FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — LSU pole vaulter Russ Buller won the NCAA title in the pole vault, leading the Tigers to a seventh place finish, while Keisha Spencer helped the Lady Tigers to a fourth place finish, winning the triple jump, as the NCAA Indoor Championships concluded Saturday evening at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Ark.
Arkansas won the men’s team title, while UCLA brought home the women’s title with a solid second day effort to outdistance a very competitive field.
The Lady Tigers had an opportunity to move into second heading into the final event of the competition, but could only manage an eighth place finish.
The Tigers had an opportunity to tie for third in the men’s race as they entered the mile relay and were in the thick of things before third leg Wynand Dempers had the baton knocked from his hands and the Tigers dropped to 11th.
“With the exception of one or two things, we did about everything we could have this weekend,” said LSU head coach Pat Henry. “If one or two things happen then we could have been a little bit higher, but overall, we performed exceptionally well this weekend- we had two NCAA champions and three NCAA
runners-up, two school records. We had some great performances.”
After finishing as the runner-up a year ago, Buller finally got his coveted NCAA title, clearing 18-8 1/4 to become the first Tiger to win a national title indoors in any event since 1992. In addition, Buller became the first Tiger to ever win the pole vault indoors and the first LSU man to win an NCAA pole vault title since Matt Gordy won the title outdoors in 1933.
“I knew this was it, this is everything I’ve ever worked for,” said Buller. “When I hit 18-8 1/4 I felt like I finally had it. I’ve been so close before and it feels great to say that I finally did it. Sometimes you don’t have to be at your best and you can still win. Today I had to be at my best and it finally happened.”
Buller entered the competition 18 feet + inch and calmly cleared on his first attempt. After missing on his first attempt at 18-4 1/2, he settled down and cleared the height on his second attempt.
As the bar moved to 18-8 1/4, three competitors remained, one of whom was nemesis and defending NCAA champion Jacob Davis. Buller cleared the height on his second attempt, then watched Davis and Toby Stevenson fail to negotiate the height, giving the Westlake, La., native his first NCAA title.
Spencer was a heavy favorite to claim the women’s triple jump title and she did not disappoint. Spencer came up with a personal best leap of 46 feet 1 + inches to win her first NCAA title. Her mark was over two feet better than the runner-up mark of 43-11 1/4 by Shelly-Ann Gallimore of Auburn.
Spencer became the second Lady Tiger to claim the indoor triple jump crown, joining Suzette Lee who won the title in 1997.
A day after pulling up with a cramp in her left calf in the 200-meter final, Peta-Gaye Dowdie came up with a second place finish in the 60-meter dash in a time of 7.29.
Teammate Sa’DonnaThornton couldn’t duplicate her 7.25 of the preliminary round, and finished eighth in a time of 7.47. That, combined with a sixth place finish by Shakedia Jones of UCLA clinched the team title for the Bruins.
The Tigers entered the second day of action in 19th place, but knew they had a majority of their top point possibilities on the second day of competition.
A day after finishing fourth in the long jump on Friday, Marcus Thomas became the first Tiger to ever earn All-American honors indoors in both the long and triple jumps, finishing fifth in the triple jump with a personal best jump of 53-11.
Lueroy Colquhuon finished fourth in the men’s 400-meter dash with a time of 46.16, while teammate Derrick Brew finished one spot back with a time of 46.24. It marked the first time since 1989 that the Tigers had two athletes score on the track in the same event indoors.
The Tigers finished seventh for the second consecutive year and in the top 10 for the fourth time in the last five years.
NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships
Randal Tyson Track Center
Fayetteville, Ark.
Day Two Results
Men’s Results
Team Scores (Top 10)- 1, Arkansas, 69.50. 2, Stanford, 52. 3, SMU, 38. 4, TCU, 34. 5 (tie), Florida, Alabama, 29. 7, LSU, 28. 8 (tie), South Alabama, South Carolina, 20. 10 (tie), Clemson, Arizona State, 16.
Track Events
60-meter dash- 1, Terrence Trammell, South Carolina, 6.54. 2, Kim Collins, TCU, 6.61. 3, Lindel Frater, TCU, 6.63. 4, Shawn Crawford, Clemson, 6.67. 5, Leonard Scott, Tennessee, 6.68. 6, JaWarren Hooker, Washington, 6.68.
400-meter dash- 1, Brandon Couts, Baylor, 45.79. 2, Andrew Pierce, Ohio State, 45.99. 3, Tony Berrian, Arizona State, 46.16. 4, Lueroy Colquhoun, LSU, 46.16. 5, Derrick Brew, LSU, 46.24. 6, Avard Moncur, Auburn, 46.42.
800-meter run- 1, Jess Strutzel, UCLA, 1:46.57. 2, Derrick Peterson, Missouri,1:46.85. 3, Roman Oravec, SMU, 1:47.23. 4, Trinity Gray, Brown, 1:47.50. 5, Marcel Burke, Seton Hall, 1:47.71. 6, Bryce Knight, Idaho State, 1:47.72.
Mile run- 1, Gabe Jennings, Stanford, 3:59.46. 2, Michael Stember, 4:00.75. 3, Ben Reese, Eastern Michigan, 4:01.76. 4, Ryan Travis, Arkansas, 4:01.93. 5, Dwight Davis, Tulsa, 4:02.35. 6, Charles Gruber, Kansas, 4:03.11.
