Records keep toppling for Arkansas' men's track and field team and Erick Walder, the Razorbacks' king of the horizontal jumpers.
Arkansas extended its winning streak in the NCAA Inddoor Championships to a record 11 consecutive years with the highest point total in the meet's 30-year history, compiling 94 points in 16 events in the two-day meet that ended Saturday night.The previous high was 76 by Texas-El Paso in 1980 and 1981. Since Arkansas began its domination of the meet in 1984, its previous high was 70 in 1985.
The Razorbacks' winning margin over second-place Tennessee was 54 points, the biggest in meet history, breaking the record of 41 set by Arkansas in 1985.
BYU men's team finished in a tie for 53rd with Stanford, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Louisiana State.
Jason Pyrah of the Cougars was eighth in the mile with a time of 4:07.02.
The Cougar women finished in a tie for 23rd with Georgia Tech, Stanford and Houston. Weber State women finished in a tie for 37th with Boston.
The Wildcats finished fifth in the distance relay with a time of 11:23.00. Michigan was first with a time of 11:08.60.
BYU senior Tonya Todd placed second in the 3000-meter run in a personal best clocking of 9:20.68 to win All-America honors.
Her time, the second best in Cougar history, is just two seconds slower than Jill Holiday's 8-year-old record of 9:18.72.
In the high jump, Cougar freshman Melinda Boice of American Fork had three great jumps at 5-10 all the way over the bar, but tipped it off each time coming down. She tied for 11th at 5-8.
Sophomore Petra Juraskova placed 11th in the shot put with a mark of 40-feet-1 inch, a distance below her qualifying throw of 50-101/4 set at the WAC championships two weeks ago.
For the third straight year, the big point scorer was Walder.
Saturday night, he won the triple jump for the third year in a row, after having won the long jump for the third consecutive year Friday night. No other jumper ever has won six NCAA indoor titles.
The previous high was five, by former Arkansas star Mike Conley. He won the long jump in 1984-85 and the triple jump in 1983-85.
The Razorbacks also got victories Saturday night from Niall Bruton of Ireland in the mile, Calvin Davis in the 400 and its distance medley relay team in a world-best 9 minutes, 30.07 seconds. Their other win came Friday night, by Jason Bunston of Canada in the 5,000 meters.
Louisiana State won its second straight women's title and fifth in eight years, with 48 points.
After their scintillating individuual victories, Bruton and Davis ran the first two legs (800 and 400 meters) on Arkansas' awesome distance medley relay, which broke the previous world best of 9:33.72 by Michigan this year. Brian Baker and Graham Hood ran the final two legs of 1,200 and 1,600 meters, respectively.
Other men's winners included Mississippi's Greg Saddler in the 55 in a 1994 collegiate-best 6.11; Tennessee's Tony Parrilla in the 800 in 1:47.77; Texas A&M in the 1,600 relay in 3:06.51, and South Carolina's Ron Willis in the 35-pound weight throw at 71-11.
The other women's winners included Seton Hall's Flirtisha Harris at 52.11, a 1994 collegiate best; Providence's Amy Rudolph in the mile at 4:37.64, also a collegiate best for the year and Oklahoma's Kay Gooch in the 3,000 at 8:58.85.