The Division I Men's Indoor Track and Field Championships team title March 9-10 was a study in modern drama.

LSU knew it had a chance, albeit a remote one, at winning its first men's indoor track title heading into the meet-ending 1,600-meter relay. In sixth place and trailing TCU by nine points, the Tigers needed to win the event and the 10 points that came with it. The more unlikely necessity, however, was that TCU's relay squad, which entered the meet ranked second in the nation, would need to be shut out.

South Carolina already had finished first in the two-section final with a time of 3 minutes, 6.43 seconds. At the first exchange of the second heat, LSU's chances improved greatly when a TCU runner ran into the back of another competitor and dropped the baton. The Horned Frogs did not score after failing to finish in the top eight.

Seizing the opportunity, LSU anchor Alleyne Francique passed his counterpart from Baylor on the final straightaway to win the event at 3 minutes, 4.44 seconds.

LSU finished with 34 points to TCU's 33. Four-time defending champion and meet host Arkansas finished third with 32 points, while Alabama was one point behind in fourth place.

"This is just unbelievable," said LSU head coach Pat Henry. "I can't put into words what we're feeling right now.

"We just wanted to win the event and destiny dealt us an unbelievable hand. I'm proud of how we competed this weekend."

The Tigers' victory would not have been possible without the effort of Walter Davis. Entering his final attempt in the triple jump in fourth place, Davis flew past the field with a winning leap of 55 feet, 5 inches. His triumph broke Arkansas' five-year run of victories in the event.

In addition, Davis placed second in the long jump. Francique (fifth in the 400-meter dash) and Marcus Thomas (eighth in the triple jump) also scored for the Tigers.

Kim Collins was TCU's leader in the meet, winning both the 60- and 200-meter dashes. He is the first athlete to win both dashes in the same championship. The 200 was added to the championship in 1988.

Also winning twice was Alabama's David Kimani in the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs. Kimani repeated his 2000 victories in both events when he competed for South Alabama.

Southern Methodist's Janus Robberts also was a repeat winner in the shot put and set a meet record in the process. His toss of 70 feet, 1 inch, surpassed the previous mark of 69 feet, 8 3/4 inches, established by fellow Mustang Michael Carter in 1981 and Brigham Young's Soren Tallhem in 1985.

Arizona's Patrick Nduwimana (800-meter run) and Southern Methodist's Libor Charfreitag (35-pound weight throw) also broke existing meet records. Charfreitag actually finished second in the event, but received credit for the record since the implement of the first-place thrower did not meet specifications for record purposes.

Team results

1. LSU, 34; 2. TCU, 33; 3. Arkansas, 32; 4. Alabama, 31; 5. Stanford, 28 1/2; 6. SMU, 27; 7. Florida, 26; 8. Kansas, 20; 9. Tennessee, 19; 10. Mississippi, 18; 11. (tie) George Mason and Washington, 16; 13. Arizona, 15; 14. (tie) Baylor and Texas, 14; 16. (tie) South Carolina and Weber St., 13; 18. Georgia, 12; 19. Texas A&M, 11; 20. (tie) Clemson, Colorado St., Georgetown, Indiana St., Northern Iowa and Villanova, 10; 26. (tie) Florida St. and Nebraska, 9.

28. (tie) Idaho, Kentucky, Ohio St., Purdue, Stephen F. Austin, William & Mary and Wisconsin, 8; 35. (tie) Auburn, James Madison and Rice, 7; 38. (tie) Brigham Young, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Providence and Wyoming, 6; 43. Illinois St., 5; 44. (tie) Indiana, Kansas St., Liberty, UTEP and Utah St., 4; 49. (tie) Fairleigh Dickinson, Idaho St., Manhattan and Middle Tenn. St., 3; 53. Kent St., 2; 54. Norfolk St., 1 1/2; 55. (tie) Akron, Illinois, Michigan St., Morgan St., Oklahoma State and UCLA, 1.

