Saturday, June 10

With his historic performance Saturday at the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships, LSU sprinter Xavier Carter joined Jesse Owens in a very exclusive club.

Carter and the Ohio State legend are the only men to win four events at a single NCAA meet.

“I feel honored to be in the same sentence with Jesse Owens,” Carter said. “He started track and field in the United States.”

The other club is even more exclusive. Carter is the charter member, and he might remain the only member for decades to come.

The powerful LSU sophomore became the first athlete, male or female, to win the 100- and 400-meter dashes at the NCAA Championships.

In a 33-minute time frame, LSU's “X-Man” won the 100 in 10.09 seconds and the 400 in a lifetime-best 44.53. He then finished off a remarkable day by anchoring LSU to victory in the 4 x 400 relay. The day before, Carter ran the second leg on LSU's winning 4 x 100 relay team.

“I feel that I succeeded in reaching the goal I set,” Carter said. “I pretty much had a good day.”

LSU's Xavier Carter won four events at the 2006 NCAA Championships (Tom Borish/Trackshark.com)

That might be the understatement of the year, but the same could be said for the Florida State and Auburn teams. Top-ranked Florida State won the first men's NCAA track title in school history, scoring 67 points to finish well in front of LSU (51) and Texas (36).

Auburn's women entered the NCAA meet ranked ninth in the country by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The Tigers left Sacramento with their first-ever national title after scoring 57 points. USC (38_) and South Carolina (37) finished second and third in the women's team race.

Florida State finished with a big rush Saturday. Garrett Johnson (shot put), Rafeeq Curry (triple jump) and Walter Dix (200) won individual titles for the Seminoles. Florida State also had three second-place finishes Saturday: Dix (100), Tom Lancashire (1,500) and Ricardo Chambers (400).

“This is big for Florida State,” said Seminoles coach Bob Bramen. “Not just for the track program, but for the university as a whole.”

Auburn's title run was propelled by a 1-2 finish in the 400 hurdles. Markita James (54.47) and Josanne Lucas (55.29) originally thought they had finished second and third, but the first runner to cross the finish line, Melaine Walker of Texas, was disqualified for not clearing the sixth hurdle cleanly.

Walker's time of 53.84 would have been an NCAA meet record.

“It's unfortunate for Melaine Walker, but I'll take it,” Walker said.

Auburn coach Ralph Spry said he'd savor the national title, because they don't come cheap.

“There are more than 300 Division I schools competing in track and field,” Spry said. “It's one of the toughest championships to win. This says a lot about the commitment Auburn is making to the track and field program.”

Carter's historic double began at 12:52 p.m with the 100-meter final. He trailed out of the blocks but finished with a rush. Dix, the defending champion, was second in 10.18.

After taking some brief bows in front of the Hornet Stadium crowd of 9,166, Carter tried to make the most of his 32-minute break before the 400 final. Florida State's Chambers made Carter work for his second win of the day, finishing second in 44.71 to Carter's winning time of 44.53.

At last year's NCAA meet in Sacramento, Carter finished second in the 100 and anchored LSU to a collegiate record in the 4 x 400 relay. When the schedule was changed for this year's event to accommodate live television coverage by CBS, Carter and LSU coach Dennis Shaver set their sights on an unprecedented 100/400 double.

“Xavier's a very, very tough competitor,” Shaver said. “I felt like he could do it. He has the ability to concentrate and execute during a race.”

LSU set the day's only NCAA meet record in the women's 4 x 400 relay, clocking 3:25.78. Anchoring for the Tigers was Deonna Lawrence, a sophomore from Sheldon High School in nearby Elk Grove.

Florida State had already clinched the team title by the time the men's 4 x 400 relay rolled around, but LSU took command on the second and third legs. Kelly Willie, the runner-up in the open 200, clocked a 44.8 split on the second leg, and the Tigers gave Carter a big lead when he took the baton for the final lap. His 45.6 split gave LSU a 3:01.58 win.

“I'm going to take a week off and then start playing football,” said Carter, a wide receiver.

