Fourth Time’s a Charm for Sacramento, NCAA® Track Championships

photo taken by Florida State University

Sacramento’s historic five-year run ended with a mad sprint as the 2007 NCAA® Division I Outdoor Championships produced four world-leading marks, three meet records and one collegiate record during four days of California sunshine at Hornet Stadium.

It marked the fourth time in five years that Sacramento played host to the NCAA® Championships, including the last three (2005-06-07) in a row. Not since 1933 had a city held three successive NCAA® meets.

It would be hard picking the best of Sacramento’s four, but this year’s event was superb from start to finish. Florida State’s Walter Dix won a rare sprint triple, Michigan’s Anna Willard set a collegiate record in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and Alysia Johnson of Cal won a terrific women’s 800 meters.

“This is truly one of the outstanding events in the world of track and field,” said Arizona State coach Greg Kraft.

Arizona State won its first-ever women’s outdoor championship while Florida State won its second straight men’s title. Florida State coach Bob Braman wishes he were coming back again next June, when the NCAA® meet moves to Des Moines, Iowa.

"We've got to get back here,” Braman said. “I've been doing this 24 years, and there's not a better site for the NCAA® meet. They run a first-class operation in Sacramento, from the way they organize the meet to the way they treat the coaches.

“The weather is perfect - warm during the day for the sprinters, cool at night for the distance runners,” Braman said. “And we travel farther than anyone to get here, so don't tell me it's inconvenient to travel this far. Sacramento is the ideal site for the NCAA® Championships."

Kraft wouldn’t argue. On Saturday, with the women’s team title securely in hand, the Arizona State coach said there was no way he was going to let his athletes douse him with the traditional victory shower.

“It would have to be one of our throwers, and they’re too tired to bother,” Kraft said.

It was one of the few times Kraft sold his women short. As the team celebrated on the victory stand early Saturday afternoon, ASU discus thrower Tai Battle surreptitiously produced a cooler of ice-cold water and dumped it over her coach’s head.

It was a fitting conclusion to yet another memorable NCAA® meeet. Saturday’s two-hour finale featured a dizzying succession of world-class races, from Johnson’s epic duel with Michigan’s Katie Erdman in the women’s 800 to Dix’s third sprint title to Baylor’s tour de force in the men’s 4 x 400 relay.

Dix won the 200 meters in 20.32 seconds to become the first male sprinter since San Jose State’s John Carlos in 1969 to win the 100, 200 and 4 x 100 relay at the same NCAA meet. The night before, the powerful junior ran the second leg on Florida State’s winning sprint relay. About 90 minutes later, Dix won the 100 meters in 9.92, a world leader and the fastest time ever run by a U.S. collegian.

“Winning the 100 and 200 has been a goal of mine since my freshman year,” said Dix, who has now won five NCAA® outdoor titles in three seasons.

The women’s 800 was one of the most anticipated races of the meet – and it somehow managed to exceed expectations. Johnson, a Cal junior who won the NCAA indoor title in March, set a torrid pace, passing the 400-meter mark in 57.34. Johnson led the field by several meters entering the homestretch but was nearly passed at the wire by the determined Erdman.

Johnson’s winning time of 1:59.29 was the second fastest in collegiate history, trailing only the 1:59.11 run by Wisconsin’s Suzy Favor in winning the 1990 NCAA® title. Erdman moved to third on the all-time collegiate list in finishing second in 1:59.35. Both women cut nearly two seconds off their personal bests.

“I felt very comfortable with the pace,” Johnson said. “If I needed to take it wire to wire, then that’s what I was going to do.”

“I wasn’t happy to be second, but I’m happy with that time,” Erdman said. “I got as close as I could.”

The men’s 1,500 meters featured the last two NCAA® champions in Leonel Manzano of Texas (2005) and Vincent Romo of South Alabama (2006). After a brisk early pace, Manzano opened up a small lead over Northern Arizona’s Lopez Lomong on the final curve.

But Lomong, the NCAA® indoor champion at 3,000 meters, had a slightly better kick, winning in a lifetime-best 3:37.07. Manzano was second in 3:37.48 as two others broke 3:38 – Rono (3:37.56) and Stanford’s Russell Brown (3:37.96). It was the deepest 1,500 in NCAA® meet history.

Lomong collapsed in joy before springing to his feet and saluting the final-day crowd of 10,165.

“These are great fans,” Lomong said. “They went bananas. It’s awesome to be a part of this.”

Arizona State’s women clinched the team title with a 1-3 finish by Jessica Pressley and Sarah Stevens in the shot put. Pressley, a graduate of Laguna Creek High School in nearby Elk Grove, bounced back from disappointing efforts in the discus and hammer to put the shot a winning distance of 59-0¾.

“To come out and win a national championship in front of my home crowd, it’s an awesome feeling,” Pressley said.

Baylor won the men’s 4 x 400 relay title, clocking a world-leading 3:00.04. In the women’s relay. Sacramento native Deonna Lawrence anchored LSU to victory in 3:28.07.

As exciting as Saturday’s finish was, Friday night might have been even better. After revving the crowd up with his sizzling 100, Dix turned the accelerator over to a couple of remarkable distance runners.

In the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase, Willard raced to victory in a collegiate-record time of 9:38.08, breaking the previous mark of 9:39.95 set by Friday’s runner-up, Lindsey Anderson of Weber State.

But in terms of shock value, Michelle Sikes took first place. The Wake Forest senior and soon-to-be Rhodes Scholar was first in the women’s 5,000 meters, setting an NCAA® meet record and U.S. collegiate best with her 15:16.76 clocking.

To win her first national collegiate title, Sikes had to beat Texas Tech sophomore Sally Kipyego. Kipyego, the winner of Thursday night’s 10,000 meters, was attempting to win an unprecedented fifth individual NCAA® title in one school year. Kipyego already had one cross country title, two indoor titles and one outdoor title.

Kipyego led with about 500 meters left in Friday’s 5,000, but Sikes made a powerful move that Kipyego couldn’t counter. Sikes won by more than seven seconds, lowering her previous personal best by more than 30 seconds.

“It’s incredible,” Sikes said. “I’ve dreamed about this for a whole year, and this was my last chance to do it. I believed I could do it.”

Georgia senior Jenny Dahlgren, the collegiate record holder in the women’s hammer, set the first NCAA® meet record of the 2007 championships when she threw 232-0 on her final throw to successfully defend her 2006 title. Dahlgren’s mark was a Hornet Stadium record.

“I was shaking before each of one my throws, telling myself, “Don’t be a wimp,” Dahlgren said. “The crowd was great today, and I’m really, really thrilled to win an NCAA® title and break a meet record during the last collegiate meet of my career.”

 

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