Texas A&M and USC fit to be tied
Aggies and Trojans share men's team title in NCAA Champs
For the first time in a dozen years and only the fourth time ever, there was a tie for first place in the team standings when the men’s competition came to a close in the NCAA Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on Friday.
Texas A&M and USC deadlocked for the title with 41 points and they were followed by Arkansas with 40, Auburn with 35, and New Mexico with 31.
USC, Texas A&M, and Arkansas were the top three-ranked teams in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association rankings entering the meet and they ended up taking part in the second closest national title competition ever.
The tightest had come in 1970 when BYU, Kansas, and Oregon had tied for first place with 35 points apiece.
As it was, ESPN’s John Anderson ended up conducting on-air interviews with coaches Pat Henry of Texas A&M and Quincy Watts of USC.
“Well, as Quincy will tell you, when you start this track meet, for some reason or another, it comes down to the relay,” Henry said. “And it did come down to the relay today and we talked about it as a group. We knew what we had to do. The group knew we had to try to win this thing or this guy (Watts) was going to win it. So it was a heck of a run.”
USC appeared to have a solid chance at winning the program’s first title since 1976 as it entered the 4 x 400 relay — the final event of the men’s meet — with 40 points, followed by Auburn with 35, Arkansas with 34, and Texas A&M with 33.
Auburn did not have a team in the relay, so the Tigers could not win their first title ever. But USC, Texas A&M, and Arkansas had all advanced to the final of the 4 x 400, and thus there were numerous scenarios in which each of them could win the team championship in a meet in which the top eight finishers were awarded points on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis.
For USC, a finish of fourth place or better would guarantee the Trojans of the title, even if Arkansas or Texas A&M won the race and were awarded 10 points for the victory. And a top-four finish appeared to be quite doable for USC as the Trojans had won their semifinal in 3:02.76 on Wednesday.
However, USC ended running without junior Garrett Kaalund, who had tweaked a hamstring while placing third in the 200 in 19.96 seconds. And without him, the team struggled to an eighth-place finish in 3:03.18 in a race that was won by South Florida in 3:00.42.
South Florida had trailed Texas A&M entering the home straightaway, but Gabriel Moranta had overtaken the Aggies’ Auhmad Robinson in the final 30 meters of a race in which he ran a sparkling 44.23-second anchor leg.
Texas A&M finished second in 3:00.73, followed by Arkansas in 3:01.59, Iowa in 3:01.61, and Florida in 3:01.88.
“It’s an awesome feeling for the program, the university, and USC community, all of our fans and these student athletes,” Watts said after the team had won a share of the program’s record 27th title. “They work their butts off and I’m just so proud of them. It’s a journey, and through that journey, you’re going to have hurdles and you’re going to have adversity and we had some adversity.”
USC, which had won its first indoor title since 1972 in March, had suffered a couple of big blows on Wednesday when defending long jump champion JC Stevenson placed a non-scoring 11th in that event and Johnny Brackins was eliminated in a semifinal of the 110-meter high hurdles.
However, the Trojans got off to a good start on Friday when sophomore Racquil Broderick, who had been kept out of the Big Ten Conference championships because of an injury, placed fourth in the discus with a personal best of 63.31 meters (207 feet 8 inches).
USC followed that by finishing second in the 4 x 100 relay when their 38.46 clocking left them behind only Auburn, and its 38.33 effort, in the first track event of the day.
Arkansas tallied 10 points when sophomore Jordan Anthony won the 100 in 10.07, but USC got a big boost when junior Max Thomas blew up a lot of form charts by finishing second in 10.10.
The next race up was the 400, and though Alabama sophomore Samuel Ogazi won that contest by a large margin with a time of 44.84, USC got an unlooked-for runner-up finish when sophomore William Jones ran 45.53.
The Trojans picked up two more points when Brackins finished seventh in the 400 intermediate hurdles in 50.15, and that was followed by a 3-6 finish by Kaalund and Thomas, who ran 20.23, in the 200.
Texas A&M had begun the day with 10 points after junior Aleksandr Solovev won the pole vault on Wednesday and the Aggies picked up another victory on Friday when senior Sam Whitmarsh clocked 1:45.86 in the 800.
Robinson had finished a disappointing seventh in the 400 in 46.07 prior to the 800, but Texas A&M picked up another 11 points after Whitmarsh’s win when seniors Ja’Qualon Scott and Bryce McCray finished second and sixth, respectively, in the intermediate hurdles with personal bests of 48.29 and 49.52.
