by Larry EderThe NCAA Indoors for 2013 ended with a day of great performances, as James Dunaway, our eyes on the track, writes here. We also will be posting some photos from the two days of the NCAA Indoor from Pretty Sporty Images’ Cheryl Tweworgy.
2013 NCAA INDOOR second day, by James Dunaway Fayetteville, March 9 – Five meet records, two of them collegiate records, were broken as the NCAA Indoor Championships concluded tonight. The team championships, for many the most important of the meet, saw host Arkansas win the men’s championship with a stunning 74 points, followed by Florida, winner the last three years, with 59. Then came Wisconsin with 33, Texas A&M with 30, and Texas Tech with 28. The Razorbacks’ total was the highest since 1994, when Arkansas won with 94. Oregon won the women’s title with 56, to runners-up Kansas’ 44. Next came LSU, with 43, Arkansas with 42- ½, and Central Florida with 30. Oklahoma senior Tia Brooks led the record-breaking with her third-round shot put of 19.22m (63-¾), erasing the 2004 collegiate and meet record of 19.15 set by Laura Gerraughty of North Carolina in 2004. Brooks won by more than five feet from runner-up Christina Hillman of Iowa State. The other collegiate record was set by Arkansas’ men’s 4×400 relay, which topped off the team title with a thriller victory over Florida, 3:03.50 to 3:03.71. The Hogs broke the meet and collegiate record set by Florida in 2005, by just 0.01 second. |
Lalang came back to win the 3,000 in the same gun-to-tape style, winning comfortably in a good 7:45.94.
Perhaps the star of the meet was Lawi Lalang of Arizona. First, he pushed the pace from the start in the mile, leading every step of the way and hitting the finish in a meet record 3:54.74 that proved to be just a warmup. An hour and 40 minutes later Meet records were also set in both hurdles races. Brianna Rollins of Clemson, who yesterday set a meet record of 7.82 in the heats of the women’s 60-meter hurdles, broke it again – to 7.79 – while winning by two meters. And Eddie Lovett of Florida set a new meet record in the men’s 60m hurdles, winning the final in 7.50, knocking 0.01 off the old mark set by Aries Merritt in 2006. Besides Lalang, two others won double victories. Abbey D’Agostino of Dartmouth, winner of yesterday’s 5,000, came back tonight in the 3,000, cruising to a 30-meter win in 9:01.08. And Kansas’ Andrea Geubelle, who squeaked to the long jump title last night, won her parade event, the women’s triple jump by a 45-4 convincing 14 inches over Shanieka Thomas of San Diego State, 46-6 ¼ (14.18) to 45-4 ¼ (13.82). The outstanding field event was the men’s high jump, where Indiana senior and Canadian Derek Druin – the London bronze medalist — won an exciting high jump without a single miss up to his winning height of 7-8-½ (2.35). Second and third at 7-6 were surprising Marcus Jackson of Mississippi State and Erik Kynard of Kansas State, who beat Drouin for the silver London but couldn’t quite do it here. In the men’s triple jump Bryce Lamb of Texas Tech had only one measured jump, his first, but it went 55-7 ¾ (16.96) good enough to win the event from Florida’s Omar Craddock’s 55-1 ½ (16.80). Other outstanding performances included a 50.88 women’s 400-meter victory by Georgia freshman Shaunee Miller; D’Angelo Cherry’s inch-or-two win in 6.54 over Marcus Rowland of Auburn in the men’s 60 dash and an almost-as- close women’s 60 win by Central Florida’s Aurieyall Scott in 7.13 over Oregon’s English Gardner; and an exciting, down-to-the last step victory in the men’s heptathlon, won by Arkansas Kevin Lazas, who scored 6,175 to the 6,165 scored by Wisconsin’s Japheth Cato. Both are juniors; they’ll probably see a lot of each other in the next few years. |
