Volume 11, No. 41 June 11, 2012 version ii — NCAA Men: It’s Finally Florida’s Turn — by David Woods Instead, Florida overcame pre-nationals tied for the title if USC had held on to beat Des Moines, Iowa, June 6–9—After so setbacks and secured its first outdoor title. It Florida in that climactic event. much success and yet so much failure, Florida came down to the 4x4, won by the Gators, Three-time defending champion Texas appeared invulnerable to disappointment at thanks to a 44.01 anchor by Tony McQuay. A&M was 3rd with 40 and Florida State was the 91st NCAA Men’s Championships. After Florida scored 50 points to 48 for SEC rival 4th with 38. all, how could the Gators fail when they had LSU. Despite dry conditions, low humidity no chance? LSU was 3rd in the 4x4 and would have and temperatures in the 80s, four-day atten- MIKE SCOTT dance was 20,048—a decline from when Drake was host in ’08 (41,287) and ’11 (29,377). That won’t help an expected Des Moines bid for the 2016 Olympic Trials. SEC teams led all confer- ences with 177½ points. The Big 10 surprisingly tied the Pac-12 with 125. Next were the Big 12 (120) and ACC (86). The meet featured an un- precedented sprint/hurdles champion in Illinois’ Andrew Riley and a stunning distance double by Southern Utah’s Cam Levins. But a component of the NCAAs that differenti- ates it from other champion- ships is team scoring, and this one had Florida drama before a single race was run. Triple jumpers Christian Taylor and Will Claye, the gold and bronze medalists at the ’11 Worlds, went pro after their ju- nior seasons. Decathlete Gary Horn was suspended before SECs because of a DUI arrest. Top-ranked sprinter Jeff Demps was lost to a hamstring strain at the regional, and the 4x1 (38.67) didn’t advance, either. The Gators didn’t bring any seniors to the meet. Florida had won three suc- McQuay sewed up the team title for the Gators by passing Nellum on the inside -374- June 11, 2012 cessive indoor titles. But outdoors, DES MOINES, IOWA Florida’s best was runner-up four NCAA Div. I Men’s Leaders times: ’04, ’05, ’09, ’10. JUNE 06–09 “We had a lot of adversity. Not just *** = frosh; ** = soph; * = junior; all others are seniors Once again, the overall national cham- pionships was presented by the NCAA this week, but throughout the year,” Track Events as a 2-site system over a 3-week period, Gator coach Mike Holloway said. 100........... 9.96 .......................... *Harry Adams (Auburn) with the “preliminaries” being held at “You think about things, the people 200........... 20.10 ........................ *Harry Adams (Auburn) East and West sites (see eTN 35). that weren’t here, the people that didn’t 400........... 44.58 ........................ *Tony McQuay (Florida) want to give you a chance, but our 800........... 1:44.75 ....................Charles Jock (UC Irvine) The “heats” and “quarterfinals” of the guys never bought into it.” 1500......... 3:35.59 ..................... Kyle Merber (Columbia) races and the qualifying rounds in all Eddie Lovett and Omar Craddock Mile .......... 3:54.54i .............................. Miles Batty (BYU) the field events were held there, with the certainly did not. Steeple .... 8:19.14 ....................Donn Cabral (Princeton) “semifinals” and finals in Des Moines. Lovett, who barely made the 110 3000......... 7:43.08i ...........................Ryan Hill (NC State) Weather high hurdles final, finished fifth—just 5000......... 13:08.28i ..................**Lawi Lalang' (Arizona) First three days were warm & sunny; behind LSU’s Barrett Nugent, the de- 10,000...... 27:27.96 ...................... Cam Levins (Sn Utah) final day hot. Always windy. fending NCAA champion. It was the 110H ........ 13.28 ..........................Andrew Riley' (Illinois) Attendance last event before the 4x4. It was also 400H ........ 48.79 ................. Amaechi Morton’ (Stanford) “huge for us,” Holloway said, allowing 4052/4877/4683/6436—20,048. Florida to stay in contention. Relay Events Symbols Earlier, Craddock extended the 4 x 100..... 38.30 ....................................................Auburn *** = frosh; ** = soph; * = junior, all others Gator TJ domination, winning at 55- 4 x 200..... 1:21.21 .......................................... Texas A&M are seniors; ' after name = foreigner. 6¼w (16.92), the farthest collegiate 4 x 400..... 3:00.02 ................................................. Florida WL, AL, CL = World/American/Colle- jump of the year. McQuay, a close 2nd 4 x 800..... 7:15.99 .......................................... Texas A&M giate-leading mark for year. Notations last year, overtook front-running Gil 4 x Mile .... 16:16.79 ...........................................Princeton in the form “x, x NCAA” refer to all-time Roberts of TCU and Oregon’s Mike SpMed ..... 