BLOG UPDATES: NCAA Division I Indoor Championships – DAY TWO

The USTFCCCA will be keeping a running blog of some of the highlights of the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships, March 13-14 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Event Highlights | Men’s Heptathlon Recap | Men’s Team Battle Outlook | Women’s Team Battle Outlook

MORE INFO: Full Results | National Championships Central

Individual Event Highlights

NEW COLLEGIATE RECORDS

Of all the historic, national title winning performances on Saturday, three stood head and shoulders above the rest. Not only were they the best collegians on this weekend, but they are the best among all collegians in the history of track & field competition.

Shawn Barber of Akron broke his own collegiate pole vault record on Friday, and he was joined Saturday by three more collegiate record-setting performances: Kendell Williams of Georgia breaking her own record in the pentathlon, Omar McLeod of Arkansas smashing the 60-meter hurdles record in front of his home crowd and the Texas A&M 4×400 relay team surpassing its own all-time mark.

Williams topped her record first, scoring 4678 points to take down her year-old record of 4635, besting former NCAA champion Erica Bougard by 112 points.

She opened with a significant career-best in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.10, followed by a near-season-best 1.83m clearance in the high jump. She topped 40 feet in the shot put at 12.24m and uncorked a huge long jump of 6.53m (shy of her PR by .01) to set her up for a record attempt on the fifth and final component: the 800.

She ran 2:17.30 – an improvement of .01 from her career-best from a year ago – over the final four laps of her sophomore indoor season, keeping Bougard in her sights the entire way so as not to lose out on the NCAA title.

It didn’t take long to get the first collegiate track record of the day. In the fourth track final of the evening, McLeod whipped his home crowd into a fury with a 7.45 to break the 18-year-old record of 7.47 formerly held by Reggie Torrian of Wisconsin. He became the first to defend a men’s 60-meter hurdles title since Mississippi’s Antwon Hicks in 2004 and 2005.

He won by an impressive .24 of a second over runner-up Chris Caldwell of Texas Tech, giving him both the largest margin of victory in event history and the biggest proportional win of any man in any track event in meet history at 3.12 percent. Terrence Trammell of South Carolina had previously been the biggest men’s track winner in meet history at 2.97 percent.

Though numerous meet records fell in the interim – we’ll get to those later – the next collegiate record came in the very last event. Perhaps still stinging from runner-up and fourth-place finishes in the open 400 meters by Bralon Taplin and 2014 Bowerman Trophy winner Deon Lendore, respectively, Texas A&M went 3:02.86 to surpass last year’s mark of 3:03.28.

Each of the Aggies’ final three relay legs recorded splits faster than 46 seconds, with Taplin running the second leg in 45.13 and Lendore taking the anchor in 45.34. Though the race was marred by an on-track altercation that resulted in Florida’s Eric Futch being pushed off the track on the third leg and an off-track altercation that nearly resulted in an infield brawl – if not for the quick responses by both Florida’s and LSU’s coaches to break it up – it will stand, at least for now, as the fastest race in collegiate indoor history.

The women’s race didn’t quite break any collegiate records –last year set the bar pretty high in that regard – but it did yield some of the fastest times ever. Texas came out on the other side of its narrow finish this year, winning in 3:28.48 over Arkansas in 3:28.70. That run for Texas was the No. 5 time both in collegiate and meet history, while Arkansas’ school record run moved them up to the No. 4 spot on the all-time fastest schools list for both overall college and meet history, with the seventh fastest overall time.

On a related note, Courtney Okolo of Texas came back from winning the 400 over Taylor Ellis-Watson and had to hold her off again for the relay title. Okolo split 50.36 for the fastest of the meet, while Ellis-Watson went 50.45. In the open, Okolo took down the Razorback for the win by only a slightly wider margin, 51.12 to 51.52. From that Longhorn relay, Ashley Spencer finished third in the open in 51.85.