In other events Saturday:

- South Carolina's Amberly Nesbitt and Shalonda Solomon won the women's 100 and 200 meters. Nesbitt won in 11.34 while Solomon took the 200 in 22.62. Auburn's Kerron Stewart was second in both events by a combined margin of 0.05 seconds.

- Texas A&M junior Clora Williams won the women's 400 in an upset, clocking 51.11.

- Oregon freshman Rebekah Noble won the women's 800 in 2:02.07. Sixth with 200 meters remaining, Noble sprinted past the front-runner, Minnesota's Heather Dorniden, in the last 30 meters.

- Arizona State sophomore Jacquelyn Johnson won the heptathlon with 5,939 points.

- Washington sophomore Amy Lia scored a big upset in the women's 1,500, winning in 4:14.63.

- Dix won the 200 in 20.30. LSU's Willie was second in 20.48.

- Another Washington runner, Ryan Brown, pulled off an upset, winning the men's 800 in a lifetime-best time of 1:46.29.

- BYU senior won the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase in 8:34.10. Defending champion Mircea Bodgan of UTEP was second in 8:35.35.

- The anticipated high-flying duel between Florida State's Lacy Janson and UCLA's Chelsea Johnson was a disappointment. Janson and Johnson cleared 13-11_, Janson winning on fewer misses.

- Miami junior Tabia Charles won the women's triple jump at 44-11_.

- North Carolina senior Laura Gerraughty, a 2004 Olympian, closed out her college career in fine fashion, winning the shot put at 60-1_.

- Georgia's Jenny Dahlgren won the women's hammer throw with a 226-4 effort.

- Justin Runcavage of North Carolina upset the pre-meet favorite, Arkansas senior Eric Brown, in the men's javelin. Runcavage threw 243-4.

-- Courtesy Sacramento State

Friday, June 9

Aries Merritt broke a 28-year-old meet record held by one of the greatest hurdlers in history, Greg Foster.

Virginia Powell broke a two-day-old record held by someone intent on becoming one of the best hurdlers ever – Virginia Powell.

Friday at the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships was a tale of two hurdlers, with one caveat.

It was the best of times for both.

Powell won Friday's 100-meter hurdles final in 12.48 seconds, shattering her own collegiate record of 12.55, set in Friday's semifinals.

“I'm very happy, but it just makes me hungrier for American and world records,” Powell said.

Moments later, Merritt, a Tennessee junior, won the men's 110-meter high hurdles in 13.21, breaking the NCAA meet record of 13.22, set in 1978 by UCLA's Greg Foster. But Merritt wasn't thinking of Foster's record when he settled into the starting blocks. He thought of Powell, and wondered how he could possibly match it.

“When I heard her time, I thought, oh my God, she ran so fast,” Merritt said. “I've got to get world leader, too. At least I was able to do that.”

Powell's time was the fastest in the world this year. Merritt's time matched the world leader run by Xiang Liu, the reigning Olympic champion from China.

That's the NCAA meet in a nutshell – a constant game one-upmanship. It's what makes this one of the most compelling track meets in the world.

Powell and Merritt are just the latest examples. But LSU sprinter Xavier Carter is aiming even higher today when he attempts a daunting triple in the 100, 400 and 4 x 400 relay. He's done everything he can do up to this point. Carter ran the second leg on the Tigers' victorious 4 x 100 relay Friday and then won his 400-meter semifinal in a 44.96.

Aries Merritt of Tennessee set a new NCAA meet record of 13.21 in the 110 meter hurdles (Errol Anderson/The Sporting Image)

A nice day's work, but now it gets really tough. Carter runs the 100-meter final at 12:42 p.m., the 400 final at 1:20, and the relay final at 2:45. If he pulls it off, Carter's name will be carved in stone. No athlete, male or female, has ever won the 100 and 400 at an NCAA meet.

“It's kind of hard, but there's nothing I can do,” Carter said. “I just need to suck it up.”

One of Carter's teammates thinks he can pull it off.

“He's a strong competitor,” said LSU sophomore Richard Thompson, the leadoff runner in the spring relay. “I think he can win the 100 and 400.”

