Senior Jill Rushin at the 2014 Rod McCravy Meet (Lexington, Ky.)
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Mizzou Track & Field women have broken into the top 25 in the preseason rankings for the first time since its 2008 beginning, as released by the USTFCCCA (U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association) on Tuesday. The women enter the 2015 indoor season at No. 24 in the nation.
The SEC leads the country in both the men's (six) and women's (eight) rankings, with Florida holding the No. 1 spot on both lists.
SEC Teams in the Women's Preseason Rankings: Florida (No. 1) | Texas A&M (No. 2) | Georgia (No. 4) | Kentucky (No. 6) | Arkansas (No. 7) | Auburn (No. 18) | Mississippi State (No. 20) | Missouri (No. 24)
SEC Teams in the Men's Preseason Rankings: Florida (No. 1) | Arkansas (No. 3) | Texas A&M (No. 4) | LSU (No. 10) | Georgia (No. 11) | Alabama (No. 13)
The rankings are compiled using mathematical formulae based on national descending order lists and data taken from previous seasons. The rankings do not reflect team finishes at the NCAA Championships, but instead serve as an index of those teams that have the best potential of achieving top spots in the national-team race.
A trio of senior women provided the 37.11 points for the Tigers, based on the 2014 indoor bests. Kearsten Peoples, who closed last indoor season with All-American honors in both the shot put and weight throw, enters the season at No. 3 and No. 9 in those events, respectively. Also landing in the preseason list for the shot put is Jill Rushin, who placed sixth at the 2014 Indoor NCAA Championships. She enters 2015 at No. 7. Rounding out the three women scorers is Morgan Whitson, who is No. 28 for the pentathlon with her score of 3,873 points from the 2014 SEC Indoor Championships.
The men's team also had three make into the preseason event lists, compiling 23.66 points to land at No. 41 in the preseason rankings. Junior Markesh Woodson holds the No. 2 spot for the 60-meter dash and No. 27 for the 200-meter dash with his School Record marks of 6.60 and 21.13, respectively. Fellow-juniors Jonathan Ilori and Tony Carodine both appear in the top 20 for the triple jump at No. 14 and No. 16, respectively.
The rankings release comes only a few days ahead of the Tigers' first meet of the season, as the teams prepare to depart for Iowa and the first Border Battle with Iowa and Illinois. The meet will kick off with the season's only discus competition on Friday at 4:30 p.m. CT, with the rest of the competition resuming on Saturday at noon.
For the latest on your Tigers, stay tuned to MUTigers.com and follow the team on Twitter @MIZ_TrackField.
WOMEN'S PRESEASON TOP 25
1. Florida
2. Texas A&M
3. Oregon
4. Georgia
5. Texas
6. Kentucky
7. Arkansas
8. Providence
9. Florida State
10. Georgetown
11. Stanford
12. Kansas State
13. Oklahoma State
14. Maryland
15. Michigan
16. UCLA
17. Texas Tech
18. Auburn
19. Michigan State
20. Mississippi State
21. Clemson
22. Wisconsin
23. Southern Illinois
24. Missouri
25. North Carolina