After a weekend of little competition, the Eastern men’s track and field team has fallen out of the Midwest Regional top 10 for the first time this outdoor season.

Now sitting at the No. 12 spot, the Panthers dropped three positions from last week’s No. 9 rank.

This week’s rankings also show a new No. 1 overall team in the region, with Big Ten power, Minnesota, taking over the top spot. Previous No. 1 Nebraska is now the No. 2 team. Iowa remains at No. 3, making them the only team to remain idle in this week’s poll. Making the jump of the week into the No. 4 spot is Oklahoma, who moved up eight spots from No. 12 to No. 4. Illinois fell one spot from No. 4 to No. 5, with Missouri and Iowa State both following at No. 6 and 7. Missouri moved up one spot from last week, while Iowa State moved up three. Closing out the final three teams in the top ten are Kansas, Wichita State and Kansas State. All three teams have moved down from last week’s rankings. Just above the Panthers in the No. 11 spot is Southern Illinois.

In the national poll, the Panther men’s team fell two spots from No. 45 to No. 47. The women’s team is currently No. 147 in the nation, down eight spots from last week. The University of Florida holds the nation’s top spot for the men, while Texas A&M sits atop the women’s national rankings.

In the individual national ranks, red-shirt junior Zye Boey remains tied for the No. 4 spot in the 100-meter dash with junior D’Angelo Cherry of Mississippi State with a time of 10.15 seconds. Junior Jeff Demps of Florida also remains as the nation’s best at 9.96 seconds. In the 200-meter dash, Boey holds the No. 9 spot in the nation with a time of 20.55 seconds. Junior Rakieem Salaam of Oklahoma still holds the nation’s best 200-meter time at 20.27 seconds.

In the men’s pole vault, red-shirt freshman Mick Viken holds the No. 5 spot in the nation with a mark of 17-feet, 7.75-inches. Senior Scott Roth of Washington holds the top spot with a jump of 18-feet, 9.25-inches.

The Panthers will compete next weekend at the Kansas Relays and the Vanderbilt Invitational.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-7944 or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu

The track team pumps itself up before the running events start during the EIU Big Blue Classic April 2 at O’Brien Field. (Danny Damiani/The Daily Eastern News)

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