Individual results

60-meter dash: 1. Kim Collins, TCU, 6.58; 2. James Shelton, Mississippi, 6.61; 3. Ja'Warren Hooker, Washington, 6.64; 4. Justin Gatlin, Tennessee, 6.71; 5. Lindel Frater, TCU, 6.71; 6. Leonard Scott, Tennessee, 6.78; 7. Darvis Patton, TCU, 6.93; 8. Kenneth Andam, Brigham Young, 6.94.

200-meter dash: 1. Kim Collins, TCU, 20.55; 2. Ja'Warren Hooker, Washington, 20.56; 3. Leonard Scott, Tennessee, 20.61; 4. Justin Gatlin, Tennessee, 20.65; 5. Darvis Patton, TCU, 20.73; 6. Aaron Armstrong, Florida, 20.84; 7. Bobby Cruse, Kent St., 20.89; 8. LeShaunte Edwards, Akron, 20.97.

400-meter dash: 1. Rickey Harris, Florida, 45.78; 2. Andrew Pierce, Ohio St., 45.78; 3. Bayano Kamani, Baylor, 46.20; 4. Alleyne Francique, LSU, 46.31; 5. Michael Decker, Liberty, 46.33; 6. Avard Moncur, Auburn, 46.35; 7. Mitch Potter, Minnesota, 46.50; 8. Otis Harris, South Carolina, 47.02.

800-meter run: 1. Patrick Nduwimana, Arizona, 1:45.33 (meet record: old record, 1:45.80, Einars Tupuritis, Wichita St., 1996); 2. Dirk Heinze, Arkansas, 1:45.95; 3. Otukile Lekote, South Carolina, 1:46.13; 4. Roman Oravec, Southern Methodist, 1:47.71; 5. Moise Joseph, Florida, 1:47.72; 6. Nathan Renner, Idaho St., 1:48.12; 7. Adam Davis, Rice, 1:49.51; 8. Jason Van Swol, Illinois, 1:54.89.

Mile run: 1. Bryan Berryhill, Colorado St., 3:56.84; 2. Charlie Gruber, Kansas, 3:58.51; 3. Gabe Jennings, Stanford, 3:58.54; 4. Christian Goy, Illinois St., 3:59.61; 5. Bashar Ibrahim, UTEP, 3:59.84; 6. Jeremy Tolman, Weber St., 3:59.99; 7. Ryan Hayden, Villanova, 4:00.30; 8. Eliud Njubi, TCU, 4:00.53.

5,000-meter run: 1. David Kimani, Alabama, 13:42.32; 2. Matthew Lane, William & Mary, 13:43.36; 3. Keith Kelly, Providence, 13:50.44; 4. Jonathon Riley, Stanford, 13:51.68; 5. Murray Link, Arkansas, 13:52.31; 6. Stephen Ondieki, Fairleigh Dickinson, 13:52.93; 7. Daniel Lincoln, Arkansas, 13:58.98; 8. Jared Cordes, Wisconsin, 14:02.10.

60-meter high hurdles: 1. Aubrey Herring, Indiana St., 7.61; 2. Ron Bramlett, Alabama, 7.62; 3. Sultan Tucker, Clemson, 7.69; 4. Chris Stokes, George Mason, 7.73; 5. Todd Matthews, Clemson, 7.77; 6. Jasper Demps, Middle Tenn. St., 7.78; 7. Kris Allen, Texas A&M, 7.80; 8. T. J. Nelson, Wisconsin, 7.89.

1,600-meter relay: 1. LSU (Robert Parham, Leuroy Colquhoun, Pedro Tunon, Alleyne Francique), 3:04.44; 2. Baylor, 3:04.72; 3. South Carolina, 3:06.43; 4. Arizona, 3:06.50; 5. Auburn, 3:07.07; 6. Florida, 3:07.39; 7. Texas A&M, 3:07.85; 8. Minnesota, 3:07.97.

Distance medley relay: 1. Stanford (Donald Sage, Mark Hassell, Jonathan Stevens, Gabe Jennings), 9:30.01; 2. Arkansas, 9:34.51; 3. Florida, 9:34.51; 4. Georgetown, 9:36.56; 5. James Madison, 9:36.83; 6. Kansas, 9:40.72; 7. Kentucky, 9:41.18; 8. Texas, 9:41.53.

