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Handful of U.S. Olympians entered in NCAA DI Champs
1,088
athletes are set to take center stage at the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s
and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships, June 10-13 at John
McDonnell Field in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
At the 2008
Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, LSU won the women’s team crown for
the first time since 2003 and Florida State repeated as men’s
champions. Arizona State was the runner-up on the women’s side while
the LSU men tied Auburn for second place.
Heading into this
year’s Championships, Texas A&M leads the men’s and women’s power
rankings released by the United States Track & Field and Cross
Country Coaches Association. Following right behind them is Oregon.
A
quintet of U.S. Olympians are scheduled to compete this year, including
Purdue’s Kara Patterson (women’s javelin), Oregon’s Andrew Wheating
(men’s 800m) and Florida’s Calvin Smith (men’s 400m).
Two-time
Team USA member (’07,’08) Galen Rupp, who has three individual NCAA
titles so far this year, is the favorite in the men’s 5,000m and
10,000m and is hoping to lead the men of Oregon to their first Outdoor
team title since 1984. Should Rupp accomplish this goal, the Ducks’
would be the third team to sweep the outdoor, indoor and cross country
crowns in a school year and the first since Arkansas in 1998-99. The
Hogs did it five times, Texas-El Paso three.
Colorado’s Jenny
Barringer, who recently broke the women’s 1,500m collegiate record and
became only the third American ever to break the four minute barrier
when she finished as the runner-up at the Nike Prefontaine Classic in
3:59.90, will be running her specialty this weekend: the 3,000m
steeplechase. Already the American record-holder from her ninth-place
finish at the Olympic Games (9:22.26), Barringer is the clear favorite
to win.
For more information and complete results from the NCAA DI Outdoor Track & Field Championships, visit www.NCAA.com. The championships will be streamed live on www.cbssports.com at http://all-access.cbssports.com/player.html?code=ncaa&media=129515.
The meet will also be broadcast live Friday, June 12, from 7:00-10:00
p.m. ET on CBS College Sports and Saturday, June 13, from 1:00-3:00
p.m. ET on CBS Sports.
USA
Track & Field (USATF) is the National Governing Body for track and
field, long-distance running and race walking in the United States.
USATF encompasses the world’s oldest organized sports, some of the
most-watched events of Olympic broadcasts, the #1 high school and
junior high school participatory sport and more than 30 million adult
runners in the United States.
For more information on USATF, visit www.usatf.org
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