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Meet was held this week from Wed thru Saturday at John McDonnell Field in Fayetteville. As for track and field trivia, uaf is the only school to ever host all three of the "track" championships ....those being cross-country, indoor track and outdoor track. My guess is that the meet was a sell out as there was SRO Friday night and Saturday.

Texas A&M made two thrilling comebacks to win both the men's and women's meets. The women trailed Oregon by 43-42 with two events left and got 8 points in the triple jump to seal the win by 50-43. Arizona State was 3rd at 41 followed by Florida State with 40 and Texas with 36.

The men's meet was a classic. Oregon, now coached by former Stanford coach Vin Lanana who has produced lots of great distance runners, did about all they could with three events remaining and had a lead of 46-41-36-34-22 over Florida State, Florida, LSU and A&M. The Ducks were one runner away from icing the meet and were haunted by a strange foot injury suffered in a prelim to 1500m star Matt Centrowitz who failed to advance to the finals. The 2nd Duck miler only needed to finish 6th or better in the 1500m finals to cap the win. However, in a very fast race where the top 4 runners all ran better than 3:57 for the mile (equivalent) he could only take 11th in the madhouse finish.

A&M pulled out 18 points in the triple jump to move from 5th to 3rd. With only the 4x 400m relay left, Oregon clung to a 46-41-40-36 lead over Florida, A&M and Florida State. The large contingent of Oregon fans were rooting for dropped batons as the three teams hunting the Ducks were all in the relay.

The entire meet came down to the last 20m of the relay as Florida State (with the Borlee twins from Belgium both running about 44 seconds for their 400m) edged in front for thw in and to tie Oregon at 46. Florida snuck into a surprising 4th for five points to also tie Oregon and FSU for a possible 3-way tie on top. However, the Aggies roared down the home stretch to slip into 2nd for the 8 points that put them on top by 48-46. There were bodies all over the track as exhausted sprinters stumbled over each others in the hot sun.

There were many highlights of the meet. Oregon's Galen Rupp showed why he is the top rated college long distance runner with a 5000m qualifying race at 1am Thursday morning (meet was suspended for three hours late Wed due to severe storms) then came back at 9pm to win the 10,000m with a 4:10 last mile. Friday night Rupp ran with the pack in the finals of the 5000m and put them away with a 4:03 mile to take a double win for 20 points.

Andrew Wheating of the Ducks showed that you never give up. As the race favorite Sat afternoon, Wheating found himself completely blocked in the last curve and had to manuever around several others the last 100m to literally take the lead over the Texas runner at the tape in 1:46. If you do not know how fast this is...try to run a lap around your local high school track in 53 seconds then do another that fast....make sure you have a doctor's clearance first.

Trindon Holliday of LSU ran a very fast 10.00 for 100m.

Track champions come from all over and not just the "powerhouses". Ronnie Ash of Bethune-Cookman won the 110m high hurdles in a a very fine 13.27.

Florida State's 4x 400m relay team clocked a 2:59.99 while A&M was a whisker behind in 3:00.91. These are hoss times.

Marcel Lomicky of Va Tech won the 16 pound hammer throw with a tremendous mark of 71.78m (235' 6").

Ashton Eaton of Oregon won the decathlon ("The Struggle of 10" as the back of the Ohio State competitor's shirts read) is about as smooth as they come and won with 8,241 points.

In the women's, Alexandria Anderson onf Texas won her prelims heat in the 100m in a very fast 11.02 and later won the finals in abit slower 11.20 into a slight head wind. For those of you old Bears who remember high school track, we used to marvel at guys who ran 10 flat for 100 yards. She would have beat them.

Joana Atkins of Auburn ran a fast 400m in 50.39 for the win while Geena Gall of Michigan ran a world class time of 2:00.80 to win the 800m.

US Olympian Jenny Barringer of Colorado won her prelims heat in the 3000m steeplechase in a smooth 9:57 then whacked off 32 seconds to win the finals at 9:25, a new meet and collegiate record. She won by 15 seconds over a very good runner.

While not winnning or record times, Alex Becker of Tulsa was 5th in the 10,000m on Thursday night and 6th in the 5000m on Friday night. CC fans in this part of the country have seen Becker run since high school and have seen her continue to improve to become a solid All-American.

Tiffany Ofili of Michigan won the 100m hurles in a screaming 12.96 clocking.

Destiny Hooker of Texas won the high jump at 1.95m (6' 4.75") in oppressive heat and sun missing only once along the way.

Kimberly Williams of Florida State won the triple jump at a superb 14.38m (47' 2.25"). Note that the 8th place in the men's event (last scoring place) was 16.03m (52' 2.25").

You do not have to be a die hard track fan to enjoy watching great athletes at work. This was a meet of many great performances and fierce competition. Glad it was in Arkansas. Hope to see some UCA athletes at nationals in a few years.