 "Photo:")
Nearly 400 athletes are eager, nearly 4 million hours of practice and preparation have been endured. Fortunately, this isn't Little League baseball - there is only one winner.
The NCAA Track and Field Championships have found their way back to the city of Austin for the seventh time in the track-and-field era. It's the first time for Austin to catch the spotlight since 1992, but it's Mike A. Myers Stadium's inaugural championship.
Much of the track-and-field nation will be on hand to watch the great young athletes of the world go head-to-head. Olympic hopefuls, school record-holders and future gold medalists will line the sides of the stadium today to begin the process to leave everything they have on the track.
This year's championships appear to be overpowered by southern schools. A "true" northern school hasn't claimed an outdoor title since Oregon stole the show in 1984.
The Arkansas Razorbacks come into this weekend as heavy, 21-point favorites, and according to Track-wire rankings "should handily take the title." Second place may be another story, with four teams predicted to fall within five single points of each other.
The ninth-ranked Texas Longhorns qualified only nine athletes this weekend but still have their eyes on defending their home turf. Experts expected Texas to qualify many more, based on the fact that some of Texas' non-qualifying participants would have won other regions, but this year may be the Longhorns' best shot in recent years to claim a national title considering the Longhorn athletes' feel for their home track.
If Texas wants to claim its first-ever crown, a strong performance from Brendan Christian is a necessity. Christian, a participant in three events, could single-handedly contribute 30 points to the Longhorns.
Christian prepares to better his 10.11-second school-record mark, set last weekend in the 100-meter dash. He is also set to put a high-point total on the board in the 200-meter. Christian, Jermaine Cooper, Quincy Boles and Ashton Collins look to improve on the 4x100-meter relay from last weekend, where a baton mishandling caused the foursome to be disqualified.
Senior Jermaine Cooper takes part in his final collegiate hurdle event of his career with the 110-meter event this week. Cooper looks to prove himself after having to sit out the 2003 Outdoor Championships with a knee injury.
Jonas Hamm and Mark Floreani qualified nationally in the 1,500-meter race and 3,000-meter steeplechase, respectively, and competition for this week will be intense. Hamm and his 26 opponents all have times within seconds of each other. Floreani will likely have to improve his time by more than 10 seconds to have a true shot at a national title.
The transfer from St. John's in Minnesota has made the switch to Division I competition. Just last year Tom Engwall placed fourth in the javelin, and his personal-best toss at this point places him seventh among the competitors in the nation in Division 1.
The Longhorns' freshman phenoms, Donovan Kilmartin and Andra Manson, come into national championship meets two-for-two in their respective events from the indoor season. Nothing changes for Manson, whose 7-5 inch high-jump performance, if repeated, would blow away the field. On the other hand, Kilmartin faces a much more difficult test. Kilmartin will have to fight the field off in two events more than in his heptathlon national title in order to claim a coveted decathlon title.
Be the first to comment on this article!