Tuesday, June 4, 2002
Updated: June 5, 1:56 PM ET
NCAA's not friendly to favorites
By Jeff Hollobaugh
Special to ESPN.com
Baton Rouge played host to a hot NCAA championships meet, with the most outstanding
performance coming from Leshinda Demus of South Carolina. The freshman broke
the world junior record with a 54.85-second clocking in the 400-meter hurdles. She also placed
third in the 400 and anchored the winning 4x400 (3:26.46).
Not
surprisingly, South Carolina rolled to its first NCAA championship,
crushing the favored Bruins of UCLA 82-72.
Louisiana State upended favored Tennessee 64-57 for the men's title, thanks in part to
Walter Davis, who won both horizontal jumps (26-6¼, 56-10¾) and
contributed to the 4x100 win. The sprint relay, with its 38.48, crushed
Tennessee; earlier, the foursome ran 38.32 in the heats -- the
fourth-fastest time in college history). Claston Bernard won the decathlon
(8,094 points) to pad LSU's point margin. That quieted all who thought the
Tigers' hopes had died when Alleyne Francique -- the NCAA indoor 400 champ -- was
declared ineligible. LSU became the first team in 18 years to win on its home
track.
Tennessee soph Justin Gatlin again won both the 100 (10.22) and 200 (20.18,
after a 19.98 heat), and his teammate, Gary Kikaya, took the 400 in 44.53.
Soph Rickey Harris won the 400 hurdles for Florida in a blazing 48.16 (he
also ran 44.93 for second place in the 400). His win came over favored Lueroy
Colquhoun of LSU, who fell in the final. Said Harris: "I looked over to the
left, and I saw Bennie (Brazell), and I was like, 'Whoa? Where's Colquhoun?"
The 4x400 went to South Carolina in 3:02.16, edging Baylor by
five-hundredths.
Alabama had two wins: Ron Bramlett in the hurdles (13.49) and David Kimani in
the 5,000 (13:59.30). South Carolina's Otukile Lekote won the 800 in 1:45.17,
going out in 50.4. Daniel Lincoln of Arkansas looked dominant in an 8:22.34
steeplechase.
Stanford's Don Sage captured the 1,500 in 3:42.65, while Michigan's Alan
Webb finished fourth and talked of possibly ending his college career
after one down year. Meanwhile, another Stanfordian, Olympian Gabe Jennings,
blew it and failed to make the final after easing up in the stretch ("It's
embarrassing.")
Boaz Cheboiywo of Eastern Michigan crushed the 10,000 field with his
28:32.10. Janus Robberts of SMU boomed a 70-10½ in the shot, just edging the
Danish record 70-9¼ of Idaho's Joachim Olsen, the defending champion.
Other men's winners included Andras Haklits of Georgia in the hammer (253-8),
Princeton's Tora Harris in the high jump (7-4½) and Scott Russell of Kansas
in the javelin (262-0).
On the women's side, Allison Beckford of Rice, the Jamaican defending
champion, impressed with a 50.83 in the 400, beating South Carolina's Melisa
Barber (50.87). Women's sprints ran hot, with Angela Williams of USC becoming
the first-ever four-time winner of the 100. She needed all she had to edge
teammate Natasha Myers, 11.29 to 11.30. Myers won the 200 in 22.93.
UCLA's field event performers came through nicely, winning the high jump (Darnesha
Griffith, 6-0), pole vault (Tracy O'Hara, 13-9¼), discus (Chaniqua Ross,
182-0) and shot (freshman Jessica Crosby, 57-0¼). Lena Nilsson won the 1,500 for
the Bruins in 4:12.60. (Incidentally, Griffith is the niece of the late world
record holder for the 100, Florence Griffith-Joyner.)
Other winners included Alice Schmidt of North Carolina (2:04.73 for 800),
Manuela Manova of Brigham Young (9:45.94 in the steeple), Lauren Fleshman of Stanford
(5,000 in 15:53.91), and North Carolina State's Kristin Price (10,000 in
34:26.63).
