Florida State’s Dix Ruled NCAA Outdoor Meet

Walter Dix of Florida State ended his illustrious career at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships by matching one legend and blazing his own trail as the highest-scoring male sprinter in meet history.

Dix was an immediate star for the Seminoles, winning the 100 as a freshman in 2005 – then just the fifth freshman man to do so. That came after Dix clocked an American U20 record of 10.06 at the NCAA East Regional and just a few months after the native of Coral Springs, Florida, was the NCAA runner-up in the indoor 200 with the still-standing world U20 record of 20.37.

He ascended to legendary status between 2006 and 2008 when he was FSU’s leading point scorer each year that the squad won back-to-back-to-back national titles (The Seminoles’ 2007 title was later vacated). Each of those three crowns had Dix’s signature on them.

In 2006, Dix followed up his 100-meter title in 2005 with a 200-meter crown that gave him an indoor/outdoor sweep and added 10 points to the Seminoles’ largest margin of victory as a team during that span (16 points).

His final two years were monstrous.

In 2007, Dix completed a second-straight sweep of indoor/outdoor 200s (the only man to do that double twice) and became the only man since San Jose State’s John Carlos in 1969 to sweep outdoor titles in the 100, 200 and as part of the 4×100 relay. His 100 win in 9.93 was just 0.01 seconds off the collegiate record, at the time, while two weeks before his 200 win, he set the still-standing CR of 19.69 at the East Regional.

Many athletes with such world-class credentials would likely turn pro — and even FSU head coach Bob Braman didn’t know which way Dix would decide. “If he’s back, we’ll let him do what he wants to do,” Braman told Bret Bloomquist for Track & Field News. “He’s done his part for the team for three years. Next year would be about him.”

Fortunately for Seminole fans, Dix returned for a final season in 2008.

A third-straight victory in the 200 was the closest of all of his three NCAA Outdoor half-lap titles (by just 0.04 seconds), yet it put his name alongside Marquette’s Ralph Metcalfe as the only men to win that event three times (Metcalfe accomplished that feat from 1932 to 1934). It also gave Dix career-high sprint totals of seven combined NCAA indoor/outdoor individual wins (eight, including relays) – amounts that could have been even higher, but Dix missed the 2008 NCAA Indoor meet due to strep throat.

Somewhat symbolically, on the fourth-place 4×100 relay team in 2008, Dix led off and handed the baton to future FSU star Ngoni Makusha, who was just a freshman. Makusha certainly had his own legacy, winning The Bowerman in 2011 after breaking the collegiate record in the 100 and completing the 100-long jump sweep at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

One of the best tributes to Dix came from a competitor, Richard Thompson of LSU, after he beat the defending champion in the 100-meter final at the 2008 meet as a senior: “I remember as a freshman thinking, ‘Walter Dix is going to be around for four years,’ and wondering, ‘When am I ever going to win an NCAA championship?’”

Later that summer, Dix earned a pair of Olympic bronze medals in Beijing in both the 100 and 200. Then, three years later, Dix achieved his best international success with a pair of silver medals in those events at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.