NCAA Indoor Men's Day 2 Recap - Deja Vu: Wheating Loses (Again), Andrews Wins (Again) And Emanuel Dominates (Again)
Arkansas' Dorian Ulrey Also Picks Up His 1st NCAA Title In The 3k

By LetsRun.com
March 13, 2010

History buffs most likely enjoyed the second day of the 2010 NCAA indoor track and field championships, as when it was all over, it was as if we'd seen this all before. Each time Andrew Wheating has lined up at the NCAA indoor championships in the men's 800, he's walked away disappointed and that was the case again tonight, as for the 2nd time in his career (first time indoors), Wheating lost an NCAA title by .01. Every time Robby Andrews has lined up for a college indoor race, he's walked away a winner and that was the case again tonight.

The only thing we hadn't seen before was a NCAA title for Arkansas' Dorian Ulrey, who picked up his first NCAA title in the 3k.

Men's Mile - Emanuel Dominates For 2nd Consecutive Indoor Mile Victory
With all of the sub-4 clockings in the men's mile this year (22), there had been chatter recently on internet message boards that collegiate miling might be at an all-time high. One certainly wouldn't think that after watching the final on Saturday in Arkansas, as it truly looked like there was only one legitimate miler in the field.

Lee Emanuel of New Mexico (and the UK) successfully defended his indoor title in utterly dominant fashion as he bolted away from the field at the 800 meter mark and never looked back, cruising to victory in 3:59.26. Almost 2.5 seconds back in second was Oregon's true freshman Mac Fleet, who ran 4:01.63. Another freshman (this one a redshirt) was third in Montana State's Patrick Casey (4:01.87), as AJ Acosta of Oregon was fourth in 4:02.27.

The halfway mark was reached in 2:02.93 and at this point, Emanuel put down the accelerator and no one went with him. The only runner in the field who contemplated going with Emanuel was Ohio State's Jeff See, who would end up sixth. With 400 remaining (3:00.52), Emanuel had a gigantic lead and the race was over.

Making it easier for him than it might have been was the fact that when he made his move at around the halfway mark, the two Oregon runners in Acosta and Fleet were both in the top 5 and they clearly were concerned with maintaining their team points rather than going for the win. But let's stop the excuses. It certainly looked like if they ran this race 100 times, it seems that Emanuel would have won it 100 (or at least every time he didnt' fall).

Finals                                                                          
  1 Lee Emanuel               SR New Mexico             3:59.26   10            
  2 Mac Fleet                 FR Oregon                 4:01.63    8            
  3 Patrick Casey             FR Montana State          4:01.87    6            
  4 A.J. Acosta               SR Oregon                 4:02.27    5            
  5 Riley Masters             SO Maine                  4:04.29    4            
  6 Jeff See                  SR Ohio State             4:04.34    3            
  7 Rob Mullett               SR Butler                 4:04.63    2            
  8 Dylan Ferris              SO Stanford               4:04.73    1            
  9 Eric Harasyn              JR Oklahoma               4:04.94                 
 10 Abdi Hassan               SO Arizona                4:05.36                 
                                                

Men's 800 - Andrews Leaves Wheating "0 For Indoors"
Rarely does a race live up to its hype like tonight's men's 800m finals at NCAA indoors.

Race co-favorites Andrew Wheating and Robby Andrews roared up from their back-of-the-pack positions to run side by side down the final straight. A team title on the line for the Olympian Wheating, an undefeated season on the line for prep phenom Andrews - the younger east-coaster took the win by 0.01, surviving a desperate dive from Wheating. It all happened so fast. Last night, Wheating was a man among boys. So what does that make Andrews?

The race was great. The pace was fast. Wheating and Andrews went straight to the back. Andrews stayed there the whole time, running unobstructed in lane 1. Wheating chose to keep himself closer to the pace and ran almost the whole race in lane 2. Wheating surely was tired from 2 races yesterday, including a thrilling DMR anchor win over Arkansas anchor Dorian Ulrey.

Andrews sure was not tired at all.

Late in the race, Wheating was inching his way up and then all of a sudden Andrews was on his shoulder with 100m to go ... and with gears to spare! Andrews pulled even, pulled ahead, got reeled in, went wide and beat the tall guy to the line. We thought we were crazy for even considering Wheating might get beat.

Well ... it is crazy that Andrews won. But Andrews might not think so. After all, he has not lost a track race as a collegian.

Wheating, on the other hand, will graduate Oregon with Olympic rings tatooed on his back but a grand total of zero individual indoor NCAA championships. Hard to believe, but true, as Wheating has now lost 2 indoor 800s by 0.01 seconds each on his career. We're sure he'll be glad to say goodbye to 200m tracks, at least in the 800.