Today's 100 final looks too close to call, pitting Carter, Clemson's Travis Padgett, UTEP's Churandy Martina and Florida State's defending champion, Walter Dix. The 100 results will figure prominently in the men's team race.

After three days of competition, Arizona leads with 28 points. But Florida State and LSU have gobs of potential points on the line today.

On the women's side, defending champion Texas is tied for the lead with Nebraska with 26 points apiece. Texas looked dead in the water when sprinter/jumper, Marshevet Hooker, withdrew from the meet earlier in the week with an injury. At last year's outdoor nationals, Hooker won the 100, finished second in the long jump and anchored Texxas to victory in the 4 x 100 relay.

But the Longhorns showed their depth – and pluck – by winning Friday's sprint relay without Hooker. Texas then added 10 additional team points in the women's high jump. Destinee Hooker, Marsevet's younger sister, won with a jump of 6 feet, 2_ inches.

“This is for both of us,” Destinee Hooker said “The team is showing that we're not going to lay down and die.”

When she set a collegiate record in Wednesday's semifinals of the 100 hurdles, Powell said she planned to run even faster in the final.

She kept her word. Aside from breaking her own collegiate record, Powell's winning time of 12.48 made her the fifth-fastest performer in U.S. history. Nebraska's Priscilla Lopes finished second in 12.60, faster than the collegiate record entering the meet.

“I ran a personal best, I can't ask for more,” said Lopes, who finished second to Powell for the second year in a row. “We're both young. We're going to have many more years of this.”

Other winners Friday included Mary Cullen of Providence and Chris Solinsky of Wisconsin in the women's and men's 5,000 meters; USC's Jesse Williams in the high jump; Oregon's Tommy Skipper in the pole vault; Jennifer Barringer of Colorado in the 3,000-meter steeplechase; Dana Pounds of Air Force in the women's javelin; Vikas Gowda of North Carolina in the men's discus; Spyridon Jullien of Virginia Tech in the men's hammer throw; and Dace Ruskule of Nebraska in the women's discus.

Today's highlights include the men's 100, the women's shot put and the women's pole vault. The women's vault features the only two 15-footers in collegiate history, Chelsea Johnson (UCLA) and Lacy Janson (Florida State).

-- Courtesy Sacramento State

Thursday, June 8

The gas-guzzling dragsters will have their moment in the sun at the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships, beginning this afternoon. But Thursday belonged to the fuel-efficient models.

Victoria Jackson of Arizona State found the 80-degree temperature at the start of the women's 10,000-meter run balmy, racing to victory in 32 minutes, 54.72 seconds. The leader of the Sun Devils' suddenly red-hot distance corps became the first ASU runner to win an NCAA outdoor title at any race longer than one lap.

“We have to train at 5 a.m. back home,” Jackson said. “Everyone's been complaining here about the heat and I'm thinking, yeah, right. When they were spraying us out there tonight, I was trying to get out of the way.”

While Jackson was searching for a sweatshirt, Josphat Boit of Arkansas was winning the men's 10,000 with a similar late-race surge, clocking 28:37.64. While the defending national champions aren't considered a serious threat to win their 12th men's team title in the last 15 years, the Razorbacks did pick up 14 points in the 10,000 as Marc Rodrigues finished fourth.

The team races really heat up today with the 4 x 100 relay finals. Team contenders LSU and UTEP have teams in the men's final, as do Miami, Auburn, Texas and USC in the women's final.

Today's schedule also features finals in the women's 100 hurdles and men's 110-meter hurdles. USC's Virginia Powell set a collegiate record of 12.55 in Wednesday's semifinal, and Tennessee's Aries Merritt looks poised to run very fast in the men's highs.

Auburn's run for the women's title is off to a fast start following Jovanee Jarrett's upset win in Thursday's long jump final. Jarrett jumped a wind-aided 21-2_ to give the Tigers 10 points they didn't expect, with many more expected to come in the sprints, relays and hurdles.