South Carolina scored a win in the 400 relay with a zippy 43.12. Perdita
Felicien won the 100 hurdles for Illinois in 12.91. Auburn's Elva Goulbourne
won the long jump (22-4½), and Teresa Bundy of Florida State took the triple
(44-0). Jamie Moton of Clemson won the hammer at 220-6. And, surprising no
one, Kansas State's Austra Skujyte won the heptathlon with 6,061 points (she
also placed second in the shot put with a 55-1).
NAIA
Doane College won the women's team title at this year's NAIA championships,
held in Olathe, Kan., outscoring Central Ohio 67-60. Azusa Pacific also
sported a seven-point margin in winning the men's crown over Lindenwood. The
most dominating winner of the women's competition was Azusa's Vivian
Chukwuemeka, whose toss of 59-7½ won the shot by nearly 13 feet. On the
men's side, Central's Roy Bailey won a 10.35/21.26 sprint double. Another
Azusan thrower, Jesse Roberg, won the men's shot with a 59-10¼.
Goetzis
At the Goetzis multis, UCLA alum Shelia Burrell pulled off the win, taking
the heptathlon with 6,363 points. Sabine Braun of Germany finished second in
the prestigious event.
The men's decathlon went to Roman Sebrle, who scored 8,800 points in the
10-event contest. American Tom Pappas finished second with a lifetime best
8,583.
Roman Sebrle, the Czech world record holder, won the decathlon with 8,800.
Jerome
In Vancouver, the Harry Jerome Classic featured one of the greats of North
American high jumping, Debbie Brill, now nearly 50. The 1979 World Cup
champion leaped 5-5, quite a bit off her lifetime best of 6-6¼. The meet
featured a sprinkling of notable performances in its mostly regional lineup.
Khadevis Robinson won the 800 in 1:45.97 and Mexico's Teodoro Vega took the
10,000 in 27:58.35.
Hengelo
The big story at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games, unfortunately, was that the promised story
didn't happen. Promoters had loudly trumpeted a world record bid by Haile
Gebrselassie in the rarely contested one-hour run. Unfortunately, the
Ethiopian great, perhaps not yet recovered from his recent bid on the
marathon record, pulled off the track with leg cramps after only 39 minutes.
Gebrselassie had held record pace through 12K, with his manager, Jos Hermens
(a former holder of the record himself), shouting instructions from
trackside. Aloys Nizigama (20,384 meters) won the race of the survivors over Fita
Bayissa (19,275 meters). To put those marks in perspective, Arturo Barrios of
Mexico set the world record of 21,101 meters in 1991.
In another failed record attempt (I'm getting tired of these; is anyone else?
Can't they just race?), Reuben Kosgei (8:05.87) beat Kenyan teammate Paul
Koech (8:05.91) in a close steeple. South Africa's Hezekiel Sepeng won the
800 in 1:44.89. American Duane Ross captured the hurdles in 13.65.
Britain's Kelly Holmes won the 1,500 in 4:03.93 over Ukraine's Irinia Lishchinkska
(4:04.67). Meanwhile, Hewan Abeylegesse of Turkey ran a 15:00.49 for 5,000 meters.
Sandra Glover took the 400 hurdles in 55.70.
Coming up
This weekend, many of the world's top athletes will be in Seville, Spain, for a Grand
Prix meet in the stadium that was host to the 1999 Worlds. Most Americans,
however, will prepare for the June 21-23 USA Championships at Stanford.
Heavenly influence
From Maurice Greene: "Well, I told my coach, John Smith, that when I run 9.6
I will retire. I think that's why the Lord didn't let me finish that race
last year. He didn't want me to retire."
Jeff Hollobaugh, former managing editor of Track and Field News, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached by e-mail at michtrack@aol.com.
