Celebrating A Century of NCAA Track & Field Championships
ON THIS DAY: Kerley Set 400-Meter CR In Austin
May 26, 2017
Going into the 2017 outdoor season, no collegian had gone sub-44.00 in the 400 within the confines of the collegiate season. Quincy Watts of Southern California held the collegiate record at that exact mark since his victory at the 1992 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Austin, Texas.
Indoors, Fred Kerley of Texas A&M made his presence felt that year with a few of the fastest marks in collegiate history. Kerley ripped two laps in 45.02 in his season opener at the Clemson Tiger Paw for what was the No. 3 spot on the all-time chart. Fast forward to the postseason and Kerley lowered his PR to 44.94 at the SEC Indoor Championships, in turn setting an all-time collegiate best on an oversized track. Then, Kerley went even faster in front of his home crowd at the NCAA Indoor Championships, winning the 400-meter title in 44.85 to become the fourth-f
Celebrating A Century of NCAA Track & Field Championships
Saunders Won Back-To-Back SP Titles, Set CR
June 9, 2016
That’s a common refrain Raven Saunders heard from her coach Connie Price-Smith.
Saunders doubled up on immortality in 2015 when she completed the indoor-outdoor sweep of the shot put as a freshman at Southern Illinois. She was just the third freshman in meet history to top the outdoor podium – joining Eileen Vanisi of Texas in 1991 and Jessica Cosby of UCLA in 2002 (Vanisi actually set a meet record 24 years prior in her first foray).
Fast forward one year and Saunders returned to the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships as the defending champion, but under a new banner. Saunders followed Price-Smith to Oxford, Mississippi, when the four-time Olympian took over at Ole Miss.
Iowa State and eighth-ranked
Florida sit a little bit off-pace from those previous six teams.
The Cougars actually closed the gap on the Tigers this past weekend by adding two national top-10 marks at the Oregon Twilight – both in the steeplechase.
Garrett Marsing went 8:34.40 for the third-best mark this season, while
Clayson Shumway finished in 8:40.11 for the seventh.
North Carolina A&T improved its ranking two spots since Week 6. The now ninth-ranked Aggies rolled to the team title at the MEAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships.
Randolph Ross won the 400 in 44.60 to move up to No. 4 on the Descending Order List and make North Carolina A&T the only program with two sub-45 second athletes (Trevor Stewart sits No. 2 at 44.52 from the North Florida Invitational).
Celebrating A Century of NCAA Track & Field Championships
Lawson Completed “Jesse Owens Triple” In 2016
Jarrion Lawson flawlessly executed a simple plan to historic results in 2016.
Five years ago, Lawson became just the second athlete in the history of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships to complete the 100-200-long jump triple in the same year. The other was Jesse Owens, who did so twice in 1935 and 1936 (Owens also added a victory in the 220-yard hurdles in each of those years, for good measure).
“I’m just thankful to God to be able to do the same things that Jesse Owens did,” Lawson said after the meet. “It’s just a great privilege and honor. It’s just amazing to come out and win three events. To be mentioned in the same sentence as Owens, I just thank God for it all.”