COLUMBIA, Mo. - After the Mizzou women's track and field team claimed the Bill Bergan team title last Saturday (Jan. 29), it is the men's team that steals the show in this week's look at the Tigers in the national rankings. As of Monday (Jan. 31) the Tiger men's team has two of its student-athletes ranked in the national top 15 of their respective events. Senior heptathlete and three-time All-American Lars Rise (Trondheim, Norway) is currently ranked eighth while classmate and two-time All-American Brian Hancock (Monroe City, Mo.) currently stands 14th in the pole vault. Both also lead the Big 12 in their respective events.

Rise, who placed fifth at the 2010 NCAA Championships in the heptathlon, competed in his first heptathlon of the season last weekend at Iowa State and posted 5,578 points to rank eighth nationally. Rise used a huge second day - which included a pair of personal-bests in the 60m hurdles and pole vault - to move from fourth to second overall at the Bill Bergan Combined Events and will have several more chances to improve his score this season. Last season, that score would have been just one point shy of sending him to the NCAA Championships as the final qualifier in 2009 had a point total of 5,579.

Hancock has been ranked among the national elite all season long and checks in at 14th in the pole vault with his season-best mark of 5.25m (17-2 ¾). Hancock nearly reset his season-best at the Bill Bergan Invitational as he just missed clearing the bar at 5.35m (17-6 ½) in his third attempt last weekend. That mark would have been just two centimeters off of his school record vault of 5.37m (17-7 ¼) as Hancock appears to be approaching that mark so far this season.

Mizzou will be back in action this weekend as it will compete in the Husker Invitational on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 4-5). For all the latest on Mizzou track and field, stay tuned to MUTigers.com.