MEET RECORDS PERMEATE THE REMAINING MEET PROGRAM

Collegiate records weren’t the only variety of all-time standards falling on Saturday. Five more athletes came up shy of collegiate records but prevailed as the best-ever collegians at the NCAA Championships.

Some were historic even though they didn’t even come close to breaking time records. Case in point, the Oregon men went 1-2-3 in the men’s 3000 behind winner Eric Jenkins, runner-up Edward Cheserek and third-place Will Geoghegan to become just the fourth men’s team in meet history to sweep the top three spots in an event at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Jenkins outkicked Cheserek down the stretch, responding to Cheserek’s killer kick over the final 200 meters to take the win in 7:58.81 to Ches’ 7:59.42.

Less than a second behind, Geoghegan edged Kemoy Campbell of host Arkansas by .13 of a second in 8:00.44. The Ducks were very nearly the highest-ever scoring men’s team in a single event, as Parker Stinson was ninth by less than a tenth of a second.

It only took one event on the track for the first actual meet standard to fall, as Leah O’Connor of Michigan State led wire-to-wire in a 4:27.18 win that took down Tennessee’s Sarah Bowman’s old meet standard of 4:29.72 by more than two-and-a-half seconds and tied the facility record. She came close to the top of the collegiate list, settling in as the second-fastest collegian of all-time.

How dominant was she? Her 1.53-second margin of victory was the largest since 2006. The runner -up this year? Defending outdoor 1500 meter champion Shelby Houlihan of Arizona State, who also eclipsed the former meet record in 4:28.71 and checked in with the sixth-fastest collegiate indoor mile in history.

She towed the field along to a fast race, as five women finished in 4:32 or faster. Never before had more than two women gone that fast in the same race.

Meanwhile, the men’s mile race was projected to be an all-time fast one as 10 men ran 4:00.00 or faster in Friday’s prelim rounds. That was very much not the case.

After the race went through 609 meters just two seconds faster than the women’s race in 1:38.49, collegiate leader Cristian Soratos of Montana State made a bold move and took off running. The trio of Soratos, Edward Cheserek of Oregon and defending national champion Anthony Rotich of UTEP covered the next 600 meters in 1:21.78.

Cheserek uncorked his signature kick on the final lap, dropping a 28.26 final lap while Soratos could only muster a 30.38 – and those two seconds would be the difference. Cheserek won in 3:57.94 and Soratos was runner-up in 3:59.86. Rotich was third in 4:01.78.

At half the distance, Natoya Goule of Clemson won her second career indoor 800 meters title in meet record fashion. She ran from wire-to-wire to silence any doubts left lingering from her upset at the hands of Virginia Tech’s Hanna Green at ACCs, winning in 2:01.64 by nearly two full seconds over runner-up Kaela Edwards of Oklahoma State – last year’s third-place finisher.

She surpassed Hazel Clark of Florida and her 2:01.77 in 1999 for the new meet record, and is tied to her historically in several other ways. She is the first multiple-time winner since Clark in 1998 and 1999, and her 1.95 margin of victory is the biggest since Clark set her former meet record in 1999.

Field events accounted for the remaining two meet records of the day. After winning the long jump Friday, Florida’s Marquis Dendy came back Saturday to double in the triple jump. With a winning leap of 57-0 (17.37m) on his final attempt to ice the cake, he topped the meet record of former Gator great Will Claye from 2011 by five centimeters.

Not only did he break the meet record, but he moved to No. 3 on the all-time collegiate list with the farthest jump since Charlie Simpkins of Charleston Southern set the current collegiate record of 57-5 (17.50m) in 1986.

The mark was enough to top runner-up Donald Scott of Eastern Michigan by just more than half a meter for the biggest margin of victory since Christian Taylor won by .88m in 2010.

