June 2004 Issue

Austin Plotlines

WHO WILL FINISH HIGH at the NCAA Championships in Austin on June 9–12? Our annual NCAA Preview, which you’ll find on pages 28–29, is the best guide available anywhere, whether you’re looking at individual champions or who’s going to win the team titles.

But first, let’s look at some of the basic threads that will be important in shaping this year’s Nationals:

Cragg Looking For More

by Andrew Jensen

Alistair Cragg—the key to Arkansas’s team title defense—joked with an Irish running magazine earlier this season about the possibility of pulling a 1500/5/10 triple in Austin. “Three 2nds is worth more than two 1sts,” he reasoned.

Seriously, though, the Johannesburg native…

Lee Looking For First 1st

by Jon Hendershott

A critical cog in the machinery of LSU’s team title defense is certain to be sprinter Muna Lee, even if Tiger coach Pat Henry claims, “She is important because of her experience, but there are a lot of others on the team who will be valuable, too.”

A willowy 5-8/111 senior, Lee has anchored two LSU 4x1 wins outdoors and has won three Indoor sprint crowns, including a 60/200 double in ’03. Yet the 22-year-old Kansas City native has yet to score an individual NCAA dash victory outdoors.

Henry points out, “A lot of people don’t believe it when we say this, but we don’t talk about athletes having to get wins…

Sands Eyeing A Double

by Steve Bailey

After winning last year’s long jump Leevan Sands missed an NCAA horizontal-jump double by one place in the triple. This year he had to miss the Indoor altogether. But even with a couple of misses here and there, the Auburn senior has hit big marks when it counts—most notably a bronze medal at the ’03 World Championships.

According to Auburn jumps coach Henry Rolle, who worked with Sands as a high schooler in their native Bahamas…

SMU Looking For DT 1–2

by Dan Lilot

When asked which of his two star discus throwers—Hannes Hopley or Michael Robertson—has the advantage going into the Nationals, SMU coach Dave Wollman says, “The one who gets the last throw is going to win…

Schmidt Going For Third

by Rich Sands

History will not exactly be on Alice Schmidt’s side in Austin on June 12. That’s the date the North Carolina senior hopes to win her third NCAA 800 title, a feat no woman has ever accomplished. (And only three men have ever done it.)

Complicating her quest is…

Blanton Undefeated

by Dan Lilot

After setting a U.S. Junior Record of 10.07 in the 100 heats at the Midwest Regional last year, Oklahoma frosh DaBryan Blanton felt confident as he lined up for the NCAA final. But then disaster struck. He false-started…

(for more, read the June Issue of Track & Field News)

Top New Faces In The NCAA

Twenty Newcomers Likely to Make a Big First Impression in Austin

Analysis by Dan Lilot

1. Andra Manson (Texas) High Jump

’02 Prep AOY sat out ’03. Won Big 12 In/Out and NCAA Indoor. Hasn’t yet equaled 7-7 HSR. Texas Relays only loss.

2. Kerron Clement (Florida) 400H/4x4

Trinidadian frosh took Florida Relays 400H in quick 49.69. Won Penn Relays 4x4 with come-from-behind 44.7 anchor.

(for more, read the June Issue of Track & Field News)

NCAA Event Of The Meet: The Men’s 400

by Jon Hendershott

There’s been no need to wait until the concluding event at this year’s NCAA to see fast 4x4 times. A flock of squads have already burned it up early this season, setting the table for the prospect of a storming finale in Austin. Indeed, perhaps the best event of the meet.

It has been a dozen years since Georgia Tech produced its 2:59.95, the meet’s last sub-3:00 clocking. The only other sub-3:00 in meet history was UCLA’s epic 2:59.91 in ’88. This year, Baylor (see box) projects as being in the same territory. And they’re not alone.

Before April ended, four teams had ducked under 3:02: Baylor 3:01.06, Florida 3:01.10, LSU 3:01.39 and Arizona State 3:01.51.

And all four of the sub-3:02 units had clashed head-to-head. Baylor’s leader won at Texas from Florida (3:01.49), ASU’s best and LSU (3:03.22). At Penn, Florida’s fastest outran the year bests by LSU and TCU…

(for more, read the June Issue of Track & Field News)

Olympic Trials Preview: Medals Ahead In The 400?

by Jon Hendershott

In last month’s issue we celebrated the historic achievement of the first sub-4:00 mile. Four laps around an old quartermile track, each circuit run at 60 seconds or less and strung together back-to-back.

Now consider another way to circle any oval—sprinting all out as fast as you can. No nation has run the 400 consistently as strongly as the U.S., especially in the Olympics.

Since the inaugural Games of 1896 (and excluding the boycott year of ’80), a total of 69 medals have been up for grabs for the 1-lapper—and Americans have won 36 of them, just over 50%. Next best are Great Britain and Germany (6 each), with Jamaica at 5. The U.S. presence has profoundly shaped the history of the Olympic 400.

