Huskies ranked #2 in USTFCCCA men's pre-season rankings...

The University of Washington men's track team is ranked #2 behind Florida State in the USTFCCCA pre-season rankings, the highest ranking a Husky track team's ever received, according to the UW Sports Information office.

The Huskies tied for seventh at last year's NCAA Indoor Championship meet with 22 points, a program best finish. Washington returns five indoor All-Americans including five-time All-American long jumper Norris Frederick, and four-time All-American mid-distance runner Austin Abbott.

"We are very excited for the upcoming season, and the ranking just goes to show the level where our standards have risen to," said sixth-year head coach Greg Metcalf. "Obviously it is not where you start but where you finish on March 15th at NCAA's that counts. We felt capable of winning a title last season but didn't quite have our best performance at Nationals. It was a learning experience that should help take us even higher this year."

Florida State is ranked first, followed by Washington, Tennessee, Florida, and LSU. The Seminoles finished second to Wisconsin at the 2007 NCAA Indoors and won the title at NCAA Outdoors. No. 7 Stanford, No. 13 Oregon, and No. 19 Arizona State are the other Pac-10 schools in the early forecast.

The USTFCCCA Division I indoor track and field rankings are compiled solely from NCAA descending order lists. The preseason rankings are based on the final descending order list of the previous season. Washington's previous high was a No. 4 ranking in Trackwire last season, and No. 5 in USTFCCCA.

The Husky women are unranked with LSU owning the top spot.

NOTE: The University of Washington sports information office contributed to this report.