T&FN’s 62nd National Men’s Relay Rankings — Florida Best Of The SEC

As it so often is in all corners of the sport these days, the Southeastern Conference was dominant in our National Men’s Relay Rankings, capturing 4 of the first 5 spots, with Florida eking out a narrow 1-point win over defending champ Arkansas for the top spot. It was title No. 4 for the Gators this century, adding to those won in ’01, ’05, ’09 & ’14. Mike Holloway’s speedy Gainesville gang was 1 of only 3 teams which scored in 4 different events (none of them No. 1s), being joined by Arkansas & Mississippi State. The only squad to earn a pair of No. 1s was third-rated Houston, which captured the 4×1 and 4×2.
It was a tough year to do this kind of compilation, with same-weekend staging of the Penn Relays, Drake Relays and the new National Relays serving to spread out the talent and reducing the number of head-to-head confrontations to help sort things out.
Each event (other than the shuttle hurdles, which was ranked just 5-deep and scored 5-4-3-2-1) was ranked 10-deep and scored 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. The 48 men’s schools/teams which scored points in ’18 (with details for those in the top 10):

Place	School	Score	Events Ranked In
1.	Florida	30	4)4 x 100; 3)4 x 200; 4)4 x 400; 3)Sprint Medley
2.	Arkansas	29	3)4 x 100; 4)4 x 200; 6)4 x 400; 2)4 x Mile
3.	Houston	26	1)4 x 100; 1)4 x 200; 5)4 x 400
=4.	LSU	23	5)4 x 100; 2)4 x 200; 3)4 x 400;
=4	Mississippi State	23	6)4 x 200; 3)4 x 800; 6)Sprint Medley; 1)4 x 110H
=6.	Texas A&M	17	2)4 x 400; 10)4 x 800; 4)Sprint Medley
=6.	Villanova	17	1)4 x Mile; 4)Distance Medley
8.	Texas Tech	14	10)4 x 100; 8)4 x 400; 1)Sprint Medley
9.	Penn State	13	7)4 x 800; 2)Sprint Medley;
=10.	USC	12	9)4 x 100; 1)4 x 400
=10.	Virginia Tech	12	9)4 x 800; 1)Distance Medley
12. Georgetown 11; 13. Hoka New Jersey-New York TC 10; 14. tie, Atlanta TC, Ohio State & Oregon 9; 17. tie, Indiana, Princeton & Stanford 8; 20. tie, District TC & Texas 7; 22. tie, Clemson, Iona, Kentucky, Middle Tennessee & Notre Dame 6; 27. tie, Adams State, Florida State & Georgia Tech 5; 30. tie, Iowa State, North Carolina A&T, Southern Mississippi, TCU, Tennessee & Utah State 4; 36. tie, Duke, Northwestern Louisiana, Oklahoma State, The Woodlands HS (Texas), UT Arlington & Wisconsin 3; 42. tie, Baylor, Iowa, Navy & Prairie View 2; 46. tie, George Washington, Seven Lakes HS (Katy, Texas) & Shore AC 1.