While Texas A&M, USC, and Arkansas had gone down to the wire in a thrilling team battle, the four best statistical performances of the day had been produced — in the order in which they happened — by Ralford Mullings of Oklahoma in the discus, Ja’Kobe Tharp of Auburn in the 110 high hurdles, Nathaniel Ezekiel of Baylor in the 400 intermediate hurdles, and Carli Makarawu in the 200.
Mullings, a junior, set a meet record of 69.31 (227-4) in the discus while defeating world record-holder and previously unbeaten Mykolas Alekna of Cal.
Although Alekna is a junior when it comes to his athletic eligibility, the Lithuanian who won a silver medal in the Olympic Games in Paris was awarded an undergraduate degree in psychology in May and is expected to sign a professional contract soon.
After having thrown more than 70 meters (229-8) in four of his five meets this season, Alekna was favored to win his first NCAA title on Friday. But he finished well behind Mullings with a best of 66.77 (219-0). He was followed by Virginia Tech sophomore Uladzislau Puchko, who placed third at 63.94 (209-9).
Alekna, who had raised the world record to 75.56 (247-11) in a meet in Ramona, Oklahoma, in April, threw 66.44 (218-0) in the first round of what was expected to be his final collegiate meet. And he fouled on his next three throws before improving to 66.77 (219-0) in the fifth round.
Mullings had overtaken Alekna with a meet-record throw of 67.70 (222-1) in the third round and he topped that mark by more than five feet when unleashed his 69.31 (227-4) effort in the sixth round after Alekna had put his final throw into the netting.
The 69.31 effort moved Mullings to second behind Alekna on the all-time collegiate performer list.
Tharp, a sophomore, won the high hurdles in a personal best of 13.05 a year after he finished second to Nebraska senior Darius Luff in an upset loss.
Tharp had finished second to junior Kendrick Smallwood of Texas in the Southeastern Conference championships last month, but he finished nearly a tenth of a second in front of runner-up Zachary Extine of Arizona on Friday as the Wildcat junior ran a personal best of 13.13.
Extine was followed by Houston senior John Adesola, who placed third in 13.28 in a race in which Smallwood hit a lot of hurdles before clobbering the ninth barrier and pushing over the tenth. He crossed the finish line in ninth place, but was then disqualified for not having made an attempt to clear the final hurdle of the race.
Tharp, as he often does, got off to a quick start and he was clear of everyone except Extine by the fifth hurdle. But he began to open up a lead after that while bettering his previous best of 13.14 and moving to fifth on the all-time collegiate list and to third on the yearly world list.
“I kind of got a little sloppy at the end, but I managed to get through,” Tharp told Anderson. “Coach told me to trust what we do in practice. I trusted it and the results showed.”
Ezekiel, a senior, had finished third in the intermediate hurdles in the previous two NCAA championships, but he was a convincing winning this time around when his 47.49 clocking left him eight tenths of a second in front of second-place Scott of Texas A&M and bettered his personal best — and Nigerian record — of 47.86 that he had run in a semifinal on Wednesday.
Scott, who had been disappointed when he was eliminated in the semifinals of the high hurdles, had closed in on Ezekiel at the ninth hurdle of the intermediates. But Ezekiel had begun to pull away from him at the final barrier and he continued to expand his lead during the remainder of the race.
His 47.49 clocking moved him to second on the yearly world list and to third on both the all-time collegiate and African lists.
Makarawu, a junior, won the 200 in a personal best of 19.84 after storming the turn while running out of lane nine.
The NCAA indoor champion in the 200 had a significant lead when he came off the curve and he was able to maintain most of it to the finish line in a race in which fellow Zimbabwean Makanakaishe Charamba of Auburn finished second in 19.92.
Kaalund of USC placed third in 19.96, with Anthony of Arkansas fourth in 20.01 and T’Mars McCallum of Tennessee fifth in 20.16. McCallum had previously run a yearly world-leading time of 19.83 in the NCAA East Preliminary Round meet on May 30.
Makarawu’s 19.84 time moved him to eighth on the all-time collegiate performer list and into a three-way tie for 11th on the all-time African list.
In other track finals on Friday, James Corrigan of BYU won the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and Nathan Green of Washington and Brian Musau of Oklahoma State were victorious in the 1,500 and 5,000, respectively.
