Dec. 20, 2007

NEW ORLEANS - The University of Louisville men's track and field program will enter 2008 with another top 10 national ranking as the Cards debuted at No. 6 in the US Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association's 2008 preseason indoor rankings released on Thursday.

The Cards received 80.87 points in the association's new ranking system, which is based solely on the NCAA Descending Order performance lists. The preseason rankings are scored based on the final descending order list of the previous season with improvements based on NCAA post-season competition from that year. In 2007, the Cardinal men finished 10th overall at the NCAA Indoor Championships as Tone Belt (long jump) and Andre Black (triple jump) won national titles to lead U of L to its best ever finish at the indoor championships. The Cards closed 2007 with two more top 10 team finishes earning sixth-place at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June and finishing ninth at the NCAA Cross Country Championships in Nov., to complete the best calendar year in school history.

"This type of preseason ranking provides great exposure for the Louisville track and field program and it's exciting to be considered a top tier team, but I don't think the No. 6 ranking is an accurate measure of where our team is at right now," said Cards' head coach Ron Mann. "This preseason ranking is based in large part on the successes of Tone Belt and Andre Black in 2007 and doesn't take into account our plans to redshirt those guys during the 2008 indoor season. However, even without Tone and Andre, we're still very excited about the talent on our men's roster and the opportunities that exist for us in 2008 at the national level."

Last year, Belt and Black became the first pair of athletes from one school to sweep the NCAA indoor long jump and triple jump titles in the same year as well as becoming the Cards' first ever NCAA event champions. However, each of them have the necessary qualifying standards in their primary events (Belt in the long jump and Black in the triple jump) to compete at the 2008 US Olympic Team Trials on June 27-July 6 in Eugene, Ore., and with both athletes aspiring to represent Team USA at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Mann has elected to limit their competition schedule early in the calendar year to improve their chances for strong performances at the Trials.

"As I've said many times, we want our athletes to succeed in life in everything they do and I'm very excited about the opportunities in front of Tone and Andre in 2008," Mann said. "This will not only help those two guys prepare for the NCAA outdoor season and the Olympic Trials, but it'll also create some wonderful opportunities for all of the other talented athletes in our program to see how far they can lead Louisville track and field during the indoor season."

Reining NCAA outdoor champion Florida State sits atop the preseason indoor rankings with 118.4 points, while the remaining top five includes Washington at No. 2, No. 3 Tennessee, No. 4 Florida and No. 5 LSU. Following U of L, which is the only BIG EAST team in the Top 25, is No. 7 Stanford, No. 8 Northern Iowa, No. 9 Arkansas and No. 10 Baylor.

Louisville opened the indoor season Dec. 7 at the SIU Fast Start Invitational as the men's and women's teams combined to earn three NCAA qualifying marks, set three school records and win four event titles. Junior jumper Rudon Bastian led the men with his first career long jump title with a NCAA qualifying mark of 25 feet, 6 inches.

On the women's side, juniors Seidre Forde and Jere' Summers each earned NCAA qualifying marks with school record setting performances at SIU. Forde was the top collegiate jumper and second overall in the triple jump with a leap of 42 feet, 11.75 inches shattering her own previous school record mark, while Summers won the shot put with a school record setting and NCAA qualifying mark of 53-03.00.

The Cards will return to indoor action on Jan. 12 at the Indiana Open in Bloomington, Ind.