Posted: June 14, 2005

Athletics: USATF News & Notes, Volume 6, Number 46

Arkansas, Texas win NCAA team titles

The University of Arkansas men won their third consecutive team championship, and the University of Texas clinched the women's title with a victory in the final event, the 1,600m relay, Saturday at the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Sacramento, California.

The Arkansas men finished with 60 points to win their 12th outdoor title and their 11th in the last 14 years. Florida was second with 49 points, followed by LSU with 36. ``I think it's probably one of the top three teams we've ever had,'' coach John McDonnell told NCAAsports.com. ``We've had some great teams back in 1985 and '94-95. This team ranks up with those guys.''

In winning its third NCAA women's track title and first since 1999, Texas tallied 55 points. South Carolina and UCLA tied for second with 48.

The triumph was a personal one, too, for Texas coach Bev Kearney, who lost all feeling and motor skills below the waist from a car crash in 2002. She vowed to walk again, and after three years of exhausting rehabilitation, she gets around with only a cane.

"This makes it all the more sweeter,'' Kearney said. ``With the personal things that I had to overcome and the losses we suffered a year ago, and coming here with only seven people, knowing that we had very little room for error. We just kept believing it was possible.''

Highlights of the meet included Arkansas sophomore Wallace Spearmon sprinting away from an outstanding field to defend his 200m men's title in a world-leading time of 19.91 seconds.

Spearmon, running with a sore right knee, pulled ahead on the final turn and outran the competition from there, losing his balance and tumbling to the track after crossing the finish line. He bounced back to his feet to celebrate the 1-3 Arkansas finish in the race that clinched the Razorbacks' 41st NCAA track or cross country championship under John McDonnell. Xavier Carter, a freshman on a football scholarship at LSU, was second in 20.08 with Arkansas senior Tyson Gay third in 20.16. Spearmon's time eclisped Tyson Gay's 19.93 in Friday night's semifinals as the world's fastest 200m this year. Following his performance Spearmon announced that he would forego the remainder of his collegiate eligibility to pursue a career in professional track and field.

At dusk, as the final day of competition came to an end at Sacramento State's Hornet Stadium, LSU set a collegiate record of 2 minutes, 59.59 seconds in the men's 1,600m relay. The quartet of Bennie Brazell, Xavier Carter, Reginald Dardar and Kelly Willie broke the collegiate and meet record of 2:59.91 set by UCLA in 1988.

There also were meet and collegiate record performances by 19-year-old Florida sophomore Kerron Clement in the men's 400m hurdles, who successfully defended his title by posting the fastest time in the world this year of 47.56 seconds. 2004 Olympic relay gold medalist Monique Henderson of UCLA also set a meet and collegiate record in the women's 400m (50.10) and UCLA's Candice Baucham set a meet record (14.07 meters/46 feet, 2 inches) in the women's triple jump.

Elsewhere, 2004 Olympic 4x400m relay gold medalist Darold Williamson of Baylor capped his collegiate career with a victory in the men's 400 meters. Williamson, who joins a list of Baylor 400m champions that includes Michael Johnson and Jeremy Wariner, held off Jamel Ashley of Mississippi State to win in 44.51 seconds. The only faster 400 in the world this year was Williamson's 44.27 in the semifinals Friday night. Ashley was second in 44.75.

For more information on the 2005 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships, including the complete results, visit: www.ncaasports.com.

USOC honors Howard as May Athlete of Month

The U.S. Olympic Committee has named 2004 Olympic high jumper Chaunte Howard as its female Athlete of the Month.

A junior at Georgia Tech, Howard won her 28th consecutive collegiate high jump competition at the NCAA East Regional Championships in New York, N.Y. with a mark of 1.90 meters/6 feet, 2.75 inches. A Riverside, Calif. native, Howard also set a new George C. Griffin Track record in tying her world-best mark in the women's high jump with a clearance of 1.95m/6-4.75 on May 14 at the Georgia Tech Invitational in Atlanta.

Whilden breaks Payton Jordan masters record

Former University of Texas sprint great Bobby Whilden set a new masters M70 100m world record Thursday at the National Senior Games in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Whilden finished the race in 12.76 seconds to shatter the previous world record of 12.91 set by legendary Stanford University coach Payton Jordan. The annual Payton Jordan U.S. Open in Palo Alto, Calif., a fixture on USA Track & Field's Visa Championships Series, is named after Jordan, who brought the 1960 U.S. Olympic Trials and the famed 1962 U.S.-U.S.S.R. track meet to Stanford.

Whilden, a Texas University Sports Hall of Fame inductee, was a member of three world record setting 440-yard relay teams. He led Texas to back-to-back South Western Conference titles, and was a finalist in the 200 meters at the 1956 U.S. Olympic Trials.