Men win national title; women tie for 3rd
5/25/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Track & Field
ACU men win national championship
Women finish tied with Western State for third place
For immediate release 25 May 2002
Click here for final point totals and results
SAN ANGELO -- Manuel Brandeborn had some making up to do Saturday night after failing to score any points Friday in the discus throw.
He more than made up for that Saturday at the ASU Multipurpose Complex, throwing the shot put 60-11.50 on his next-to-last throw to give ACU 10 points and the men's team championship at the NCAA Division II outdoor track and field championship meet. The ACU women finished tied with Western State (Colo.) for third with 48 points, just six points behind the winning team from St. Augustine's, which nipped second-place North Dakota State by one point.
Brandeborn's throw vaulted him from third to first in the event, and the throw stood up through one more round of throwers to help him win his first individual national championship. The win -- coupled with Shai Shaleve's eighth-place finish in the shot put and the one point that goes along with it -- also gave ACU 90 points and the advantage it needed over St. Augustine's going into the final event of the evening: the 4x400 relay.
St. Augustine's, as expected, won the event, but its 88 points were three points short of ACU's total for the meet.
ACU head coach Jon Murray was watching the shot put competition from the other end of the stadium when he heard a roar from a large ACU contingent near the shot put ring.
"I knew he had a big throw, but I thought it might have moved him to second place" said Murray, who coached the Wildcats to their fifth outdoor title in the last seven years, the men's 26th overall championship, the 47th track and field title in school history and ACU's 50th overall national championship. "That was just a great way for Manuel to go out and put the icing on the cake for us."
Brandeborn's throw is even more impressive when you consider that it came after the meet was delayed for approximately 45 minutes because of lightning and the threat of strong thunderstorms around the stadium.
The winning throw, however, might not have been Brandeborn's most impressive of the night. After his first two preliminary throws, he was in danger of not even reaching the final, which would have all but eliminated the Wildcats from the team championship race.
But on his last throw of the preliminaries, he uncorked a throw of 58-6.00 to reach the final eight. After fouling on his first throw of the finals, he unleashed the only 60-foot throw of the meet, a throw that was good enough to win the event.
The Wildcats' only other two wins on the day were registered by the incomparable John Kemboi, who won his ninth and 10th individual national championships Saturday, tying him with the great Bobby Morrow for the most individual national championships in school history. Kemboi also became only the second man in NCAA Division II history to win six career outdoor national championships (Western State's great distance runner Michael Aish became the third later Saturday night after winning the 5000 meters).
Kemboi started his day Saturday by winning the 1500 meters in 3:50.23, beating teammate Bernard Manirakiza by .46 of a second. Jean-Marie Ndukimana was sixth in 3:52.89, and Martin O'Kello was ninth at 3:57.59. Kemboi wasn't really pushed in the 1500 meters, and that left him enough to fight off a tough field in the 800 meters.
With about 250 meters left in the 800 meters, Leif Kennedy of Central Missouri State made his move, moving about 5 meters in front of Kemboi and Tarleton State's Jackson Langat. Kemboi and Langat quickly countered, however, moving in front of Kennedy with about 150 meters left.
From there it was a sprint to the finish, and Kemboi had enough kick to hold off the Texans' freshman, winning the 800 meters for the third straight year with a time of 1:48.71. Langat was second in 1:48.99 with Kennedy third in 1:49.80.
ACU senior Terrance Woods closed his great career Saturday night with a second-place finish in the high jump to defending national champion Jason Cornelius of Morehouse. Both cleared 7-3.00, but missed at 7-4.25, setting up a jumpoff. Cornelius cleared on his third attempt while Woods failed to give the title to Cornelius.
The men's 4x100 relay team posted its best time of the year at 40.02 to finish third in the event behind North Carolina Central (39.88) and Fort Hays State (39.95). In the 100 meters, Christie VanWyk was second (10.08) and Nic Alexander fifth (10.21), while Alexander was seventh in the 200 meters (21.41).
Freshman Richard Phillips earned his second all-America honor with a third-place finish in the 110 hurdles (13.85), while Arthemon Sindayigaya was eighth in the 5000 meters in 14:48.57.
On the women's side, senior Meredith Garner closed out her career with a second-place finish in the pole vault, leading a contingent of four ACU pole vaulters. Garner -- the reigning indoor national champion, a two-time national champion and the current NCAA Division II record-holder at 13-1.75 -- finished second with a vault of 12-6.00.
Freshman Katie Eckley was third at 12-2.00 and Jane McNeill -- who has one indoor season left -- was fourth at 12-2.00. Freshman Val Gorter was 14th at 11-4.25.
Junior Angie Waters ran a strong race to finish fifth in the 800 meters (2:12.45), while sophomore Sofi Hildenborg was sixth in the 200 meters (24.15). Hildenborg anchored the 4x100 relay team to a sixth-place finish (46.22), and ran the third leg on ACU's fifth-place 4x400 relay team (3:44.19).
The third place finish was a strong showing for the women's team, which wasn't predicted to finish in the top four in many circles.
"I knew we would be within five or six points late in the meet, and that's right where we were," Murray said. "If we were going to win it, everything had to break perfectly for us, and that rarely happens at the national meet. But I'm proud of the way our women continued fighting and competing."
The men's title is the fifth championship Murray has directed as either interim head coach (men's 2000 indoor and outdoor championships and women's 2000 indoor title) or head coach (men's 2002 indoor and outdoor championships) in eight championship meet opportunities.
"I honestly thought our margin of victory would have been larger in the men's race," Murray said. "We could have done better in certain spots throughout the weekend, but we kept a good attitude throughout the meet and pulled it out. I'm proud of the whole group because we had such a diversity; we scored in a lot of different areas. I was proud of the way we performed when we had to get it done."