In a somewhat fitting culmination of the Year of the Vault, Sandi Morris of Arkansas tied the meet and former collegiate record in the indoor women’s pole vault with a winning clearance of 15-1 (4.60m). She finished her historic indoor season – which featured a temporary collegiate record and the current No. 2 vault in collegiate history – with four of the top clearances in collegiate indoor history.

The owner of five more of those top-10 marks and the current collegiate record, Demi Payne of Stephen F. Austin, turned in a surprising no-height performance after failing to come in at 4.40m.

MORE HISTORIC PERFORMANCES

Some performances were all-time greats but didn’t manage to break any meet or collegiate records.

Take the men’s 200 meters, for example. Trayvon Bromell of Baylor did his best to take down the collegiate record of 20.10 set by Wallace Spearmon in 2005, flying across the line in 20.19 for the second-fastest time in collegiate history and the No. 5 time in the history of the world. Combined with his 20.23 from the Friday prelims, he’ll leave Fayetteville with two of the four fastest times in collegiate indoor history.

Andre De Grasse of Southern California made a race of it, though. The Trojan equaled the fastest time run in meet history by a runner-up in 20.26, which moved him to a share of the No. 3 spot on the all-time collegiate performers list and earned him a share of the No. 8 performance in world history.

The short sprints weren’t quite as fast historically, but were still very quick and very dramatic. Ronnie Baker of TCU pulled the upset on pre-meet top seeded John Teeters of Oklahoma State and top prelims qualifier Jalen Miller of Mississippi to win in 6.52, giving him a share of the No. 9 spot on the all-time collegiate performers list, a share of the No. 3 spot on the all-time championships performer list, and a share of the fourth-fastest time in meet history.

In the women’s final moments earlier, Remona Burchell of Alabama became the first back-to-back champ since Muna Lee of LSU in 2003-2004, running a 7.12 for a share of the sixth-fastest time in collegiate history and the third-fastest time in NCAA championships history. She defeated Southern California frosh Ky Westbrook (7.21) by nearly a full tenth of a second. The official margin was nine-tenths of a second, tied for the second-largest in meet history in this event and the biggest since 2009.

In the women’s 200, pre-meet No. 1 seed Kyra Jefferson of Florida followed through on that rank, chasing down Oregon’s Jenna Prandini in the final meters for a 22.63 win by .11 of a second over the Duck. That time was good for the No. 10 spot on the meet’s all-time performers list. Last year’s national champion Dezerea Bryant of Kentucky was third in 22.86.

Speaking of Kentucky, the Wildcats’ Kendra Harrison won the women’s 60-meter hurdles in a photo finish over former Clemson teammate Bridgette Owens of Florida in 7.87 to 7.88. Harrison’s now equal to No. 3 on the all-time collegiate performers list, while Owens checked in at No. 5. Harrison’s time was the =No. 5 fastest in college history, while Owens’ was No. 8.

Though not meet history, frosh shot put champ Raven Saunders of Southern Illinois made altered the record books in several other ways. Her winning mark of 18.62m on her sixth and final throw broke her own U.S. Junior shot put record and made her the first frosh winner since Laura Gerraughty of North Carolina in 2003.

Another U.S. Junior record went down in the women’s 3000, albeit in a losing effort. As Dominique Scott of Arkansas was crossing the line in 8:55.19 for the No. 9 performance in collegiate history – and the NCAA team title clincher – Stanford frosh Elise Cranny became the first American junior (19 or younger this year) to break the 9-minute barrier in 8:58.88 to eclipse Mary Cain’s 9:04.51 from 2013.

In the men’s high jump the Texas Tech duo of winner Jacorian Duffield and runner-up Bradley Adkins made history not with their final heights but their final finishes. Duffield took the win at 7-6 (2.29m) with fewer misses than Adkins, but nevertheless, the duo became the first teammates to go 1-2 in the men’s high jump since Mike Fleer and Tom Woods of Oregon State went 1-2 in 1974.