But for the unexpected, it will be hard to top Thursday's decathlon shocker. Arizona's Jake Arnold won with a career-best 7,870 points as Trey Hardee crashed and burned in his final college competition.

Hardee, the defending champion and collegiate record holder in the decathlon, finished ninth. Hardee had a 423-point lead after seven events but failed to clear a height in the pole vault.

“I outscored him 950 to zero,” Arnold said. “I no-heighted at both the indoor and outdoor nationals, so I know how it feels.”

With a goose egg in one of his strongest events, Hardee finished with 7,263 points, miles off his collegiate record of 8,465 points. It turned out that he would have won had he cleared merely 13 feet in the vault, but Hardee waited until the bar reached 15-9 to take his first jump. He missed all three of his attempts.

Jovanee Jarrett of Auburn won the long jump with a wind-aided 21-2 1/2 (Kirby Lee)

To his credit, Hardee gave it the college try, running a lifetime-best 4:42.23 in the 1,500-meter run. But he failed to score a single point for Texas in the team race.

“It's just one of those things,” Hardee said. “That's the height I started at all year.”

Another defending champion lost in the men's long jump final, but at least Fabrice Lapierre of Texas A&M finished second. Nebraska's Arturs Abolin of Nebraska won with a leap of 26-3, defeating Lapierre by three-quarters of an inch.

In the women's 10,000, Jackson was content to bide her time in the early stages before making a strong move with six laps to go. Clara Horowitz of Duke couldn't respond to Jackson's surge, finishing second in 33:00.85.

Boit, the men's 10,000 winner by nearly four seconds over Providence's Martin Fagan, said he saved something for tonight's 5,000 final.

“I thought tonight's race would be close,” Boit said. “I'm going to the 5,000 with confidence.”

LSU sensation Xavier Carter should be feeling similarly confident after a strong showing in the first two rounds of the men's 100-meter dash. Carter won his heat in 10.25 and finished a close second to Wisconsin's Demi Omole in the second semifinal, 10.13 to 10.15.

Clemson freshman Travis Padgett parlayed a blazing start to a 10.13 victory in the first semifinal, ahead of pre-meet favorites Churandy Martina (UTEP) and Walter Dix (Florida State).

Carter is attempting to become the first athlete in the NCAA history to win the 100 and 400 meters. He's a strong favorite in the 400 but a relative novice in the 100. By the time he's finished Saturday, Carter will have run nine races, including relays.

LSU is favored to win both of the men's relays, though Florida State remains the pick to claim the men's team title. After having its sprint relay team disqualified in Wednesday's preliminaries, Florida State qualified its big guns on Thursday – Dix in the 100, Garrett Johnson in the shot put and Tom Lancashire in the 1,500.

Compelling as the roar of engines might be, it would be a mistake to focus solely on today's track action. The men's pole vault features 19-footer Tommy Skipper (Oregon) against defending champion Robbie Pratt (BYU). USC's Jesse Williams defends his men's high jump title against a field that includes the 2004 champion, Andra Manson of Texas.

-- Courtesy Sacramento State

Wednesday, June 7

In a clear and legible hand, Virginia Powell wrote her name in college track's record book. But the USC hurdler picked a pencil with a good eraser.

On the opening day of the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the defending champion in the 100-meter hurdles erased an 18-year-old record – and a legendary name – from the books. Powell won her semifinal race Wednesday in 12.55 seconds, making her the fastest collegian in history.

“I definitely had the collegiate record in mind,” Powell said. “This is my last college meet.”

Powell shared the previous mark of 12.61 with Gail Devers, who set the first of her many records as a UCLA senior in 1988. When Powell's time flashed on the Hornet Stadium scoreboard, Wednesday's crowd of 4,629 let out an audible gasp.

The surprise wasn't that Powell ran so fast, given her recent form. She clocked 12.61 just 11 days earlier at the West Regionals in Provo, Utah.

The shocker was that she did it in the semifinals, running into a headwind of 0.9 meters per second. Records in the sprints and hurdles are seldom broken running into a breeze, however slight. But Powell was under orders to run fast.

