The Lincoln women's track and field team is the unanimous favorite to win the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Conference outdoor title, while the Lincoln men were picked fifth in the league's poll released Thursday.
The Lincoln women, which have won the past three MIAA outdoor championships, received 100 votes in the preseason coaches poll. Missouri Southern was next with 89 points and one first-place vote, coming from Lincoln head coach Victor Thomas.
Central Missouri, Pittsburg State and Nebraska Kearney rounded out the top five teams on the women's side.
Lincoln returns almost everybody from its indoor season in which the Blue Tigers became the first league program to win four consecutive MIAA championships en route to a third-place finish at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships.
Yanique Ellington, Lovan Palmer and Janae Johnson are all returning on the women's side after earning All-America status during the 2013 outdoor season, when the Blue Tigers finished third at the national championships. Lincoln is also returning 10 of its 11 All-Americans from this past indoor season.
The Lincoln men earned 46 points to be slotted fifth out of the 10 MIAA programs. Leading the poll is Pittsburg State, which tallied 79 points after earning eight first-place votes.
The other two first place votes were split between second-ranked Missouri Southern (71 points) and third-ranked Central Missouri (65 points). Nebraska Kearney is ranked fourth with 61 points, while Emporia State is sixth with 39 points.
Lincoln finished sixth at last year's outdoor championships and recently posted the second best performance by an MIAA program at the indoor championships earlier this month.
The Blue Tigers return two All-Americans from a year ago in Michael Ashley and Romel Lewis. Ashley was also an All-American during the past indoor season, along with fellow outdoor teammates Romone Hill, Winston Edwards, Jermaine Blake and Roger Blake.
Both Lincoln programs opened their respective outdoor campaigns last weekend at the Billiken Kickoff, hosted by Saint Louis University. The Lincoln women posted 15 top-five results, while the men won eight events.
Only select members from each program competed at the Billiken Kickoff, but Lincoln is expected to have its full men's and women's teams competing at this weekend's Washington University in St Louis Invite.