NCAA Championships, dot dot dot

Random thoughts, news and views on this weekend’s college championship meet in the Larry King style…

Florida finally got over the hump to win the men’s championship. The Gators had been runner-up four times, including two of the last three. Considering who they left at home–Jeff Demps in the 100, Gray Horn in the decathlon, and the 4×100 relay–they clearly earned it…

The meet may have come down to the 4×400 relay, but Florida wasn’t going to lose that race any more than I’m going to turn down free beer. The real key event on the final day was the event before that, the 110 meter hurdles. Florida’s Eddie Lovett, who wasn’t even on Track and Field News’ top ten formchart, squeaked into the final and then took fifth when he got there. LSU’s Barrett Nugent, the 2010 NCAA champ, finished fourth. That gave LSU the impossible job of beating Florida in the relay to win the title. Had either Nugent finished one place higher or Lovett finished one place lower, LSU could have won the meet with a runner-up finish in the 4×400…

A tie for the title was possible, but LSU needed to get second in the 4×400 to do that and they ended up third. They were just too far behind after the first two legs to be able to catch USC…

Oregon’s women did not get over the hump, taking second for the fourth year in a row. The Ducks had ups and downs, like all teams do at all championship meets. For example, the “big name” distance runners like Hasay, Friday and Kesselring didn’t do as much as was expected, but other distance runners came up with points out of the blue to at least partially make up for it. It should be noted that the Ducks’ 62 points would have been good enough to win 13 of the last 15 championships. This team was good enough to win in any normal year, but LSU did not allow it to be a normal year.

LSU’s women had the once-in-a-blue-moon meet where pretty much every single thing went well. Oregon would have had to have been almost perfect top beat them, and that just doesn’t happen much. When things didn’t quite go as the Tigers had hoped for, it wasn’t very far off. That was even more true for the LSU men’s team, for whom the formchart predicted 31 points but scored 48. Both Tiger teams had unreal weekends…

To me, the most notable common thread between the teams from Texas A&M and LSU, which have won seven of the last eight men’s and women’s championships, is not a similarity in geographical location or sprint/hurdle/jump emphasis. It’s an emphasis on the team aspect. Both teams compete in scored meets more often than other teams at their level (and are focused on winning when they do), they take the Texas and Penn Relays very seriously, and both focus on the NCAA Championships to the exclusion of summer competition. For example, LSU’s Kimberlyn Duncan not only has a good chance of making the Olympic team, but stands some chance of winning a medal. Yet coach Dennis Shaver didn’t hold her back one bit…

Baylor was notably absent from the men’s 4×400 final. The last time they missed it was 1979, so this breaks a streak of 31 straight championship finals…

Attendance was just plain bad. It was 20,048 over four days, as compared to 41,187 in 2008 and 29,377 last year, the three recent NCAA meets at Drake. I have no idea why this happened. In 2008, half of Des Moines was under water, and the weather was bad last year too, but this time it was warm and sunny with a pleasant breeze. There was plenty for locals to cheer for, as there were a good number of Iowa and Iowa State competitors and the women’s 1500 was won by Des Moines native Katie Flood. How bad is 20,048? It’s the worst NCAA Championships total in a decade…

Ohio State’s Cory Leslie was third in the steeplechase, often called “cross country on the track”. OSU still does not have a cross country coach in place, and Leslie’s senior season begins in two months. Yet another example of how Ohio State is not committed to excellence in anything but the highest-profile sports…

How clueless is USATF? Throw this one on the pile. For the first time I can recall, USATF promoted an NCAA Championship and its member booth traveling road show came to the meet. On Saturday, they set up at 11 AM and tore down at 1 PM — the two-hour window of the final running events. No, they didn’t plan for involving the people wandering around before or after the meet, only during it. SMDH…

I like to find a local hang-out when I go to track meets, and Jethro’s BBQ is the place in Des Moines. It’s just a few blocks down from the stadium, has great food and brings in lots of fans and athletes from the meet, and they even put the Universal Sports coverage of the Bislett Games on the big screens for us…

The university bookstore is almost across the street from Jethro’s and has loads of great Drake Relays stuff on clearance. I got two t-shirts and a book on the history of the relays for about $20, at least 60% off the original prices. They don’t make anyone aware of their inventory. I only know it because I stumbled in last year while killing time before the meet…

If Drake/Des Moines really does win the 2016 Olympic Trials, as they are working hard to do, I have no idea how they’ll handle the parking situation. Almost all of the parking near the stadium is on-street, and if you didn’t start looking early you had to walk a very long way. While the Drake Relays and Iowa state championships fill up the stadium, I’m betting the local/family/alumni nature of those two meets make for a much higher spectator-to-car ratio than a largely out-of-town Olympic Trials would…

EDIT: The Oregonian’s Ken Goe notes that Hayward Field has similar parking issues. However, Eugene has significant cycling infrastructure, and encourages and supports fans using it. Des Moines does not. Also, good amount of lodging is within walking distance of Hayward, but not so in Des Moines. Regardless, I hope Drake/ Des Moines wins the bid.