“I tell them every race is a final,” said Tommie Lee White, the USC assistant coach who once shared the world record in the 120-yard high hurdles. “I don't want them to get used to running slow.”

This meet is full of people in a hurry. One possible exception is Trey Hardee, the defending decathlon champion and college record holder from Texas. Hardee finished Wednesday's first five events with 4,331 points. He has a massive 338-pound lead over Arizona's Jake Arnold entering today's second half of the decathlon.

While Powell sounded as though she couldn't wait to run faster in Friday's final, Hardee's thoughts Wednesday were on getting a little physical therapy and a good night's sleep.

“Last year I was down by a considerable amount going into the second day,” he said. “You get a better night's rest when you're ahead.”

Texas women's coach Bev Kearney probably had a longer night. The Longhorns now have to defend their team title without the help of Marshevet Hooker. Hooker, the catalyst of last year's championship, withdrew from Wednesday's long jump qualifying and is finished for the week. Hooker injured her hamstring at the Midwest Regionals.

Churandy Martina takes handoff from John Alipio on the anchor of UTEP heat-winning 4 x 100-meter relay (Kirby Lee)

Florida State's quest for the men's title took a smaller hit Wednesday when the Seminoles were disqualified for an illegal pass in 400-meter relay qualifying. That might explain why Ricardo Chambers was in such a hurry in the first round of the 400 meters. The Florida State sophomore blazed to a 44.99 clocking to easily advance.

Xavier Carter, the LSU sophomore who's attempting to become the first athlete ever to win an NCAA 100/400 double, won his 400 heat Wednesday in an easy-looking 45.51. Carter also ran a leg on the LSU sprint relay team that qualified for the second round in 38.87, the fastest collegiate time of the year.

Today's schedule includes finals in the men's and women's 10,000 meters. Runners to watch in the men's race include Josphat Boit of Arkansas and Simon Bairu, a two-time NCAA cross country champion from Wisconsin. Duke's Clara Horowitz, a Berkeley native, is the favorite in the women's 10,000 final.

Speed freaks should enjoy today's heats and semifinals in the 100-meter dash. The men's and women's fields are loaded with first-rate sprinters. Carter is up against Churandy Martina (UTEP), Demi Omole (Wisconson), Travis Padgett (Clemson) and Walter Dix (Florida State), the defending champion. Dix was the fastest qualifier in Wednesday's 200 heats at 20.62.

The women's 100 includes Auburn's Kerron Stewart, USC's Carol Rodriguez, LSU's

Kelly Ann Baptiste and South Carolina's Shalonda Solomon. Solomon posted the fastest qualifying time Wednesday in the 200, clocking 22.81.

Powell would have been a factor in the 100-meter dash had she elected to run it, but she wanted to have fresh legs for the final hurdle races of her college career.

Those legs were bursting with energy Wednesday. After winning her first-round heat in 12.93, Powell exploded out of the blocks in the first semifinal. She never hit the breaks, racing to the fastest time in the world for the 2006 season.

“I didn't feel like I'd run 12.55,” Powell said. “I thought it would be more like 12.59. But I knew that a 12.5 was coming. I feel I can go faster in the final.”

Last year's NCAA Championships in Sacramento featured two collegiate records on the final day of competition. Carter anchored LSU to a record-setting win in the 4x400 relay, and Florida's Kerron Clement defeated LSU's Bennie Brazell in an epic 400 hurdles. Clement (47.56) and Brazell (47.67) each ran faster than the 47.85 record set by UCLA's Kevin Young in 1988.

That's how old the Devers record was in the women's 100 hurdles. Powell jumped the gun on last year's classic by starting the record-breaking a few days early.

-- Courtesy Sacramento State

Previous Trackshark Coverage:

• 2006 NCAA Indoor Coverage
• 2005 NCAA Outdoor Coverage
• 2005 NCAA Indoor Coverage
• 2004 NCAA Outdoor Coverage
• 2004 NCAA Indoor Coverage
• 2003 NCAA Outdoor Coverage
• 2003 NCAA Indoor Coverage