For the fourth time in 22 years, the NCAA Track and Field Championships will come to Provo this week, and there are strong indications it might be the best of them all. Certainly, it promises to be memorable. Top individual matchups. A tight team race. Record speed. Olympic
stars. Rising stars. The 68th NCAA meet, which begins Wednesday and ends Saturday, will have them all.Indeed, the NCAA meet, falling as it does in the doldrums of a post-Olympic year, might very well be one of the year's top track and field meets anywhere.
Here's a preview of the meet:
The team races
UCLA, the two-time defending men's champ, and Florida are expected to fight to the final event for the team championship. Much depends on UCLA's condition. Three of their top athletes - hurdler Derek Knight, sprinter Steve Lewis and Mike Marsh - have been injured - but they're reported to be ready for the NCAAs. Two other world-class athletes - silver medalist Danny Everett (left school) and sprinter Henry Thomas (redshirting) - also are missing.
"Coming into the season we had our strongest team ever," said UCLA Coach Bob Larsen said earlier this month. "We can still score well if we get some people healthy."
On the women's side the team race probably won't be as close. LSU, led by sprinter Dawn Sowell, is expected to win the team championship for the second consecutive year rather handily.
The talent
Has there ever been a headier field than the one that will gather in Provo? OK, the field events are down, particularly the weight events. At least one coach attributes the decline there to steroids. Oops, there's the S-word again.
"(Testing for) steroids has taken its toll on the (weight events), I guess," says BYU coach Willard Hirschi. "Those events are not what they once were."
But while those areas are suffering, there is deep talent elsewhere. Three 1988 Olympic gold medalists will be on the track, eight months after delivering three of the big surprises in the Olympic track competition.
UCLA's Lewis, then a 19-year-old freshman, beat world record holder Butch Reynolds to win the Olympic 400-meter final with a time of 43.87. Kenya's Paul Ereng, then a 22-year-old freshman at Virginia and a converted quarter-miler, kicked past the redoubtable Said Aouita and Joaquim Cruz to win the Olympic 800 final in 1:43.45. Countryman Peter Rono, a 21-year-old sophomore from Mount St. Mary's (Md.), then delivered another shock, outkicking Steve Cram and Steve Scott to win the Olympic 1,500 final in 3:35.96. There is yet another Olympic medalist in the field events: Hollis Conway, a 6-foot junior at Southwestern Louisiana, won the silver in the high jump with a leap of 7-8 3/4.
The rest of the star roll call: Florida's Dennis Mitchell was fourth in the Olympic 100-meter dash final; TCU's (and Jamaica's) Raymond Stewart was seventh in the same race; Vicki Huber, a pre-med student from Villanova, placed sixth in the Olympic 3,000-meter final, and beat Mary Slaney in the process.
The altitude factor
The 4,627-foot elevation will slow races longer than 800 meters, which might pave the way for another big day for the Kenyans; on the other hand, the altitude will aid the sprints and jumps.
Since Southern Cal's 440-meter relay team of O.J. Simpson, Lennox Miller, Fred Kuller and Earl McCullough set a world record in 1967, Provo's NCAA meets have had a history of producing big sprint and jump marks - especially in 1982, the last time the NCAA meet was in Provo and the first time the meet was held on BYU's new track facility, which features soft, gradual turns and a quick surface.
In that meet, Stanley Floyd ran a 10.03 100, James Butler ran a wind-aided 20.07 200, Del Davis and Milt Ottey high jumped 7-7 1/4 to tie the American record, Vance Johnson and Olympian Mike Conley both sailed 26-11 in the long jump, Keith Connor set a collegiate record of 57-7 3/4 in the triple jump, Houston set a collegiate record of 38.53 in the 4 x 100 relay, Merelene Ottey dashed 10.97 and a UCLA junior named Florence Griffith won the 200 in 22.39.
"This track is fast," says Hirschi. "You're going to see some times here that will shock your eyeballs."
The individual showdowns
A number of eagerly awaited showdowns could take place this week:
- Vicki Huber (Villanova) vs. Suzy Favor (Wisconsin) at 1,500 meters. Favor is the two-time defending NCAA 1,500 champ, and Huber, the two-time defending NCAA 3,000 champ.
- Lewis vs. Tyrone Kemp (Florida) at 400 meters. A year ago, Lewis was the upstart 19-year-old freshman winning the Olympic 400. Now he's already looking over his shoulder at another youngster, Kemp, a freshman who earlier this year lowered his personal record from 46.03 to 44.66.
- Mitchell vs. Stewart (TCU) at 100 meters. A rematch between two Olympic finalists. In the Olympics, Mitchell was fourth and Stewart, a Jamaican, pulled up lame to finish seventh. Both have been hot this spring. They appear to be the best in a deep field.
- Rono vs. Joe Falcon (Arkansas) and/or Kip Cheruiyot (Mount St. Mary's/Kenya). This matchup depends on whether Cheruiyot, an Olympic semifinalist at 5,000 meters, and Falcon, the defending NCAA champ, opt instead for the 5,000. Wherever (if ever) they meet, it would match three strong kickers.
- Ereng vs. the clock. Just months after winning the Indoor World Championships in Budapest with an indoor world record time of 1:44.84, Ereng reportedly claims to be ready to run in the 1:42 range. Who's to argue? The clock will probably be his only competition.
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(Additional information)
Elevation effects
How much will Provo's 4,627-foot elevation (1,381 meters) affect distance runners in this week's NCAA meet? Depending on the distance, anywhere from 4.2 seconds to a whopping 54.7 seconds, according to the best estimates.
In setting its qualifying standards for the national championships, the NCAA gives certain allowances for distance races longer than 800 meters that are run at altitude. In fact, it has created a different set of qualifying standards for each track throughout the country (Provo's standards are different, for example, than Ogden's). The accompanying chart illustrates how the thinner air at altitude affects the distances.
NCAA Qualifying Standards
Men Sea level Provo Diff.
1,500 meters 3:42.70 3:46.90 4.2
3,000m steeple. 8:48.00 8:59.00 11.0
5,000 meters 13:58.12 14:17/02 18.9
10,000 meters 29:17.00 30:03.50 46.5
Women Sea level Provo Diff.e
1,500 meters 4:20.50 4:25.40 4.9
3,000 meters 9:25.24 9:37.04 11.8
5,000 meters 16:27.74 16:49.44 22.2
10,000 meters 34:25.24 35:19.94 54.7