CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY: Most Dominant Event Champions in NCAA History

This is the latest in a series of posts based on the USTFCCCA’s newly unveiled NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships History page – the most comprehensive collection of the meet’s history anywhere on the web – leading up to the 2015 edition June 10-13 in Eugene, Oregon. The page can be viewed in its entirety here.

EUGENE, Oregon – The best of the best in collegiate track & field will descend upon Eugene, Oregon, this upcoming weekend (June 10-13) for the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, a four-day spectacle of high-level competition of speed, power and flight.

Often times that means insanely competitive individual and team battles; but sometimes the best-of-the-best is a single individual in a class of his or her own.

That’s the topic of our romp through NCAA Championships history today, to discover the most dominant athletes in meet history.

A quick note: we’ve determined the biggest margins of victory in meet history by converting the gap between each event’s winner and runner-up in seconds, feet, inches, meters, and points into percentages (relative to the winner) that allow us to compare across events.

If you’re interested in the biggest margins of victory in each event (by seconds, feet, etc.), check out this handy PDF.

To set the stage, here’s a look at the athletes who have clearly separated themselves from the rest of the country in their given events. Take particular note of the right-most column "margin", which represents the distance between them and the No. 2 collegiate performer of 2015

Defending champion discus thrower Shelbi Vaughan of Texas A&M is, statistically speaking, the biggest favorite in the field with a margin of more than seven percent over the No. 2-ranked collegian in 2015.

Should she hold or improve that margin, how would it compare to previous decisive NCAA champions?

We’ve got some perspective below, broken up into the biggest field events wins (which are the most dominant in meet history by far) and the biggest track event wins.

Field Events (a.k.a: The Biggest Wins In Meet History)

When Fred Tootell of Bowdoin won the hammer throw with a throw of 175-1 in 1923 by nearly 35 feet over Sam Hill of Illinois, it was the largest margin of victory in meet history – all three years of it. More than 90 years later, that 19.80 percent victory remains the biggest margin all-time.

Tootell’s dominant throws performance is far from an outlier. The throws lend themselves particularly well to dominant performances, with each of the top five biggest margins of victory in men’s meet history coming in courtesy of the ball and chain.

Most notable and most recent was Southern California standout Balazs Kiss’ 13.65 percent margin of victory in 1996 – the third-best in meet history. That’s what throwing a meet-record 265-3 (80.86m) will do for you.

The biggest non-hammer-throw victory came courtesy of Fortune Gordien of Minnesota in the 1947 discus competition. He threw 173-3 to win by nearly 20 feet over Rollin Prather, or 10.53 percent. In a dramatic turn of events in 1948, he won by just one inch to defend his crown.

Had enough of these throwing events? The biggest non-throws margin of victory belongs to 2010 Bowerman Trophy Winner Ashton Eaton of Oregon. Before he went on to win Olympic and World titles while setting world records, he score 8457 in 2010 to beat Mike Morrison of Cal by more than 650 points – or 7.76 percent.

The most dominant performance in the jumps was turned in by DeHart Hubbard of Michigan in 1923, as he won the long jump by nearly two feet with a leap of 25-2 (for a 6.87 percent win).

While the hammer throw dominated the list of most dominant men’s performances, there wasn’t a single HT victory to be found in the women’s top five. Throws were still in abundance, with two from the javelin and two from the discus.

No woman has claimed a more decisive national championship than javelin thrower Irena Kharum of Indiana in 2003. With a meet-record throw of 202-10 (61.82m), she won by more than 30 feet over Southern Cal’s Inga Stasiulionyte for a gap of 15.46 percent.

Also notable in the javelin is the fourth-biggest women’s margin posted by Evelien Dekkers of Florida in 2010. She out-threw Oklahoma’s Brittany Borman by 10.15 percent with a heave of 193-6 (58.99m), but don’t feel too badly for Borman. She went on to win two consecutive national titles in 2012 and 2012.

The lone non-throwing event victory in either the men’s or women’s top five came from heptathlete Diane Guthrie of George Mason in 1995. Scoring a collegiate-record 6527 points, she took the win by 10.65 percent over Ali McKnight of Nevada at 5832.

The discus is responsible for the No. 3 and No. 5 margins of victory in women’s meet history. In 1994, Danyel Mitchell of LSU won by 10.46 percent with a mark of 59.08m, while in 1990 Tracie Millett of UCLA won by 9.96 percent with a 56.00m heave.

Checking in as the biggest win in the jumps was Terri Turner of Texas, who won the 1984 triple jump by 6.73 percent with a 13.52m to top the wind-aided 12.61m by teammate Robyne Johnson.

Track Events

Collegiate-record hurdler Renaldo Nehemiah of Maryland has come the closest to the five-percent win margin. Though it was wind-aided, he scorched to a 12.91 (the fastest all-conditions in collegiate history) to win the 110-hurdles in 1979 by more than half of a second for a margin of victory of 4.96 percent over runner-up Dan Oliver of Ohio State.

The hurdles also produced the second-biggest win in meet history, as Kevin Young of UCLA won the 1988 400-meter hurdles in 47.85 – more than two seconds (and 4.64 percent) ahead of runner-up Pat McGhee of Indiana.

We now come to the biggest women’s track win of all time (and the fourth-biggest in meet history regardless of gender), and it also involves obstacles on the track. In what was then a meet- and collegiate-record, Jenny Barringer of Colorado ran 9:29.20 in the 2008 3000-meter steeplechase final to win by nearly half a minute over SMU’s Silje Fjortoft. She would break her own record by four seconds the following year en route to winning the inaugural Bowerman Trophy.

How about a summary of the best non-hurdles victories:

• Southern California’s men’s 4×110-yard relay defeated Tennessee in 1967 by 4.43 percent

• Kim Smith of Providence won the 5000 meters in 2004 with a time of 15:48.86 to win by nearly 40 seconds, or 3.80 percent

• Vicki Huber of Villanova took the 3000-meter title in 1989 by more than 20 seconds (3.71 percent) with a time of 9:06.96 at altitude

• LSU’s winning women’s 4×100 relay team in 1989 – featuring collegiate 100-meter record holder Dawn Sowell – won by a second-and-a-half (or 3.60 percent) at 42.50.

• John Carlos of San Jose State took the 1969 220-yard title by 3.48 percent

• Sally Kipyego of Texas Tech won the women’s 5000 in 2008 by half a minute over eventual cross country champion Angela Bizzarri of Illinois