Florida wins third consecutive men's title
Gators finish third in 1,600 relay to edge Auburn, 41-40, in NCAA Champs
It was not a thing of beauty.
Nor was it an artistic masterpiece.
But the University of Florida men’s squad nickel and dimed its way to a third consecutive team title in the NCAA Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on Friday after its third-place finish in the 1,600-meter relay gave the Gators six points in the event and 41 for the meet in which Auburn finished second with 40.
USC placed third with 33 points, followed by Alabama with 32, Texas A&M with 31, Houston with 30½, and pre-meet favorite Arkansas with 30.
“It was tough day,” Florida coach Mike Holloway said to ESPN’s John Anderson after the Gators had won their seventh title in program history. “We had some things not go our way. We built this program on a lot of pride and a lot of passion and we talk about a standard that we fight to and that’s what you saw today.
“Every time something went wrong, somebody else stepped up and got it done.”
Florida, whose point total of 41 was the lowest by a winning men’s team since 1970 when BYU, Kansas, and Oregon tied for first with 35, did not win any of the 21 events contested in the men’s meet at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field. But the Gators had one second-place finish, three thirds, and one fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth while edging SEC rival Auburn for the team title.
Florida scored 22 of its 41 points in three of the last six track races of the meet in which the top eight finishers in each event were awarded points on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
Senior JeVaugh Powell and junior Reheem Hayles combined for eight points for the Gators in the 400 when they finished third and seventh with times of 44.54 and 45.78 seconds, respectively.
Another eight points came in the 200 when senior Robert Gregory placed second in 20.08 behind the winning 19.95 clocking of Penn State senior Cheickna Traore.
And then Hayles, Powell, Rios Prude Jr., and Jenoah McKiver, teamed up to finish third in the 1,600 relay with a season-best time of 2:59.98. Texas A&M placed first in 2:58.37, the fifth-fastest time in collegiate history, after Auhmad Robinson ran a superb 43.20-second anchor leg. Arkansas was second in 2:58.83.
Auburn, which scored all of its points during the meet in the 100, 200, 4 x 100 relay, and 110 high hurdles on Friday, and in the javelin on Wednesday, did not have a finalist in the 4 x 400 relay.
So when Florida finished third in that event, the Gators’ point total increased from 35 to 41 and a one-point margin of victory over Auburn, which was trying to win the first title in program history.
Holloway said afterward that he was very proud of the way in which Florida won the championship at the end of a season in which things did not always go as planned due to injuries to different athletes at various points during the year.
“I’m just excited about the fact that this group of young men faced adversity, they fought through it every day, and it came down to we needed a big relay, we had the best time of the season. We had a lot of that this weekend. Rob Gregory ran a big race in the 200. The 4 by 1, we run 38.34, but got beat by three great teams.”
Auburn got off to a great start in the first track event on Friday when a Tiger quartet of sophomore Azeem Fahmi, freshman Kanyinsola Ajayi, and juniors Dario Matau and Makanakaishe Charamba won the 4 x 100 relay in 38.03, the fourth-fastest time in collegiate history, while defeating second-place and defending champion LSU (38.21), third-place Houston (38.25), and fourth-place Florida (38.34).
Auburn then totaled a combined 22 points in consecutive races when Ja’Kobe Tharp finished second in the 110-meter high hurdles and Favour Ashe and Ajayi placed second and third, respectively, in the 100.
Tharp’s performance capped a freshman season that few would have expected five months ago, but he had run so well during the past two months that it was considered an upset when senior Darius Luff of Nebraska ran a personal best of 13.19 to finish a hundredth of a second in front of Tharp.
Nigerians Ashe and Ajayi also ran fine races in the 100 when the junior and freshman tandem clocked 9.99 and 10.01, respectively. But Houston sophomore Louie Hinchliffe beat them across the line when his winning time of 9.95 bettered his previous personal best of 10.00 and moved him to sixth on the all-time British performer list.
Auburn’s final four points came in the 200 when Zimbabwean Charamba finished fifth in 20.20 in a race in which fellow junior Taris Orogot of Alabama, the Ugandan record-holder at 19.75, placed fourth in 20.14.
The pair of one-lap races produced what were arguably the top two individual statistical performances of the day as sophomore Christopher Morales Williams of Georgia won the 400 in 44.47 seconds and junior Caleb Dean of Texas Tech took the 400 intermediate hurdles in 47.23.
Morales Williams, who had posted a yearly world-leading and Canadian-record time of 44.05 in the 400 in the SEC title meet on May 11, was one of five competitors who were virtually even when they entered the home straightaway. However, no one was stronger than him over the final 50 meters of the race as he finished five hundredths of a second in front of second-place Samuel Ogazi of Alabama, who was two hundredths of a second ahead of Florida’s Powell.
“This was the last race of the season. I just gotta give it everything,” Morales Williams said when he was asked about what he was thinking during the final 100 meters. “I didn’t care about the time. I just needed to run because the time didn’t matter to me. I found it, the last 50. I was gonna fight, fight, fight. I mean, this is it right now. It’s all or nothing.”
Dean, who had helped Texas Tech win the NCAA indoor title in March by winning the 60 high hurdles, placing sixth in the 60, and running a leg on the team’s fourth-place 4 x 400 relay team, turned in the performance of his life in the intermediate hurdles. His 47.23 clocking crushed his previous personal best of 48.05, was the second-fastest in collegiate history, and moved him into a tie for 11th on the all-time world performer list and to sixth on the all-time U.S. list.
Clement Ducos of Tennessee got out to an early lead in the race, but after he pulled up with an apparent hamstring injury after clearing the second of 10 hurdles, Dean found himself amongst the leaders and he opened up a sizeable gap over everyone as he sped through second turn.