3:16.46 ................................................Georgia performer/performance positions in the Berry to claim the 400 in 44.58. DisMed .... 9:29.00i .....................................................BYU NCAA Championships meet. McQuay also overtook USC an- 4 x 1H ...... 55.12+ ............................................... Clemson chor Bryshon Nellum for a world- Field Events TEAM SCORES leading 3:00.02 in the 4x4. HJ ............ 7-8 | 2.34 ................ *Erik Kynard (Kansas St) The 400 was one of many events PV ............ 18-9¼ | 5.72 ......***Andrew Irwin (Arkansas) (10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1) featuring the best non-qualifying ................. 18-9¼ | 5.72 ......... *Jack Whitt (Oral Roberts) 1. Florida 50 (first win ever); 2. LSU marks in meet history. LJ ............ 27-0 | 8.23 ..........*Marquise Goodwin (Texas) 48; 3. Texas A&M 40; 4. Florida State Elsewhere: TJ ............ 54-11½ | 16.75i .....*Omar Craddock (Florida) 38; 5. Virginia Tech 33; 6. Auburn 30; •Riley, who came into the Region- SP ............ 68-5¼ | 20.86i ..*Jordan Clarke (Arizona St) 7. Arizona 27; 8. Arkansas 26; als only No. 31 in the 100, won in DT ............ 206-0 | 62.79 .....**Chad Wright' (Nebraska) 9. tie, Oregon & Texas 22; 11. tie, 10.28. Or, more precisely, 10.272, as HT ............ 248-7 | 75.78 .*Alexander Ziegler' (Va Tech) Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska, Southern 1000ths were needed to separate him JT ............ 268-0 | 81.69 ..........*Tim Glover (Illinois St) Utah & USC 20; 16. Arizona State from Auburn’s Harry Adams (10.274) Dec .......... 8067 ............................*Isaac Murphy (Texas) 18; 17. UCLA 17; 18. tie, Stanford & and Florida State’s Maurice Mitchell Texas Tech 16; (10.277). The winning time, coming 20. Oral Roberts 15; 21. tie, BYU & against a 2.3 mps wind, was the slow- Penn State 13; 23. tie, Iowa, Kansas, est since auto-timing was introduced first to win. He did, then celebrated by don- Kansas State & Ohio State 12; 27. tie, Min- in ’76. ning a paper crown from Burger King. nesota & Princeton 11; Riley said it was his last 100 race because, •A similarly close contest was in the 1500, 29. tie, Boise State, Illinois State & UC as a Jamaican, what’s the point unless you’re and this time a Hoosier won. Andy Bayer, a Irvine 10; 32. Wisconsin 9; 33. tie, Michigan, under 9.90? He became the first champion fourth-year junior running in his first out- New Mexico, South Florida, UNC–Greens- out of the Big 10 since Willie Williams, also door nationals, beat a field featuring four boro & UT–Arlington 8; 38. Mississippi 7½ ; of Illinois, won in ’54. Riley won the 100 former NCAA champs to win by 0.01 in 39. George Mason 7; 40. tie, Clemson, on the lean but was a clear-cut champion in 3:43.82 over BYU’s Miles Batty. NC State & Oklahoma 6; 43. tie, Harvard, the hurdles, 13.53–13.60 over Texas A&M’s Batty passed Bayer in the final turn and Kentucky, Mississippi State, UCSB, UTSA, Wayne Davis. cut in so quickly that Bayer moved his fore- & Western Kentucky 5; •Levins, a Canadian as renowned for arm to hold position. Bayer reclaimed the 49. tie, Baylor, Iowa State, McNeese State, his 160-mile training weeks as for actual lead in the final step as both milers lunged Temple & Washington State 4; 54. tie, Air achievements, won a 10K/5K double in and collided, falling over the line. Force & Liberty 3½; 28:07.14/13:40.05 with fast last laps of •Maurice Mitchell preserved Florida 56. tie, Boston U, Indiana State, Missouri, 58.06 and 54.29 that featured breathtaking State’s dominance of the 200, repeating in Syracuse, Tennessee, UTEP & Virginia 3; 63. speed up the straightaway. 20.40 (into a strong wind) and giving the Penn 2½; 64. tie, Georgia & TCU 2; He gapped Arizona’s Stephen Sambu Seminoles six wins in seven years. 66. tie, Alabama, Binghamton, Cal, and Stanford’s Chris Derrick in the 10, then •Besides Kynard and Mitchell, other re- Eastern Kentucky, Oklahoma State, Tulsa, UNC-Greensboro’s Paul Chelimo and Ari- peat champs were Illinois State’s Tim Glover William & Mary & Villanova 1. zona’s Lawi Lalang in the 5.. in the javelin and Virginia Tech’s Alexander •The best contest in the field was the high Ziegler in the hammer. jump, in which Kansas State’s Eric Kynard Glover’s throw of 268-0 (81.69) moved © 2011 Track & Field News.All rights repeated with 7-8 (2.34). After two misses at him to No. 9 on the all-time collegiate list reserved.This newsletter may not be re- 7-5¾ (2.28), he cleared on his third to stay in and nearly met the Olympic A-standard. printedor retransmitted in any formwithout it. Indiana’s Derek Drouin was clean through express written permission. 2.31/7-7, so Kynard had to jump 2.34 on his www.trackandfieldnews.com -375- June 11, 2012 100 METERS 400 METERS 800 METERS FINAL (June 8; wind –2.3) FINAL (June 9) FINAL (June 8) 1.