Finals                                                                          
  1 Robby Andrews             FR Virginia               1:48.39   10            
  2 Andrew Wheating           SR Oregon                 1:48.40    8            
  3 Ryan Foster               JR Penn State             1:48.79    6            
  4 Richard Jones             JR LSU                    1:48.92    5            
  5 Zach Mellon               FR Wisconsin              1:49.08    4            
  6 Jamaal James              SR LSU                    1:49.21    3            
  7 Jack Howard               SR Notre Dame             1:49.48    2            
  8 Owen Dawson               JR Penn State             1:49.59    1                                                                                                

Men's 3,000 - Ulrey Overcomes DMR Letdown To Win First Title

Letting the pace dawdle last night on the anchor leg of the distance medley relay with Andrew Wheating coming from behind clearly in hindsight wasn't the smartest plan for Arkansas' Dorian Ulrey. But helping insure that the pace dawdled tonight in the men's 3k proved to be the perfect strategy for Ulrey, who had the best mile speed of anyone that was fresh in tonight's race (mile champ Lee Emanuel doubled back), thanks to the 3:35.23 PR he earned last summer in Rome.

At the start, no one wanted to run fast and Ulrey took advantage and went to the front and made sure things didn't go fast, as the opening splits were 2:56 for 1k (8:48 pace), 4:35 for 1,600 (8:34-5 pace) and 5:40 for 2,000. The race seemingly was being set up for perfectly for Ulrey. In the end, 5k champ David McNeill put up a spirited fight and tried to complete the 5k/3k double win, but Ulrey was having none of it as he powered away to a convincing win in 8:10.52 thanks to a 56.24 final 400. McNeill was 2nd in 8:10.96 as Indiana's redshirt freshman Andrew Bayer finished an impressive third in 8:11.19 after leading at one point in the race.

Finals                                                                          
  1 Dorian Ulrey              SR Arkansas               8:10.52   10            
  2 David McNeill             JR Northern Arizona       8:10.96    8            
  3 Andrew Bayer              FR Indiana                8:11.19    6            
  4 Brandon Bethke            SR Arizona State          8:11.61    5            
  5 Craig Miller              SR Wisconsin              8:12.15    4            
  6 Rory Fraser               SR New Mexico             8:12.88    3            
  7 Chris Rombough            SR Minnesota              8:15.11    2            
  8 Andrew Poore              SO Indiana                8:15.76    1            
  9 Justin Marpole-Bird       SR Stanford               8:16.04                 
 10 Matthew Leeder            JR Florida State          8:17.44                 
 11 Mark Matusak              SR California             8:18.55                 
 12 Lee Emanuel               SR New Mexico             8:19.35                 
 13 Michael Coe               JR California             8:20.80                 
 14 Luke Puskedra             SO Oregon                 8:22.47                 
 -- Jeff See                  SR Ohio State                 DNF        

Men's 60m - Demps ... Jeff Demps
One of our fondest quotes in track and field is "Talent never goes away" and that was proven tonight in the men's 60, as US junior 100-meter record holder Jeff Demps, who struggled last year as a freshman at Florida, captured his first NCAA title in 6.57. Last year, Demps was a success on the football field (605 yards rushing on the season) but a flop in track (10.30 seasonal best when his high school PR was 10.01). This year, Demps is already a success in both, as he's got the NCAA title to go with his 745 yards rushing.

Finals                                                                          
  1 Jeff Demps                SO Florida                   6.57   10            
  2 Gerald Phiri              JR Texas A&M                 6.60    8            
  3 Marcus Rowland            SO Auburn                    6.61    6            
  4 Teddy Williams            SR UTSA                      6.65    5            
  5 Rondel Sorrillo           SR Kentucky                  6.66    4    6.659   
  6 Jeremy Hall               SR Florida                   6.66    3    6.660   
  7 Maurice Mitchell          SO Florida State             6.67    2            
  8 Michael Granger           FR Mississippi               6.74    1                                                                                        

Men's 400m - Torrin Lawrence Likely The Fastest Quarter Miler On Earth Right Now
The rematch of the SEC final ended up the same at NCAAs as it did at SECs, with Georgia sophomore Torrin Lawrence in first with Alabama's Kirani James in 2nd.

Finals                                                                          
  1 Torrin Lawrence           SO Georgia                  45.23   2  10         
  2 Kirani James              FR Alabama                  45.63   2   8         
  3 Tony McQuay               FR Florida                  45.74   1   6         
  4 Michael Courtney          SR Sam Houston St.          45.96   2   5         
  5 Demetrius Pinder          JR Texas A&M                46.01   1   4         
  6 Tabarie Henry             JR Texas A&M                46.19   1   3         
  7 Clayton Parros            FR North Carolina           46.22   1   2         
  8 Calvin Smith              SR Florida                  46.60   2   1         
                                                

Team Battle: Florida Gets Its First Title
The Gators won their first indoor title by 13 over Texas A&M and Oregon, who tied for 2nd. You can read all about the Gator win at the gatorzone website. Obviously, when a team scores 57 points at nationals, they had a lot of strong performances, but triple jumper Christian Taylor was particularly impressive, as the sophomore became the first triple jumper to repeat since 2002 when he jumped a school record 56-4.50.