NCAAs: A Weekend That Won't Soon Be Forgotten

Mar 17, 2015 by Lincoln Shryack

The 2015 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships were absolutely nuts. While the headlines showed that pre-meet favorites Oregon and Arkansas ultimately came out on top in the team battles, the individual performances and drama-for-your-mama moments will forever be seared in our brains even after the dust has settled on the record books.

What made this particular championship so special? That question could have any number of answers, depending on your preferred discipline in the sport or your favorite team. For us, a site that has rightfully been accused of favoring the distance events, the Oregon men’s dismantling of co-favorite Florida with all but one distance athlete certainly falls in the “special” category. The often mum Oregon distance coach Andy Powell even said so himself, saying that “it’s probably been one of the easiest years I’ve had coaching…”I don’t know if I’ll ever have a group this good (again).”

Seeing the Ducks systematically dismantle a good Florida team with just one brand of athlete was a beauty to behold. We knew that Cheserek and Jenkins would do their thing (ok, maybe not the whole Jenkins over Ches thing), but to have all of the other pieces execute and score points where they did is a testament to not only Powell and head coach Robert Johnson, but also to the kids themselves.

This group scored 70 points (74 total with thrower Greg Skipper) not by running for themselves, but by believing in the often overlooked team aspect of track and field. That was the narrative all along with this team- it’s why Cheserek switched events a year after dominating the 3k/5k, it’s why top Ivy Leaguers Will Geoghegan and Johnny Gregorek came to Oregon, and it’s why 5th year senior Parker Stinson came back to school with just an indoor season left in his eligibility. Fast times and individual titles are great, but it’s the team titles that they hang from the rafters. How perfect that this team’s goals all came together on the campus of Arkansas, a school that made distance-heavy track teams fashionable during the 80s and 90s.

Even Jeramy Elkaim, who finished a disappointing 16th in the 3k said this about the group. “We’re national champions, how could I be upset about that? We went 1-2-3, I’m just stoked to be a part of this team.”

We can’t forget about the Arkansas ladies, either. The Hogs won their first NCAA title in any female sport on Saturday, and how sweet it was that they did it at home.

The Razorbacks finally got the job done for 25-year head coach Lance Harter, which worked out all so perfectly in front of the Arkansas faithful in Fayetteville. Harter got huge performances out of seniors Dominique Scott and Sandi Morris, who both won individual titles on Saturday night to lock up the trophy. Scott was also a key member of the Razorbacks’ DMR win on Friday night, their second in a row in the NCAA distance relay.

For Harter, the trip to the top of the NCAA mountain was long overdue. “We’ve always been a bridesmaid and never the bride. It takes a great talent base…even more so you’ve got to have a little bit of luck.”

Florida coach Mike Holloway gave an excellent definition of “luck” as it pertains to outcomes in sport. “Luck is where preparation meets opportunity,” said Holloway, which seems to perfectly sum up any fortune that Harter’s Razorbacks may have benefitted from this weekend. It may have been fortunate that collegiate record holder Demi Payne no-heighted in the pole vault, giving Sandi Morris a clear path to victory. It also could be argued that “fortune” allowed the Razorbacks to score in every event that they were entered in, totaling 63 points, third most in history.

Every good team has their share of fortune, but we’re choosing to give credit to the preparation factor that brought home the first ladies’ title to Fayetteville. No one exemplifies that preparation and will better than Dominique Scott, leader of the distance group and the X-Factor for the Hogs’ title. Scott has gone from a 4:59 miler her freshman year at Arkansas to a 4:32 athlete with three NCAA titles in the last two years.

“This is a young lady who didn’t even score in her freshman year of college, she had mechanical issues we had to adjust, some confidence issues. It’s been an ongoing process. It’s not something that happened overnight, it was a long, gradual process,” said Harter on Scott. “She was one of our leaders.”

The night couldn’t have gone better for Scott. Overcome with emotions after helping lead her team to the program’s first title, her boyfriend Cameron Efurd got down on one knee and proposed while the building still echoed with Razorback cheers.