ACU men finish close second
5/23/2009 2:54:02 AM | Track & Field
Final Results
SAN ANGELO -- An entire season's worth of work came down to one race Saturday night at the NCAA Division II outdoor track and field championship meet.
One race to determine the men's team national champion and the runner-up at the LeGrand Sports Complex on the Angelo State campus.
For the fourth time in the last eight years, ACU and St. Augustine's went to the 4x400 relay with the title in the ballance. But for the first time in those races, it was the Falcons whose event championship led them to the team championship.
The Falcons won the 4x400 relay with ACU finishing seventh, giving the Falcons their 10th outdoor championship (their first since 2001) and snapping the Wildcats' seven-year reign atop the NCAA Division II outdoor track and field world. ACU's second-place finish means that for the first time since 2001 neither the ACU men's or women's track and field teams failed to win either an indoor outdoor national championship.
St. Augustine's entered the meet with a season-best of 3:02.10 (Division II all-time best), but the Falcons didn't need to run that on Saturday to win the title. The Falcons turned in a time of 3:06.90, while the Wildcats finished with a season-worst time of 3:16.13. The win gave the Falcons 94 points to 86 for the runner-up Wildcats.
On the women's side, Lincoln (Mo.) won its sixth team championship in the last seven years with 85 points while the host Rambelles of Angelo State finished second with 82 points. ACU was sixth with 32 points, tied with the 1991 ACU team for the lowest team finish ever at the outdoor meet as the Wildcats scored the fewest points at a national meet in program history.
"This was great competition (tonight) on the men's side," ACU head coach Don D. Hood said. "I can't say enough about the way our guys competed and fought. We had some great individual performances, but it's all about the team. We put ourselves in position to win, but just couldn't get it done. But that says a lot about the kids at St. Augustine's. They fought hard and were able to get the lead late and hang on. Like I said: it was great competition, but, man, I hate to lose."
The Wildcats got off to a flying start Saturday with sophomore thrower Nick Jones repeating as the national champion in the discus in dramatic fashion.
Jones posted a mark of 178 feet, 7 inches on his first throw of the competition, and that mark held as the lead through the rest of the prelims and through 25 throws of the finals. But on the 26th throw of the finals, national leader Aleksas Abromavicius of Grand Valley State uncorked a throw of 178-10 to take a narrow lead on Jones.
But on the last throw of the competition, Jones came up with a throw of 182-1 to win the national championship and give his team 10 big points. The normally stoic Jones reacted to the throw with a scream, letting the large crowd know that he thought his throw was good enough to win. Shortly after it was measured, everyone knew that Jones had won his second straight national championship.
"That was pretty dramatic, and it was pretty intense as well," said Jones, the sophomore from Amarillo who doubles as a defensive end on the ACU football team. "Repeats are always tough, and I'm especially happy for (ACU throws coach) Jerrod Cook because he's put in a lot of work with me over the last two years.
"I knew Aleksas had a big throw in him, but as it got closer to the end I thought maybe it wasn't going to be his day," Jones said. "But ever since high school, whenever a competition comes down to the end it usually works out pretty well for me."
Saturday's meet also worked out well for sophomore Ramon Sparks, who won his first national championship with a surprise win in the triple jump. After reaching the final with a best mark of 49-11.75, Sparks took the lead for good with a jump of 51-9.75 on his first jump of the finals.
St. Augustine's senior Joe Kindred -- the NCAA Division II Male Field Athlete of the Year -- went 51-7.00 on his first jump of the final, but that was as big as he would go in the competition. Sparks finished it off with a 52-4.75 on his fifth jump before fouling on his sixth. Kindred's final attempt would be wiped out when he pulled up lame and ran through the pit, giving Sparks the championship.
"I'm surprised to win, but I knew I could do well," Sparks said. "I felt like coming into the meet that I had a big jump in me, and it's nice to have gotten over the hump in the national championship meet."
ACU also got points Saturday out of Andrew McDowell in the 110 hurdles. The sophomore who won the indoor championship in the 60 hurdles in March ran a personal-best time of 13.86 to finish second Saturday evening. Also finishing second for the Wildcats and earning eight points was Daniel Maina in the 3000 steeplechase.
Jordan Johnson ran to a fourth-place finish in the 400 meters, while ACU scored 10 points in the pole vault with Stephen Toler (third), Landon Ehlers (tied for fifth), Aaron Cantrell (tied for eighth) and Cory Altenberg (tied for eighth) scoring for the Wildcats.
ACU finished fourth in the 4x100 relay for five points, while Amos Sang finished sixth in the 5000 meters, earning three points for the Wildcats and tying up the team point total at 84 points apiece for ACU and St. Augustine's going to the final race of the event.
On the women's side, ACU's day got off to a championship start when junior Linda Brivule defended her national championship in the javelin with a throw of 162-10 on her first attempt of the competition. That mark held up to give her back-to-back titles in the event.
Junior Kim Prather scored eight points in the 200 meters with a second-place finish, while Winrose Karunde scored four points with a fifth-place finish in the 5000 meters. Sophomore Paige Newby was fourth in the discus (153-5), and ACU finished sixth in the 4x400 relay.
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