Notebook: Stiff Competition Awaits at Texas A&M Challenge
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 | Track and Field
The NCAA Indoor Championships are still nearly two months away, but head coach Mike Holloway and the Florida track and field teams will get an early look at what that meet may look like when the Gators travel to College Station, Texas, for the Texas A&M Challenge this weekend.
Featuring teams from three power conferences – the Big 12 Conference, the Pacific-10 Conference and the Southeastern Conference – the Texas A&M Challenge boasts nine of the nation's top teams.
According to the latest team rankings from the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, released early Tuesday morning, the Texas A&M Challenge field consists of eight ranked men's teams and six ranked women's teams from among the field of nine combined programs.
“I'm very excited about this weekend,” Holloway said Monday at his weekly press conference. “When you put these nine schools in the same building with some enthusiasm and a great facility like Texas A&M has, I think it's going to be a great competition. We're expecting big things from our team this weekend.”
The men's field features eight ranked squads in No. 2 Oregon, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Texas A&M, No. 7 Arkansas, No. 10 Baylor, No. 15 South Carolina, No. 17 Stanford and No. 21 Washington State. The women's side is highlighted by No. 1 Texas A&M, No. 2 Oregon, No. 9 Florida, No. 10 Arkansas and No. 11 South Carolina and No. 16 Baylor.
Impressively, each of the three SEC schools participating in the Texas A&M Challenge are ranked on both the men's and women's sides. Holloway feels that the level of competition will help prepare the Gators for the SEC and NCAA Championship meets at the end of the season.
“In this case, when we face some of the better competition in the country, we don't want to go in there and not be at our best because these are the same schools we are going to have to compete against in the national meet,” Holloway said. “We want to go in there and put our best foot forward.”
Holloway credits Texas A&M Coach Pat Henry for serving as the architect of the meet, which is in its second year after featuring the SEC and Big 12 only last season.
“Coach Henry at Texas A&M is a big proponent of these kinds of meets,” Holloway said. “You always have great teams and great performances come out of meets like this.”
Competition begins Friday at 7 p.m. ET and all of the latest information will be available at GatorZone.com or through the official Twitter page @GZTrackField or www.twitter.com/GZTrackField.
USTFCCCA RANKINGS – INDOOR WEEK 1 (JAN. 26, 2010)
MEN
| Rank | School | Points | Last Week |
| 1 | Florida State | 135.17 | 1 |
| 2 | Oregon | 124.74 | 3 |
| 3 | Florida | 120.22 | 2 |
| 4 | Texas A&M | 118.10 | 8 |
| 5 | Nebraska | 107.17 | 4 |
| 6 | LSU | 106.59 | 9 |
| 7 | Arkansas | 94.10 | 5 |
| 8 | Arizona State | 89.48 | 7 |
| 9 | Oklahoma | 88.97 | 6 |
| 10 | Baylor | 67.78 | 11 |
| 11 | Texas Tech | 65.59 | 14 |
| 12 | Minnesota | 62.80 | 10 |
| 13 | Virginia Tech | 61.23 | 13 |
| 14 | Georgia | 57.62 | 19 |
| 15 | South Carolina | 57.45 | 12 |
| 16 | Indiana | 53.65 | -- |
| 17 | Stanford | 48.07 | 16 |
| 18 | Auburn | 47.67 | 15 |
| 19 | Kentucky | 47.42 | 17 |
| 20 | Arizona | 41.20 | -- |
| 21 | Washington State | 40.92 | 18 |
| 22 | California | 40.72 | 20 |
| 23 | Kansas State | 40.59 | 22 |
| 24 | Oklahoma State | 39.64 | 21 |
| 25 | Washington | 37.87 | -- |
WOMEN
| Rank | School | Points | Last Week |
| 1 | Texas A&M | 189.67 | 1 |
| 2 | Oregon | 120.25 | 2 |
| 3 | BYU | 117.86 | 5 |
| 4 | LSU | 105.16 | 3 |
| 5 | Florida State | 103.16 | 4 |
| 6 | Penn State | 91.38 | 10 |
| 7 | Clemson | 85.29 | 9 |
| 8 | Tennessee | 82.15 | 12 |
| 9 | Florida | 79.60 | 6 |
| 10 | Arkansas | 75.59 | 17 |
| 11 | South Carolina | 74.18 | 7 |
| 12 | Nebraska | 66.28 | 11 |
| 13 | Washington | 65.98 | 8 |
| 14 | Louisville | 63.40 | 18 |
| 15 | Oklahoma | 61.68 | 21 |
| 16 | Baylor | 61.40 | 16 |
| 17 | Arizona | 58.12 | -- |
| 18 | Virginia Tech | 56.30 | 13 |
| 19 | Auburn | 53.31 | -- |
| 20 | Southern Illinois | 53.29 | 23 |
| 21 | Connecticut | 47.74 | 14 |
| 22 | Indiana State | 46.28 | 20 |
| 23 | West Virginia | 44.97 | 22 |
| 24 | Illinois | 44.91 | 19 |
| 25 | UTEP | 44.56 | 25 |
END OF REPORT