3,000-meter run- 1, David Kimani, South Alabama, 7:52.64. 2,Tim Broe, Alabama, 7:57.30. 3, Sharif Karie, Arkansas, 8:01.10. 4, Chan Pons, North Carolina State, 8:01.78. 5, James Karanu, Arkansas, 8:02.97. 6, Brent Hauser, 8:04.42.
1,600-meter relay- 1, TCU, 3:06.69. 2, Oklahoma, 3:06.99. 3, East Carolina, 3:08.06. 4, Texas A&M, 3:08.13. 5, Florida, 3:08.22. 6, Alabama, 3:08.48.
Field Events
Pole Vault- 1, Russ Buller, LSU, 18-8 1/4. 2, Toby Stevenson, Stanford, 18-4 1/2. 3, Brian Hunter, Virginia Tech, 18-0 1/2. 4, Brian McLaughlin, UCLA, 18-0 1/2. 5 (tie), Jacob Davis, Texas, Jacob Pauli, Northern Iowa, Eric Eshbach, Nebraska, 18-0 1/2.
Triple Jump – 1, Melvin Lister, Arkansas, 54-7 1/2. 2, Jason Ward, Arkansas, 54-6. 3, Kenta Bell, Northwestern State, 54-5 1/2. 4, Greg Yeldell, Indiana, 53-11 1/4. 5, Marcus Thomas, LSU, 53-11. 6, Sheldon Hutchinson, Nebraska, 53-6 1/4.
35-lb. Weight Throw – 1, Libor Charfreitag, SMU, 78-3 3/4. 2, Xavier Tyson, SMU, 71-11 1/2. 3, Jason Gervais, Wyoming, 71-9 1/2. 4, Tom Barrett, Illinois State, 68-9. 5, Andras Haklits, Georgia, 68-0 1/4. 6, James Parker, Utah State, 67-7 1/2.
Women’s Results
Team Scores (Top 10) – 1, UCLA, 51. 2, South Carolina, 41. 3, Arkansas, 37. 4, LSU, 36. 5, Villanova, 31. 6, BYU, 28. 7, Kansas State, 25. 8, Texas, 23. 9, Auburn, 18. 10, SMU, 16.
Track Events
60-meter dash- 1, Tonya Carter, Florida State, 7.21. 2, Peta-Gaye Dowdie, LSU, 7.29. 3, Teneeshia Jones, Ole Miss, 7.32. 4, Erica Burrell, Southern, 7.34. 5, Brianna Glenn, Arizona, 7.35. 6, Shakedia Jones, UCLA, 7.36.
400-meter dash- 1, Aliann Pompey, Manhattan, 52.21. 2, Mikele Barber, South Carolina, 52.50. 3, Stella Klassen, Nebraska, 52.61. 4, Yolanda Brown-Moore, Florida, 52.85. 5, Demetria Washington, South Carolina, 52.92. 6, Samantha George, Florida State, 53.18.
800-meter run- 1, Chantee Earl, Pittsburgh, 2:02.19. 2, Svetlana Badrankova, UTEP, 2:03.19. 3, Tytti Reho, SMU, 2:03.38. 4, Ashley Wysong, Missouri, 2:03.95. 5, Liz Diaz, Texas, 2:04.38. 6, Natalie Watson, Miami, 2:06.85.
Mile run- 1, Carman Douma, Villanova, 4:39.91. 2, Autumn Fogg, Georgetown, 4:42.72. 3, Sherida Rogers, BYU, 4:46.03. 4, Tracy Robertson, Arkansas, 4:46.07. 5, Tara Mendozza, Illinois, 4:46.69. 6, Stephanie Pesch, Wisconsin, 4:47.41.
3,000-meter run-1, Carrie Tollefson, Villanova, 9:13.68. 2, Amy Mortimer, Kansas State, 9:16.59. 3, Jessica Dailey, Arkansas, 9:17.01. 4, Lilli Kleinman, Arkansas, 9:17.01. 5, Amy Yoder, Arkansas, 9:19.24. 6, Lauren Fleshman, Stanford, 9:20.62.
1,600-meter relay – 1, Texas, 3:32.56. 2, South Carolina, 3:33.14. 3, Baylor, 3:34.53. 4, Florida, 3:34.65. 5, UTEP, 3:34.81. 6, Nebraska, 3:35.07.
Field Events
Shot Put- 1, Seilala Sua, UCLA, 56-8. 2, Cheree Hicks, Syracuse, 55-7. 3, Christina Tolson, UCLA, 55-4 1/4. 4, Lisa Griebel, Iowa State, 53-10 1/2. 5, Rhonda Hackett, Georgia, 53-6 1/2. 6, Chaniqua Ross, UCLA, 53-5.
Triple Jump- 1, Keisha Spencer, LSU, 46-1 1/2. 2, Shelly Ann-Gallimore, Auburn, 43-11 1/4. 3, Kerine Black, South Florida, 43-8. 4, DeAnne Davis, North Carolina, 43-6. 5, Kareen Clarke, Miami, 43-2 1/2. 6, Christine Brown, West Virginia, 42-8 3/4.
High Jump – 1, Dora Gyorffy, Harvard, 6-4 1/4. 2, Carri Long, Purdue, 6-1 1/2. 3, Elena Semyonova, Arkansas State, 6-0 1/2. 4, Jessica Thompson, Nebraska, 6-0 1/2. 5, Erin Aldrich, Texas, 5-11 1/4. 6, Tayyiba Haneef, Long Beach State, 5-11 1/4.