MSU men's track ranked No. 9

Another top 10 program has arrived in Starkville. Mississippi State's men's track and field program is ninth in the latest USTFCCCA rankings released on Monday. The Bulldog women are No. 25.

The men's team has now earned its highest ranking since it finished ninth at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2016. It is MSU's highest regular-season ranking since Week 8 of 2015 when the Bulldogs were No. 8.

“I've been saying that we are built better for the outdoor season, especially on the men's side,” State head coach Steve Dudley said. “We stress the team over the individual, which can be hard in such an individual sport, but we feel like we can compete for the SEC Championship this year.”

The Bulldog men are one of six Southeastern Conference teams inside the top 10. They jumped five spots from the preseason rankings on the back of their performances in the 400-meters hurdles and 800 meters.

Dejon Devroe's time in the 800 meters is third in the NCAA and fifth in school outdoor history. Of the eight Bulldogs who are inside the top 20 in the NCAA in their event, three run the 400-meter hurdles. Rasheed Tatham is 14th, while newcomers Charles Brockman III and Malcum Tatum are 16th and 19th, respectively.

MSU's women climbed 16 spots this week, largely due to Rhianwedd Price-Weimer's NCAA-leading 1500 meters on Friday night. Price-Weimer turned in a time of 4:10.31 which accounted for 29.90 of the Bulldogs' 81.76 points in the rankings. She won the NCAA Championship in the event in 2015.

Alon Lewis, Monica Mosley, Riley White and Keturah Smith ran the second-fastest 4x400 meter relay in school history on Saturday night to rank 14th in the nation.