Kelby ZendejasAfter a top performance at the Razorback Invite last week, the Ole Miss men’s and women’s track and field teams received national rankings in Week Two of the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Rating Index. The men’s team ranked No. 6, and the women’s team ranked No. 18.
The men’s ranking is the highest that any Ole Miss track and field team has seen since Week One of the 2008 rankings when the women’s team was placed at No. 7. The new No. 6 men’s ranking comes after the men placed third overall at the Razorback Invite.
The men’s team soared 26 spots into this record-breaking ranking, and the last time the men’s team placed this high in the indoor polls was during the 2014 preseason release at No. 16.
Last weekend’s performance helped the Rebels claim the top seed. Four team members led the way by breaking Ole Miss school records and personal bests. Distance runners Waleed Suliman, Baylor Franklin, Everett Smulders and Mario Garcia Romo made up the record-breaking team after running a 9:30.62 in the distance medley relay, which added a solid 19.37 points to the index. This becomes the third-best time in NCAA history and second-best in Ole Miss history.
The quartet contributed to individual successes as well. Smulders became the fourth Rebel to clock a less than four-minute mile with a time of 3:58.93. Former SEC champion Garcia Romo also broke the men’s 3K school record with a time of 7:48.40, breaking Robert Domanic’s 2016 record by six seconds. Suliman would have been the runner to break the record with a time of 7:54.57 if it hadn’t been for Garcia Romo’s success.
Franklin set his personal best in the men’s 800-meter, clocking in with a time of 1:48.59 and ranking fifth nationally.
On the women’s team, the Rebels finished sixth at the Razorback Invite, helping the team place 11 spots above their previous national ranking.
All-American sophomore Jasmine Mitchell led the women’s team with a No. 4 ranking in the weight throw at 21.57 meters (70-09.25). For distance runners, senior Anna Elikin ranked in both the 5K (10th, 16:21.83) and mile (32nd, 4:46.23), senior Victoria Simmons in the 5K (20th, 17:07.22) and sophomore Loral Winn with at her school-record mile time of 4:45.60 in 28th. Winn took the top seed at Ole Miss after beating Elkin’s time at the Commodore Indoor two weeks ago.
In addition to the distance runners, newcomer Sintayehu Vissa ran the fourth-best 800-meter time in Ole Miss history with a 2:06.45. The time is the eleventh-best nationally this year.
The Rebels keep setting standards and breaking records, and the teams are set to travel to Columbia, South Carolina, this weekend for the South Carolina Invite.