High jump: 1. Charles Clinger, Weber St., 2.26 (7-5); 2. Shaun Guice, Purdue, 2.26 (7-5); 3. Kenny Evans, Arkansas, 2.26 (7-5); 4. Shawn Brown, Florida St., 2.20 (7-2 1/2); 5. Shaun Kologinczak, Nebraska, 2.20 (7-2 1/2); 6. Marc Johannsen, Minnesota, 2.17 (7-1 1/2); 7. (tie) Adrian Shears, Norfolk St., and Michael Ponikvar, Stanford, 2.13 (6-11 3/4).

Pole vault: 1. Jacob Pauli, Northern Iowa, 5.68 (18-7 1/2); 2. Adam Keul, Stephen F. Austin, 5.68 (18-7 1/2); 3. Mike Westlund, Oklahoma, 5.48 (17-11 3/4); 4. Eric Eshbach, Nebraska, 5.48 (17-11 3/4); 5. Dino Efthimiou, Indiana, 5.48 (17-11 3/4); 6. Jon Nance, Texas A&M, 5.48 (17-11 3/4); 7. Brad Walker, Washington, 5.48 (17-11 3/4); 8. Paul Terek, Michigan St., 5.38 (17-7 3/4).

Long jump: 1. Savante Stringfellow, Mississippi, 8.08 (26-6 1/4); 2. Walter Davis, LSU, 8.01 (26-3 1/2); 3. Allen Simms, George Mason, 7.94 (26-0 3/4); 4. Tommy Oleksy, Rice, 7.89 (25-10 3/4); 5. Joe Allen, Florida St., 7.85 (25-9 1/4); 6. Miguel Pate, Alabama, 7.84 (25-8 3/4); 7. Darvis Patton, TCU, 7.84 (25-8 3/4); 8. Jean Cummings, Morgan St., 7.83 (25-8 1/4).

Triple jump: 1. Walter Davis, LSU, 16.89 (55-5); 2. Chris Hercules, Texas, 16.69 (54-9 1/4); 3. Lenton Herring, Wisconsin, 16.66 (54-8); 4. Allen Simms, George Mason, 16.58 (54-4 3/4); 5. Bashir Ramzy, Texas A&M, 16.23 (53-3); 6. Quincy Howe, Wyoming, 16.20 (53-1 3/4); 7. Jason Ward, Arkansas, 16.09 (52-9 1/2); 8. Marcus Thomas, LSU, 15.95 (52-4).

Shot put: 1. Janus Robberts, Southern Methodist, 21.36 (70-1) [meet record: old record, 21.25 (69-8 3/4), Michael Carter, Southern Methodist, 1981; Soren Tallhem, Brigham Young, 1985]; 2. Joachim Olsen, Idaho, 20.08 (65-10 1/2); 3. Jeff Chakouian, Kentucky, 19.39 (63-7 1/2); 4. Jim Roberts, Brigham Young, 19.31 (63-4 1/4); 5. Andrey Borodkin, Southern Methodist, 19.15 (62-10); 6. Ryan Speers, Kansas, 18.98 (62-3 1/4); 7. Reese Hoffa, Georgia, 18.87 (61-11); 8. Scott Moser, UCLA, 18.80 (61-8 1/4).

35-pound weight throw: 1. Andras Haklits, Georgia, 24.43 (80-2); 2. Libor Charfreitag, Southern Methodist, 24.02 (78-9 3/4) [meet record: old record, 23.87 (78-3 3/4), Charfreitag, 2000]; 3. Scott Russell, Kansas, 23.36 (76-7 3/4); 4. Dylan Armstrong, Texas, 22.12 (72-7); 5. James Parker, Utah St., 21.99 (72-1 3/4); 6. Thomas Freeman, Manhattan, 21.37 (70-1 1/2); 7. Jason Gervais, Wyoming, 21.08 (69-2); 8. Derek Woodske, Wyoming, 21.00 (68-10 3/4).