It’s Not an NCAA Meet Without Upsets

Many of the favorites went on the set meet records and collegiate records, and win national titles, but some pre-meet favorites had a rough go of it. We’ve already mentioned Demi Payne in the pole vault. Who else was usurped on Saturday?

• Defending shot put champion Ryan Crouser of Texas. He lost out to Florida’s Stipe Zunic, who took the lead in the fifth round with a heave of 69-3¼ (21.11m). Crouser attempted to respond in the final round with his best throw of 68-8 (20.93m), but alas it wasn’t enough.
• Pre-meet triple jump favorite Keturah Orji of Georgia. She was defeated right out of the gates by Florida’s Ciarra Brewer, who posted a career-best 45-11¾ (14.01m) on her very first attempt to become the ninth woman in collegiate indoor history to cross the 14-meter barrier. It was a measure of revenge for Brewer, who had lost all three of their head-to-head battles this season. Orji came closest on her fourth attempt, posting a 45-2¼ (13.77m) for second place.
• Pre-meet men’s 400-meter collegiate leader Najee Glass of Florida and 2014 Bowerman Trophy winner Deon Lendore of Texas A&M. It wasn’t either of those two, or A&M’s Bralon Taplin who ran a 44.7 split in the relay earlier this year who took the win. It was 2014 indoor runner-up Vernon Norwood of LSU who broke through with a 45.31 to move to No. 10 on the all-time collegiate performers list. He bested Glass, who finished third overall, head-to-head in the first section.
• Defending indoor men’s 800 meter champion Brandon McBride of Mississippi State. This isn’t much of an upset, as winner Edward Kemboi of Iowa State entered the meet as the favorite, but the fact that McBride finished fourth earns it upset status. Kemboi took the race out quick and never let up, running 1:46.05 for a share of the No. 6 spot on the all-time collegiate performers list with the seventh-fastest time. He topped Monmouth’s Dylan Capwell by two-thirds of a second.

Wieland Wins Closest-Ever NCAA Heptathlon

RESULTS

After two days of competition and seven events, the men’s heptathlon came down to the final tenths of a second of the final component of the grueling competition, the 1000 meters.

In the closest finish in meet history, Minnesota’s Luca Wieland was able to hold on to the lead he took late Friday by just two points over pre-meet collegiate leader Garrett Scantling of Georgia. The Gopher – winning the first national heptathlon title in school history – scored 6070 points to Scantling’s 6068.

That’s the closest finish in meet history, surpassing the 10-point margin by which Arkansas’ Kevin Lazas won this event on this track in 2013.

With the performance, he moved to No. 7 on the all-time indoor collegiate performers list and No. 6 on the all-time NCAA Championships performers list with the seventh best score. Scantling, meanwhile, improved his standing at No. 8 on the all-time collegiate performers list with the ninth-best score in NCAA Championships meet history,

Buffalo’s Mike Morgan, who made a late charge at the lead on Friday and another late charge at the lead during the 1000, finished third at 5995 to check in at No. 9 on the all-time meet performers list.

He talked about the competition with us afterward here:

How They Got There on Day Two

Kicking things off was the 60-meter hurdles, which proved to be a big boon for Bilal Abdullah of Kennesaw State. The Owl junior matched his career PR at 7.87 for 1015 points to finish second in his section behind the day’s fastest man, Devon Williams of Georgia. The Bulldog ran a career-best 7.85 for 1020 points.

Williams’ time was the fourth-fastest for a heptathlon 60-meter hurdles in NCAA Championships history, while Abdullah’s time was No. 7 on the list.

Just behind them was Garrett Scantling of Georgia in 8.00 to just miss his career best and score 982 points.

Rival title contenders Luca Wieland of Minnesota (the leader) and Mike Morgan of Buffalo (second after day one) ran 8.13 for 949 points and 8.29 for 910 points, respectively. Wieland kept his lead at 4421 points, ahead of Abdullah at 4375, Scantling at 4350 and Morgan at 4282.

