Women's Track No. 1, Men No. 4, in USTFCCCA Outdoor Rankings

MEN'S RANKINGS | WOMEN'S RANKINGS

St. Louis, Mo., April 9, 2009 – The Washington University women’s outdoor track and field team is ranked No. 1 while the men’s team checks in at No. 4, in the initial U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association 2009 Division III Outdoor Track & Field rankings, as announced Wednesday by the association.

The WU women are coming off a first-place performance at the Washington University Invitational, held Friday-Saturday, April 4-5, where the men’s squad placed second out of 22 schools. The WU men’s and women’s squads combined to have three student-athletes meet NCAA Division III Outdoor Championship qualifying marks at the WU Invite, and through just three outdoor meets this year, six student-athletes have at least provisionally qualified for the outdoor championships in seven events.

WU men’s sophomore Ben Harmon automatically qualified for the outdoor championships in the decathlon last week, with a personal best performance of 6,650 points. He finished fifth in the decathlon at the 2008 NCAA Championships. Provisionally qualifying for this year’s outdoor championship meet is senior Tanner Coghill, who submitted a time of 53.26 in the 400-meter hurdles at the Washington University Mini Meet on March 27. Coghill placed eighth in the 400-hurdles at the NCAA meet in 2008.

For the Washington University women, senior Alli Alberts, senior Danielle Wadlington, sophomore Taryn Surtees and freshman Elizabeth Phillips have each met NCAA provisional qualifying standards in various events. Alberts placed second in the heptathlon at the WU Invitational last weekend with a provisional score of 4,498. She came in sixth in the heptathlon at the NCAA Championships in 2007. Alberts also eclipsed provisional marks in the javelin with a school-record distance of 40.37 meters at the WU Mini Meet.

Wadlington posted a provisional time of 14.34 in the 100-meter hurdles at the Rhodes Invitational on March 21, which is also where Phillips submitted a school-record time of 4:35.27 in the 1,500-meter run. Surtees’ provisional time came in the 5,000-meter run at the WU Invite, which she won in 17:15.65.

The Washington U. men’s and women’s track and field teams return to action on Saturday, April 11, at the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Cougar Classic in Edwardsville, Ill.