Defending champion Chris Robinson of Alabama reduced some of Dean’s advantage during the first 30 to 40 meters of the home straightaway, but Dean repelled his charge during the last 50 while bettering his previous best of 48.05 that he first set in the West Preliminary Round meet on May 24 and then tied while winning his semifinal on Wednesday.
Dean’s time was so quick that it propelled him to fourth on the yearly world performer list behind Alison dos Santos of Brazil (46.63), Rai Benjamin of the U.S. (46.64) and Karsten Warholm of Norway (46.70), who between them have combined to run the 14 fastest times in history, as well as 21 of the top 22.
“Felt like the perfect race,” Dean said. “I can’t complain at all.”
The outcome of four middle- or long-distance races held on Friday were determined in the final 100 meters of each contest.
Shane Cohen of Virginia won the 800 meters in a personal best of 1:44.97 after being in ninth place with 120 meters left in the race. Sam Whitmarsh of Texas A&M placed second in 1:45.10, followed by Finley McLear of Iowa State in 1:45.66.
Fellow senior Joe Waskom of Washington moved from fifth place to first in the final 100 meters of the 1,500 while recording a time of 3:39.48.
Elliott Cook of Oregon placed second in 3:39.57, followed by Adam Spencer of Wisconsin in 3:39.80. Colin Sahlman of Northern Arizona, who had moved to second on the all-time collegiate list when he ran 3:33.96 in April, finished fourth in 3:39.92.
Waskom’s victory gave him his second NCAA title in the last three years and it marked the fifth consecutive time that a runner from Washington has won the men’s 1,500 or mile in the NCAA outdoor or indoor championships.
Senior Parker Stokes of Georgetown won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 8:24.58 after overtaking Nathan Mountain of Virgina with about 90 meters left in the race after Mountain had an awkward clearance of the final water jump.
Mountain placed second in 8:25.71, followed by Gable Sieperda of Iowa State in 8:25.92.
Junior Parker Wolfe of North Carolina won a tactically-run 5,000 in 13:54.43 after he moved past pre-race favorite Nico Young of Northern Arizona entering the home straightaway.
Wolfe had finished second to Young in both the 5,000 and 3,000 in the NCAA indoor championships in March, but the superior closing speed that Young had displayed in those races was missing on Friday and he placed second in 13:54.65, followed by defending champion Ky Robinson of Stanford in 13:55.00.
Habtom Samuel of New Mexico, who won the 10,000 on Wednesday night, finished sixth in the 5,000 in 13:58.83.
Wolfe produced some noteworthy closing splits in his victory as he ran 4:00.77 for the last 1,600 meters, 1:52.05 for the final 800, and 54.86 for his last lap.
In the three men’s field events contested on Friday, Romaine Beckford of Arkansas won the high jump at 2.26 meters (7 feet 5 inches), Salif Mane of Farleigh Dickinson took the triple jump at 17.14 (56-2¾), and Francois Prinsloo of South Alabama placed first in the discus at 63.51 (208-4).
Beckford’s victory capped the second year in a row that he had won the high jump in both the NCAA indoor and outdoor championships, although he had been competing for South Florida when won the titles last year.
The senior from Jamaica led for much of Friday’s competition. But he fell into second place behind Tyus Wilson of Nebraska after he needed two attempts to clear 2.23 (7-3¾) and the Cornhusker junior made that height on his first try.
Beckford clinched the win at the next height when he cleared 2.26 (7-5) on his second attempt and Wilson and Caleb Snowden of Arkansas Pine Bluff missed all three of their tries at that height.
Wilson finished ahead of Snowden on the tiebreaker because he cleared 2.23 on his first attempt and it took Snowden three tries to make that height.
Mane finished a centimeter ahead of fellow senior Russell Robinson of Miami in winning the triple jump at 17.14 (56-2¾) during a competition in which he exceeded his pre-meet personal best on three of his six attempts.
Mane, who had a best of 16.79 (55-1) entering the meet, hit what turned out be his winning mark on his first attempt before also leaping 16.94 (55-7) in the second round, 16.86 (55-3¾) in the sixth, and 16.79 (55-1) in the third.
Brandon Green Jr. of Oklahoma placed third at 16.63 (54-6¾) and in what turned out to be critically important, Sean Dixon-Brodie of Florida earned one point for the team-champion Gators when he finished eighth at 16.28 (53-5).
Prinsloo, a senior from South Africa, had the three longest throws in the discus. In addition to his top mark of 63.51 (208-4) in the third round, he also threw 62.19 (204-0) on his first attempt and 61.95 (203-3) on his second. He fouled his last three throws.
Racquil Broderick of USC finished second at 61.77 (202-8), followed by Dimitrios Pavlidis of Kansas at 60.97 (200-0). Kai Chang of Florida garnered four points for the Gators when he placed fifth at 60.61 (198-10).
In the only women’s event contested on Friday, senior Timara Chapman of Texas A&M was in first place in the heptathlon after totaling 3,794 points on the first day of that seven-event endeavor.
She was followed by Jenelle Rogers of Louisville with 3,707 points, 2024 NCAA indoor pentathlon champion Jadin O’Brien of Notre Dame with 3,695, Annika Williams of Oregon with 3,690, and Charity Hufnagel of Kentucky with 3,655.
Chapman ran 13.40 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles and cleared 1.81 (5-11¼) in the high jump before putting the shot 13.72 (45-0¾) and clocking 24.18 in the 200.
The four-day meet will conclude today with the heptathlon long jump scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time. The heptathlon javelin will begin at 2:45, followed by the women’s high jump at 5.
The first championship track event, the women’s 4 x 100-meter relay, will start at 5:32.