The NCAA News - News and Features

June 15, 1998

Something old, something new in Division I track

Arkansas men stretch their skein...

BY STEPHEN R. HAGWELL
STAFF WRITER

BUFFALO, New York -- Six-time defending champion Arkansas typically has grabbed the lead early in the team race and run away from the field at the Division I Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

On June 3-6, however, the Razorbacks took another route to their seventh consecutive team title -- they came from behind.

Robert Howard won the long and triple jumps for the second consecutive year. Seneca Lassiter successfully defended his 1,500-meter run crown, and the Razorbacks compiled 23 points over the final four events to ease past Stanford and win the team title.

The Razorbacks, who won four individual-event titles, amassed 58 1/2 points to join Southern California as the only teams to win seven consecutive crowns. Southern California won nine consecutive titles from 1935 through 1943 and seven straight from 1949 through 1955.

Stanford compiled 51 points to earn its highest finish since 1963, when the Cardinal also earned runner-up honors.

Texas Christian placed third, while Arizona and LSU tied for fourth.

"Winning never gets old at Arkansas," said coach John McDonnell after guiding the Razorbacks to their eighth outdoor title. "To say one is more special than the other is hard, and maybe a bit unfair. But this one is certainly very memorable for me because of how hard we had to work for it."

Arkansas' task of repeating seemed in jeopardy when Stanford concluded the second day of the four-day competition by sweeping the first three places in the 10,000-meter run. Brad Hauser, Brent Hauser and Nathan Nutter went 1-2-3, respectively, to account for 24 team points. The sweep gave the Cardinal 34 points; Arkansas concluded the second day with 25 1/2 points.

"Stanford put a lot of pressure on us by sweeping (the 10,000 meters)," said McDonnell. "We had a team meeting (Saturday) morning and talked about it, but our guys didn't panic. They knew what they had to do--whatever it takes."

Having narrowed the Stanford lead to 3 1/2 points heading into the final day of competition, thanks to Matt Kerr's first-place showing in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Arkansas turned to individual champions Howard and Lassiter to extend the title streak.

Howard earned the final 10 points of his collegiate career by soaring 16.97 meters (55 feet, 8 1/4 inches) to win his third consecutive triple jump. The victory, coupled with his long-jump triumph, enabled him to join Arkansas' Mike Conley (1984-85) as the only individuals to sweep the events in consecutive years.

"I'll tell you something, it wasn't me today," said Howard of the Razorbacks' team title. "I scored 20 points time and time again. It was not me today. It was everybody else. Everybody came up here."

Lassiter made it two 1,500 crowns by edging Stanford's Gabe Jennings at the finish. The back-to-back 1,500-meter titles were the first since Sydney Maree of Villanova accomplished the feat in 1980-81.

In addition to Howard and Lassiter, Arkansas also received crucial points from Jeremy Huffman, fifth in the 1,500-meter run, and Michael Power, third in the 5,000-meter run.

Esko Mikkola of Arizona and Texas Christian's 400-meter relay of Bryan Howard, Jarmiene Holloway, Syan Williams and Percy Spencer turned in championships-record performances.

Mikkola shattered the javelin mark with a throw of 81.86 meters (268-7). The throw exceeded the previous standard of 81.32 (266-9) set by Todd Riech of Fresno State in 1994.

The Horned Frogs' quartet blistered the track in 38.04 seconds, smashing the mark set in 1989 by the school's foursome of Horatio Porter, Andrew Smith, Greg Sholars and Raymond Stewart.

...while Texas women end LSU's reign

BY STEPHEN R. HAGWELL
STAFF WRITER

BUFFALO, New York -- This was supposed to be the year Texas finally broke through and claimed the team title at the Division I Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

After finishing runner-up at three of the last four championships, including the 1997 event at which Texas was edged by 11-time defending champion LSU by one point, many felt this was the Longhorns' best opportunity to end their 12-year title drought.

The feeling proved correct.

Texas scored 50 points on the final day of competition, including 10 in the championships' final event -- the 1,600-meter relay -- to overtake UCLA and win the 1998 title June 3-6.

Texas, which trailed UCLA, 40-10, after three days of competition, totaled 60 points to edge the Bruins by five points.

The title is the second for Texas and gave the Longhorns a sweep of the indoor and outdoor crowns.

UCLA, seeking its first title since 1983, placed second for the fifth time.

Brigham Young and Southern Methodist tied for third, while Southern California rounded out the top five. LSU tied for 22nd.

"For the last 11 years I've been battling for this championship and to finally come through, I can't tell you what a joy it is," said Texas coach Bev Kearney. "We knew we had to have a perfect day to make up for that type of point spread. We sat down and said we had to win the 100 hurdles, the 400, the 4 x 400, and the high jump. I know they looked at me and thought I was crazy, but they did it."

Texas' 50-point outburst was keyed by Suziann Reid, Angie Vaughn and Erin Aldrich, each of whom won individual titles on the championships' final day.

Aldrich started the Longhorns' rally, winning the high jump with a leap of 1.93 meters (6 feet, 4 inches).

Vaughn followed Aldrich, blowing away the field in the 100-meter high hurdles by nearly one-half second to win her first title and give the Longhorns their second title of the day. Vaughn posted a time of 12.82 to easily outdistance runner-up Andria King of Georgia Tech (13.17).

Reid pulled Texas within striking distance by winning the 400-meter dash, beating the field by more than one second. The title was Reid's second in three years.

Four events later, Reid completed the seemingly impossible comeback, teaming with Angel Patterson, Aminah Haddad and Toya Brown to win the 1,600-meter relay and push the Longhorns past the Bruins.

"Last year we lost by one point. We were just going to win this one," said Haddad. "It was do or die. We knew we had to win this meet. We were all going to run it really well no matter what the circumstances. And we did. We were not going to get on that plane for another year with sad, long faces. We had to win this meet."

Arizona's Amy Skieresz continued her dominance in the championships' distance events, sweeping the 5,000- and 10,000-meter runs for the second consecutive year, the only competitor to do so.

Nebraska's Tressa Thompson (shot put), Seilala Sua of UCLA (discus throw) and Lisa Misipeka of South Carolina (hammer throw) each turned in record performances in winning their respective titles.

Georgia's Debbie Ferguson joined Skieresz as a two-event champion, winning the 100- and 200-meter dashes, while Windy Dean of Southern Methodist became the first competitor to win three consecutive javelin-throw titles.

Tiffany Lott of Brigham Young won her second consecutive heptathlon crown.

Bianca Maran of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo also etched her name in the records book by winning the first women's outdoor pole vault crown with a 12-5 1/2 effort.