Track and Field Opens at LSU Quadrangular
3/25/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Outdoor Track
BATON ROUGE, La. - The TCU men's and women's track and field teams opened their outdoor season Saturday with a strong performance at the LSU Quadrangular at the Bernie Moore Track Field Complex on the campus of Louisiana State University.
"All in all, we had an excellent meet," said TCU head coach Monte Stratton. "Considering we're have to get virtually all our points via the sprints, we knew we couldn't compete for a victory in the team standings. But I am still pleased with our performance because of the quality of the performances we had today. It was a terrific opener to the outdoor season."
The TCU men's 4x100-meter relay team began its outdoor season with a dominant performance, running a sizzling time of 39.02 for an automatic gualifying mark for the NCAA Outdoor Championships to be held in June. The quartet of Lindel Frater, Ricardo Williams, Darvis Patton and Kim Collins led from the start as Frater staked the Frogs to a three-meter lead at the first handoff. Williams slightly extended that lead and Patton's strong turn in the third leg removed any of the suspense for Collins's anchor leg as TCU finished well ahead of the field.
"That was a fabulous way to start the season in the relay," Stratton said. "We couldn't have asked for a better performance. That was about as close to a sub-39 opener as you can get and, certainly, that's an outstanding opener for us."
"We had a great race," said TCU leadoff man Lindel Frater. "I had a very good start and was able to get us the lead. I thought our passes were very good, though we could improve our timing on some of the handoffs. But it's tough to find anything to complain about with a time like that this early in the season."
The four-team competition for both men's and women's teams featured a quartet of the nation's top men's squads as LSU played host to TCU, Texas A&M and Oklahoma in a scoring meet that is part of the U.S. Collegiate Track and Field Series. TCU placed fourth, LSU finished seventh and Oklahoma was 19th at the NCAA Men's Indoor Championships two weeks ago. Each school was allowed to score two finishers in individual events with points awarded on a 9-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. Relays were scored 9-7-6-5 for the four schools.
While TCU placed fourth in both team competitions, largely due to the fact that the TCU program has virtually no field event performers, the Horned Frogs produced an excellent season opener. TCU won five events, produced five NCAA qualifying marks (three automatic, two provisional) and one school record. Texas A&M won the men's team competition with 190 points to edge LSU (189) with Oklahoma third (128) and TCU fourth with 123. LSU edged the Aggies in the women's team race, 191 to 189. Oklahoma was third (176.50) and TCU fourth with 66.5 points.
In the men's 100, Collins and Frater represented TCU and finished first and second, respectively. Frater, running in lane 6, won the race in an automatic NCAA qualifying time of 10.17 seconds with Collins, running in lane 3, second in a provisional qualifying time of 10.20. Frater seized command from the gun, breaking to a lead he never relinquished. Collins closed strong in the final 40 meters to take second place.
"I had a good start and was able to get out front and run a relaxed race," Frater said. "The start was the key. I felt comfortable once I broke from the blocks well. After that, it was just a matter of relaxing and running strong through the tape."
TCU's sprinting success continued in the men's 200 as Darvis Patton's time of 20.84 led fellow Frogs Ricardo Williams' 21.17 in the first heat of the two-heat final. Those times held up as the two fastest overall to give TCU 16 more points in the men's team total. Anthony Amantine won the second heat in 21.21 to give TCU a sweep of the top three places. None of those performances met or exceeded NCAA provisional or automatic qualifying standards.
The meet's final event, the men's 4-by-400-meter relay, also was the day's most anticipated as all four teams had placed high at the NCAA Indoor meet with TCU winning ahead of Oklahoma and LSU. TCU got the victory again at LSU, but only because of a blunder by OU at the end of an extremely tight race.
TCU junior Roy Williams staked TCU to a solid lead in the first leg before handing to Anthony Amantine, but the Frogs had dropped to third by the next handoff as Kendrick Campbell took the baton. The order remained the same until the final 40 meters of the third leg as Campbell surged in front to give TCU anchor Johnny L. Collins II the lead for the final leg. Collins, who prefers to hold the lead until the final curve when Oklahoma's Michael Blackwood nudged in front coming out of the turn. Collins hung tough, closing within an eyelash of Blackwood as the runner crossed the finish line.
TCU's time of 3:04.28 gives TCU a provisional qualifying mark for the NCAA outdoor meet. While Blackwood crossed the line ahead of Collins, but OU was disqualified as Blackwood dropped the baton just a couple of meters before the finish line.
An outstanding anchor leg by TCU's Dywana Crudup highlighted the women's 4-by-4 as Crudup moved the Horned Frogs from fourth to second on her 400 alone. LSU won the event with a provisional qualifying mark of 3:36.79 with the Horned Frogs crossing the line in 3:41.49. Crudup made up a 12-meter deficit to Texas A&M and an almost 20-meter deficit to Oklahoma on her part of the race.
TCU also produced a stellar performance in the jumping events. Darvis Patton set a new TCU record in the men's long jump with a leap of 25 feet, 9 inches (8.04 meters). That performance broke a 31-year-old school record in the event, last set in 1969 when Carl Mills jumped 25-8 1/2. Jason Howard was fourth for TCU in 23-2 (7.06m) while Brandal Lawrence was sixth 22-7 1/4 (6.89m). Howard also placed second in the high jump, clearing six feet, eight and 3/4 inches (2.05m) to finish behind LSU's J.J. Barton who cleared 7-0 1/4 (2.14m).
Horned Frog freshman Brandal Lawrence placed fourth in the triple jump with a best leap of 48 feet, seven and 1/4 inches (14.81m). Texas A&M's Bashir Ramzy won the event with an NCAA automatic qualifying mark of 54 feet, 2 1/2 inches (16.52m).
The sprinting events began with the women's 4x100-meter relay with the TCU women taking on an excellent field. LSU's "A" team overtook TCU, which took an early lead through the first leg by Chaunte Baldwin. LSU's winning time of 44.42 was a provisional NCAA qualifying mark while TCU's quartet of Baldwin, Chanel Hewitt, Tiffany Starts and Dywana Crudup finished second in 45.32, just missed the provisional qualifying mark.
In the women's 200, TCU freshman Chanel Hewitt finished fifth in 24.55 seconds. Oklahoma's Staneshia Bell won the event in 23.85 while TCU's Tiffany Starts placed sixth in 24.78.
In the women's 400 meters, Dywana Crudup started strong and took the lead with 200 meters remaining before fading in the final 50 meters to finish third in 54.20 seconds, just .13 off her TCU record of 54.07 set in 1997. Oklahoma's Jennifer Fontenot won the race in 53.45 just ahead of LSU's Myra Combs in 53.65. Fontenot's time was a provisional qualifier. Sabrina Edge was fifth for TCU in 57.54.
Roy Williams and Johnny L. Collins II led the way for TCU in the men's 400 with Williams placing third in 46.41 seconds and Collins fifth in 46.72. LSU's Derrick Brew won the race in 45.77, an NCAA provisional qualifying mark.
Katie Singleton started the day off for TCU with a victory in the women's 5,000 meters in a time of 17:33.69. Other TCU finishers were Alison Harvey (fifth, 19:34.52), Shannon McKinney (sixth, 19:40.21), and Kimberly Vest (seventh, 20:16.95). Singleton's time was just slightly more than a second off her career-best performance in the event. "That's a good way to start the outdoor season, but I know I can run faster," Singleton said.