Next up was the pole vault, which belonged to Scantling (among the title contenders; Tim Erhardt of Michigan State went 5.15m for the best mark). The junior cleared 4.95m on his second attempt for 895 points, but could not make it over 5.05m. That clearance at 5.05 would have given him 31 more points and the lead entering the final 1000 meter component.

Wieland, though, managed to preserve a 10-point lead with a career-best 4.75m on his first attempt for 834 points. In between the two was Morgan at 4.85m for 865 – disappointing since he cleared 4.90m in late February and 5.21m earlier in the month – to catch back up to at least Abdullah. The Kennesaw State man cleared 4.55m for 775 points for a PR of 20 centimeters.

Entering the final 1000-meter event, Wieland held a 10-point lead over Scantling, 5255 to 5245. Abdullah was third with 5150, followed closely by Morgan at 5147.

Morgan made a valiant attempt to go for the win by running a blistering pace to kick off the 1000, covering the first 400 meters in 56.74 and the first 600 in 1:28.54, before falling victim to locked-up legs to finish fourth in 2:42.30 – still a PR by nearly three seconds.

The real drama came back in sixth and seventh place, as Scantling crossed the line in 2:44.57, just ahead of Wieland in 2:45.35 – big PRs for both. Scantling’s PR wasn’t big enough, as Wieland leaned just far enough to hold off Scantling in the final standings by just two points, the closest finish in meet history.

Men’s Team Title Battle Outlook

FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas – The men’s team title appears to be down to the same two teams projected in the final national team computer rankings – No. 1 Florida and defending national champion No. 2 Oregon – but not necessarily in the same order.

Both squads have eight event entries on this final and decisive day of the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships, and both should score similar amounts of points today. The key difference, however, will be yesterday’s finals. Oregon finished the day with 32 points and Florida had just 16, and that could end up being the difference today.

Here’s a rough breakdown of each team’s entries (plus No. 3 Arkansas, No. 4 Texas A&M and No. 5 Texas battling for the podium). Projected possible points were determined using both the pre-meet descending order list and Friday’s prelims, if applicable. These are very much subject to change based on who steps up/who doesn’t.

Last night’s 5000 meter final was the only crossover between Florida and Oregon.

Key for the Oregon men will be scoring to their seeded potential at 3000 meters, as they have five of their eight Saturday entries in that one event. Defending indoor 3000 champion Edward Cheserek will be doubling back from the mile – the only other event in which Oregon has entries – earlier in the day, while Eric Jenkins is coming off a hard-fought 5000-meter title last night. He’ll likely once again battle Arkansas’ Kemoy Campbell, last night’s runner-up, for high points alongside Cheserek.

The Ducks will also need big points from second seed Will Geoghegan and fourth seed Jeramy Elkaim, and for 13th-seeded Parker Stinson – who was third at 5000 meters last night – to outperform his seed.

In that aforementioned mile, the Ducks have No. 2 qualifer Cheserek, No. 3 qualifier Daniel Winn and No. 4 qualifier Johnny Gregorek. With more men breaking or equalling four minutes in yesterday’s prelims – 10 total between the two sections – than have ever broken four minutes in one NCAA Championships final, this race could be a crapshoot. A very fast crapshoot, but a crapshoot, nonetheless.

Cheserek will be battling top seed Cristian Soratos of Montana State, while Gregorek and Winn will be battling for points in a field that also includes defending national champion Anthony Rotich of UTEP.

That’s it for Oregon. In Arkansas’ quest for the podium, it could partially derail Oregon if Campbell and teammate Stanley Kebenei score highly at 3000 meters, and anything goes in this mile final.

Florida’s big-point events today are the triple jump and the 400. Marquis Dendy will look to double back from his long jump title yesterday to capture the triple jump crown as the top seed, but even more important will be a replication of KeAndre Bates’ big third-place effort in the long jump. The frosh moved from eighth to third in the long jump, and will need to outperform his No. 11 seed in the triple to give the Gators a chance at the title.

