. 3, Tennessee No. 6, Arkansas No. 12, Ole Miss No. 15, Georgia No. 19 and South Carolina No. 23.

The TRACKWIRE.COM women’s poll:

1. LSU, 58; 2. Arizona State, 56; 3. South Carolina, 37; 4. Auburn, 34; 5. Texas, 33; 6. Georgia, 29; 7. Texas A&M, 27; 8. Stanford, 25; 9. UCLA, 24; =10. USC, 23; =10. Michigan, 23; 12. Oregon, 22; =13. Texas Tech, 21; =13. Arkansas, 21; =15. Cal, 17; =15. Nebraska, 17; 17. Washington State, 15; 18. Iowa, 13; =19. Miami, 12; =19. Georgia Tech, 12; =19. Tennessee, 12; =19. Kansas, 12; =19. Virginia Tech, 12; =24. Mississippi, 11; =24. Northern Iowa, 11.

The TRACKWIRE.COM men’s poll:

1. Florida State, 54; 2. LSU, 51; 3. Auburn, 44; 4. USC, 36; 5. Oregon, 35; 6. Tennessee, 31; 7. Louisville, 30; =8. UCLA, 24; =8. Baylor, 24; 10. Arizona State, 22; 11. Clemson, 19; =12. Arkansas, 17; =12. Wisconsin, 17; 14. North Carolina, 16; =15. BYU, 15; =15. Arizona, 15; =15. Liberty, 15; =15. Mississippi, 15; =19. Washington, 14; =19. Texas Tech, 14; =19. Texas, 14; =19. Georgia, 14; =23. South Carolina, 13; =23. McNeese State, 13; =23. Kansas, 13.