Corrigan, a junior who was a member of the U.S. Olympic team last year, won the steeplechase in 8:16.41 after pulling away from Louisville freshman Geoffrey Kirwa over the last 150 or so meters of the race.
Kirwa was leading Corrigan with half a lap left, but Corrigan pulled even with him approaching the final water jump and he had small lead over Kirwa shortly after they had exited the water jump.
Kirwa, who had run the third-fastest time in collegiate history with a 8:13.89 clocking in April, nearly drew even with Corrigan after they had cleared the final barrier of the race in the home straightaway. But he lost some ground in the final 50 meters of the contest and finished second in 8:17.12.
Senior Carson Williams of Furman placed third in 8:19.71 in a race in which Corrigan moved to third on the all-time collegiate performer list.
Green, a senior, won his second 1,500 title in the last three years with a time of 3:47.26 in a race in which the early pace was very slow.
Senior Adam Spencer of Wisconsin, Green, and sophomore Simeon Birnbaum of Oregon were running 1-2-3 heading into the final turn and they remained in those positions entering the home straightaway. But Green overtook Spencer with roughly 70 meters to go and then withstood a late rush by senior Ethan Strand of North Carolina, who finished second in 3:47.33.
Sophomore Ferenc Kovacs of Harvard finished third in 3:47.42, just ahead of Spencer in 3:47.50 and Virginia junior Gary Martin in 3:47.58.
Green ran his last lap in 51.45 seconds and the final 800 meters in 1:52.13.
Musau, a sophomore, defeated Habtom Samuel of New Mexico for the 5,000-meter title after also outkicking him for the victory in the indoor championships in March.
Although Wake Forest sophomore Rocky Hansen spent much of the race at the front of the pack, Portland senior Matt Strangio was in the lead with two laps to go. However, Musau was in front at the start of the bell lap and he ran his final 400 meters in 55.77 while on his way to a time of 13:20.59.
Samuel placed second in 13:20.89 and senior Marco Langdon of Villanova finished third in 13:21.17 after he had challenged Musau for the lead early in the last home straightaway.
In the two other field events contested on Friday, Arvesta Troup of Mississippi won the high jump at 2.27 (7-5¼) and fellow junior Brandon Green of Oklahoma finished first in the triple jump with a best of 16.81 (55-2).
Troup won by a large margin — in high jumping terms — as the second- through seventh-place finishers all cleared 2.20 (7-2½).
The Texas State duo of senior Kason O’Riley and junior Alden Hayes tied for second place because they each cleared 2.20 (7-2¼) on their first attempts, while the next four finishers all needed two or three tries to make that height.
Troup also cleared that height on his first attempt before making 2.23 (7-3¾) on his second try and 2.27 (7-5¾) on his first. He then missed three times at 2.30 (7-6½).
Green had the top five marks in the triple jump competition in which senior teammate Floyd Whitaker placed second at 16.41 (53-10¼) and Florida State junior Kyvon Tatham finished third at 16.23 (53-3).
Green took the lead with his 16.59 (54-5¼) effort in the first round and he followed that with marks of 16.58 (54-4¾) in the second round and 16.74 (54-11¼) in the third.
After a foul in the fourth round, he bounded 16.67 (54-8¼) in the fifth before producing his top jump of 16.81 (55-2) in the sixth.
The first four events of the heptathlon were also contested on Friday and senior Jadin O’Brien of Notre Dame was in first place with 3,710 points, followed by junior Pippi Lotta Enok of Oklahoma at 3,685 and senior Destiny Masters of Wichita State with 3,572.
Freshman Sofia Iakushina of Texas A&M, the yearly collegiate leader with a best of 6,260 points in the heptathlon, was in eighth place after the first day with a score of 3,492.
O’Brien, who had won her third consecutive pentathlon title in the NCAA indoor championships in March, produced the best mark of the competition when she ran 13.33 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles. She then cleared 1.69 (5-6½) in the high jump, put the shot 14.44 (47-4½), and ran 24.11 seconds in the 200.
The final day of the meet is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time, today, with the women’s discus.
The second day of the heptathlon will start with long jump at 6:30 p.m., and the track events will begin at 9:02 with the women’s 4 x 100 relay.
You can click here for an event schedule and results for the meet.
Very impressive and interesting reporting. Thanks for sharing.
Russ Duggan