Ottey’s Audacious Quadruple In 1983

Most sprinters attempt a triple with the 100 and 200, plus a relay.

Merlene Ottey of Nebraska wasn’t like most sprinters.

At the 1983 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Houston, Ottey tried to collect an audacious quartet of titles with the 100, 200, 400 and 4×100 relay on her ledger. Ottey nearly won all of them with victories in the 100 and 200, a runner-up finish in the 4×100 relay and a third-place finish in the 400 (To this day, she is the only man or woman in meet history to score in the 100, 200 and 400 at the same NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships).

Her odyssey was known early on, as Nebraska coach Gary Pepin scaled back Ottey’s racing schedule – even redshirting his star during the indoor season. Ottey’s absence indoors didn’t hurt the potent Cornhuskers as they still won the national title at the inaugural NCAA Division I Women’s Indoor Track & Field Championships (It certainly could have helped break the meet open a little bit as they only won by three points over Tennessee).

“At first, I didn’t want to do it,” Ottey explained to media of the schedule. “If I had my choice I’d run only one event, the 200. But this is a team championship.”

The 200 final would be the last of Ottey’s eight races in Houston. She had completed half of them by the time of her first final on Friday, which would be the 100. Overcoming a slow start, she defended her title by just 0.01 seconds to become the first of five women in NCAA DI history to win back-to-back 100-meter crowns.

“Tomorrow will be a tough day,” she said as her final three races would come in the span of about two hours.

Saturday began with a duel in the 4×100 relay against Florida State. It would be a rematch from the previous year when Ottey anchored the Cornhuskers to victory. Ottey fought to a runner-up finish as both teams broke the existing collegiate record: FSU winning 42.94 to 43.44.

Just 40 minutes later, Ottey took third in a 400 in which the first three athletes across the finish line recorded the NCAA’s fastest ever, led by a 50.94 by UCLA’s Florence Griffith (Ottey ran a PR 51.12, right behind Easter Gabriel of Prairie View A&M in 50.99).

Griffith, in her pre-Flo-Jo days, was already a rival of Ottey. A year earlier, the Bruin won her first national title in the 200, upsetting Ottey. This rematch showed both at their best: Griffith storming the curve for a big lead that Ottey overcame near the finish for a win by just 0.03 seconds in 22.39 (That would be the slimmest margin of victory in the event until 2005 when Sheri-Ann Brooks of Florida International won by just 0.01 seconds).

“I have longer legs and was able to lean farther forward,” Ottey told Virgil Parker of the Lincoln Journal and Star. “I also had to come from behind in the 100. I guess I just wanted the victories more than anybody else. I really wanted to finish my senior season on a high note. And I did. But that’s a lot of races for one meet. I’m glad it’s over. It was a long week.”

Nebraska finished third in the team standings thanks to Ottey’s 45 points (The NCAA scored the meet 12 athletes deep from 1982 to 1984 – 15-12-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1). The Cornhusker women matched that placing four more times over the years in 1989, 1991, 1992 and lastly, 2004.