Collegiate leader Najee Glass will be battling for the win at 400 meters with top prelims qualifier Bralon Taplin of Texas A&M and defending national champion & Bowerman Trophy winner Deon Lendore of Texas A&M. He has defeated Taplin twice, and Lendore once this season. The Gators will also need big points from Arman Hall, who’s rounding into form with the No. 6 time in the prelims.

Other key events are, of course, the meet finale 4×400 relay (No. 2 seed) and second-seeded Stipe Zunic in the shot put. At 200 meters, defending outdoor national champ/indoor runner-up Dedric Dukes was the last man into the meet, but he took the No. 5 spot in yesterday’s prelims. Finally, at 800 meters, Ryan Schnulle was the second-to-last man into the final, and pre-meet No. 2 seed Andres Arroyo missed the final completely in a tightly bunched prelim competition. Needless to say, they need big points from the national outdoor runner-up.

Women’s Team Title Battle Outlook

FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas – You can’t have a great day two of the NCAA Division I Indoor Track & Field Championships – or any championship meet, for that matter – without having a great day one.

Who positioned themselves the best for day two title runs Saturday?

For the women, it appears to be host Arkansas, but there’s a number of teams in pursuit of the Razorbacks who will all battle for podium glory.

Here’s the breakdown of who has which scoring opportunities remaining today, and some projected possible (read: very unofficial) team scores based on a combination of the pre-meet descending order list and taking into account Friday prelim performances.

Arkansas is in the best position with 11 scoring positions today, three more than anyone else in the team race (Florida has eight opportunities, but didn’t score at all yesterday). Not only do they have quantity, they also have quality. Dominique Scott (3000) and Sandi Morris (pole vault) are, at worst, co-favorites to win their respective events, and Taylor Ellis-Watson (400) and Chrishuna Williams (800) will both be contending for big points in their events.

After the Razorbacks it’ll be a battle for the remaining three podium spots (and the win, should Arkansas slip up). Florida, Oregon, Georgia, Texas and Kentucky are all very much in the hunt for significant points on Saturday.

The best part? They’ll have to battle each other for them.

The 60 final will feature fastest qualifier Dezerea Bryant of Kentucky against the Oregon duo of No. 2 Jenna Prandini and No. 4 Jasmine Todd, and Florida’s No. 6 Shayla Sanders.

Prandini and Bryant will go at it again in the 200 meters final as the fastest and third-fastest qualifiers, sandwiched around Florida’s No. 2 Kyra Jefferson. Oregon also has No. 4 Ariana Washington, and if Texas A&M is to make a run today, it’ll help to get big points from No. 7 Ashton Purvis and No. 8 Kamaria Brown – last year’s outdoor national champion.

The quarter-mile – 400 meters – will be a proving ground for Texas, as a podium finish for the Longhorns will likely only be possible behind big points from top qualifier Courtney Okolo and No. 3 Ashley Spencer. (Texas was hurt by the non-qualification of Kendall Baisden, as well as Morolake Akinosun being shut out at 60 and 200 meters).

They’ll battle Ellis-Watson of Arkansas, as well as Texas A&M’s No. 5 Shamier Little and Florida’s No. 7 Robin Reynolds.

Above the short-sprints fray is Georgia, who has the fewest entries of any podium contender with four, and therefore the smallest margin of error. The Bulldogs have the favorite in two of those events in pentathlon collegiate record holder Kendell Williams and collegiate-leading triple jumper Keturah Orji.

If it’s close at the end of the day, there’s nothing like a good 4×400 relay to settle things. The third and final section will pit top seed Texas against No. 2 Florida, No. 3 Arkansas and No. 4 Kentucky. Texas A&M is in the second section, and neither Georgia nor Oregon have a team entered (no 4×400 heroics for the Ducks this year!).