Yet before an American can hope to write 400 history at the Games, he faces an often more formidable task: simply making the U.S. Olympic team. It rates right up there with the 100 and the 110H as the single toughest event for an American to earn a team slot…

(for more, read the June Issue of Track & Field News)

Fast 5s & 10s In Abundance At Cardinal

by Sieg Lindstrom

Stanford’s Cardinal Invitational extended its reputation as a hotbed of 10,000 records to the NCAA level as Dathan Ritzenhein (see sidebar) and Alicia Craig (see p. 20) claimed recordbook entries of 27:38.50 and 32:19.97 under cool, still conditions.

Testifying to the quality of the Cardinal 25-lappers was the fact that Ritzenhein was just 6th in the men’s race and Craig 8th in the women’s.

In the men’s race nine runners charged under the Olympic A-standard of 27:49.00. Three of these, besides Ritzenhein, were Americans who set PRs: Dan Browne (27:42.19), veteran Bob Kennedy (27:37.45) and Abdi Abdirahman (27:34.24).

Winning the race was Meb Keflezighi, whose comments afterwards indicated the AR holder’s 27:24.10 run may have influenced his Athens event choice as much as the Marathon Trials, where he placed 2nd in February…

(for more, read the June Issue of Track & Field News)

Ritz’s Record

Colorado junior Dathan Ritzenhein made a sterling track 10K debut at Stanford, simultaneously knocking Steve Prefontaine from the U.S. all-time top 10 and Ed Eyestone’s 27:41.05 from the American Collegiate Record status it had held for 19 seasons.

Although Ritz’s upper legs were cramping front and back from the effort and he had a plane to catch the next morning to Oklahoma City for the Big 12 Championships (see p. 22), he took a moment to discuss his race with T&FN:

Q: Nice work. How fast did you expect to run?

A: 27:49 was good for me. But they were going a little faster pace. They were going about 27:40 pace so it was either go with them or go out in no-man’s-land. I figured I could do it so I wanted to give it a good shot. I ran pretty even—I guess a little slower the second half [13:47.5/13:51.0]—but I felt good until about 3K to go, and then it was really starting to get hard.…

(for more, read the June Issue of Track & Field News)

Rupp’s Rapid 5

by Dan Lilot

With his 13:55.32 win against open runners in the Cardinal Invitational, Galen Rupp (Central Catholic, Portland) joined some vaunted company, becoming the No. 4 prep ever. Only legends Gerry Lindgren, Dathan Ritzenhein and Steve Prefontaine ever ran faster.

After a slow first kilo, the pace picked up, with Rupp always just off the lead. The senior passed 3200m in 9:02.1 and then surged to the lead, breaking up the pack with a 64.8 circuit.

Over the final mile, the Alberto Salazar-trained athlete dueled with Stanford grad Adam Tenforde, 12th in last year’s NCAA XC; the high schooler’s smooth stride a stark contrast to Tenforde’s shuffle.

Rupp finally salted the race away off the final turn with the help of a 62.2 final lap.

After the race, an exhausted Rupp talked between gasps for air…

(for more, read the June Issue of Track & Field News)

Clarifying The Olympic Marathon Picture

by Sean Hartnett in London & Larry Newman in Boston

APRIL WAS MARATHON MONTH again as the London and Boston affairs produced their usual 26-mile magic. And while each race stood on its own as yet another classic, each also took on deeper meaning as it helped define what will happen in Athens in August.

Rutto’s London Recovery

The day before the London Marathon, Evans Rutto stood alone on the balcony overlooking the Tower Thistle Hotel lobby, keeping his distance from the throng of athletes, managers and media gathered below.…

(for more, read the June Issue of Track & Field News)

Leeper Remains A Jumper

Laughing at rumors of his near retirement from the sport, Nathan Leeper won the Kansas Relays high jump at 7-53/4, his highest clearance since he won the ’02 USATF title, his fourth national crown in two years.

“It was a pretty good jump,” Leeper said of his second-attempt success. “I think it kind of just boils down to physically I’m ready to jump pretty good. All the weight stuff’s been going really good; I’m lifting real well. It’s just going to take a little time for the technical side of things to catch up to the physical side.

“After you’ve been out for that long…

(for more, read the June Issue of Track & Field News)

From The Editor: I Want My Sense Of Wonderment Back!

by E. Garry Hill

It wasn’t meant as a letter to the editor, the e-mail that crossed my desk the other d ay. I’d love to share the complete text of it with you, but I can’t, for reasons that will soon become apparent.

It was the tale of an athlete—not an American—who is now at an age where massive breakthroughs happen infrequently. Last year he moved to the fringes of world class…

(for more, read the June Issue of Track & Field News)