University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
NCAA Championships%
Vols Finish Runner Up at NCAA Track & Field Championships
June 01, 2002 | Men's Track
June 1, 2002
Complete Results | Team Standings
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Tennessee and LSU stared down each other like two seasoned gunfighters the entire NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and, really, most of the season. As the final day of the championships played out late Saturday night at LSU?s Bernie Moore Track Stadium, Tennessee was missing one silver bullet from Zachary, La., to win the duel. LSU fired the winning shot to better Tennessee 64-57.
?We had a great final day,? head coach Bill Webb said. ?We had a championship effort, but came up a little short on points. It kind of reminds me of the 2002 SEC Indoor meet. We had three open events on the track (100, 200 and 400M dash) and won all three. We had two PRs (personal records) in the decathlon and the second-fastest time in school history in the 4x400M relay. We took a hit with Leonard getting hurt. We?ll have a lot of good people back next year. We?ll regroup and set our sights on another title. Most programs would love to finish second just once. I?m proud of our guys and assistant coaches George Watts and Vince Anderson.?
Tennessee?s leading gunslingers proved to be Justin Gatlin and Gary Kikaya. Gatlin scored 22.5 points in the 100M dash, 200M dash, 4x100M relay and 4x400M relay to share NCAA meet high scorer honors with LSU?s Walter Davis. Gatlin has won acclaim as NCAA meet high scorer the last three times including the 2001 outdoor, 2002 indoor and 2002 outdoor meet. Gatlin won his sixth consecutive NCAA sprint title by doubling in the 100M and 200M dash. No other Tennessee track and field athlete has ever won six individual NCAA titles. Kikaya certainly earned his scholarship as well with his 400M dash title in his first season. Kikaya became the first Volunteer to win the outdoor 400M dash title, although Anthony Blair won the indoor 440 Yd. dash in 1980.
After a heaping helping of adversity Friday, Tennessee was nearly perfect Saturday to drop down 39 points on the competition, a one-day total that would have given the Vols fourth place in the team race excluding the other three days of action.
Here?s the way the final day unfolded. Opening the day, LSU held a 39-18 point lead over Tennessee.
Kikaya left no doubt the Vols believed they still had it in them. In Tennessee?s first scoring opportunity of the day, the Congo junior dropped an astounding 44.53 in the 400M dash, breaking his own school record by nearly a half second. Kikaya has broken the school 400M dash record three times in the last three weeks. Additionally, the blazing time stands as the fastest by any collegian this year. Kikaya pulled the score to 45-28 as LSU?s Pete Coley finished third in the race.
?These points were very important for my team,? Kikaya said. ?I just had to go out and do my job, and that?s what I did. I didn?t expect such a fast time, but I was running against the best in the country. We can?t win them all. Everyone gave it their best. LSU was just better today.?
Next up, Gatlin put on his customary fireworks display with legs pumping like pistons down the 100M dash straightaway. Gatlin won in 10.22, running into a 2.7 meters per second headwind. Gatlin defended his 100M dash title from last year successfully, and it wouldn?t be the last time of the day the sophomore from Pensacola, Fla., pulled the feat. Gatlin?s game performance contributed 10 points to the Vol cause to tighten the team battle to 45-38 LSU.
However, it was in the 100M dash that the crowd learned one holdover of adversity from Friday?s action. That piece of bad fortune was likely the difference in this heavyweight bout. Tennessee?s coaching and training staff decided to hold hometown hero Leonard Scott out of the meet with a slight strain of his right hamstring suffered in the semifinals of the 100M dash Friday. Scott rides off into the sunset as one of the all-time great Volunteers with 11 All-America citations to his credit. Scott?s collegiate track career ended unfairly with ice packs instead of more honors.
Gatlin returned for an encore with a top-flight 200M dash finals field. Again running into a strong headwind at 2.9 meters per second, Gatlin blew away the field with a 20.18 second effort. The packed house at Bernie Moore Track Stadium saw Gatlin?s celebrated track prowess in full form. The sophomore?s flashing feet have carried him into Tennessee athletic history. However, LSU?s Robert Parham took sixth to soften the blow from Gatlin?s point haul. The score stood tied at 48 with only the decathlon and 4x400M relay to go, both of which were contested by both teams.
?I knew a lot of people would be coming for my head,? Gatlin said. ?I knew I had to step my game up. I?m here at Tennessee to sprint and try to be a champion. Nobody faulted. Everybody put their heart on the line and did everything they could do. I?m pleased with our effort.?
The last five events of the decathlon started under a brutal sun in oppressive heat at 2:30 p.m. and didn?t wrap up until the sun was long gone at about 9:15 p.m. Tennessee?s co-captain Stephen Harris, competing in an unthinkable third decathlon in three and a half weeks, and Kevin Thompson were charged with negating LSU phenom Claston Bernard?s point gain.
Both Harris and Thompson started off the day right with fast times in the 110M hurdles. Harris took second in 14.52, a little off his career-best time but still solid. Thompson nabbed seventh with a career-best time of 14.87 to move up the point standings.
In the discus, the seventh event of the decathlon, the Tennessee two would have been happy with more distance. Thompson took 11th with a 135-2 mark. Harris finished 13th with a 126-4 mark. While both discus efforts were a good bit below each Vol?s personal bests, the shorter marks didn?t move them down in the total point standings. However, Thompson and Harris could have made up more ground in the discus.
In the dreaded eighth event, the pole vault, Thompson and Harris forcefully put the no-height nemesis to rest with first attempt clearances through the soupy, bayou sky. After battling the event all year, Harris looked like an old pro in clearing five heights without a miss. Harris cleared 14-7 1/4, less than two inches off his decathlon career best, before finally missing three attempts at 14-11. Meanwhile, Thompson also pieced together a good vault with a 13-11 1/4 clearance. Thompson likewise left no doubt with two consecutive clearances without a miss. Thompson passed on 14-3 1/4 before missing three good attempts at 14-7 1/4.
The Tennessee two kept rising to the challenge with a pair of lifetime bests in the javelin. Harris? third-place, 191-6 mark stands four feet farther than his previous best. Meanwhile, Thompson winged out a two-feet PR with a 12th-place 164-7 effort.
With the last event awaiting, Webb figured out the Vols would need solid lifetime bests to move up in the scoring column. Meanwhile, LSU?s Bernard would need to finish second and not win the decathlon to keep the points close going into the night?s final event, the 4x400M relay. While Harris and Thompson again contributed lifetime bests, Bernard won the decathlon and Tennessee?s window of opportunity was slowly closing. Harris won the 1,500M run in 4:24.11, while Thompson posted a six-second PR with an eighth-place, 4:39.23 effort.
The final decathlon scores were computed and Bernard won the event with 8,094 points to contribute 10 points to the LSU cause. Harris took fourth with 7,955 points, a career best and worth five team points. Thompson also had a lifetime best with 7,598 points to barely miss scoring in ninth place. The Tennessee title hopes waned with the score 58-53 favoring LSU as only the 4x400M relay remained.
?I don?t think it would be right to judge the whole year on one meet after all the good things that have happened for us this year. This team has come a long way and is still standing strong.?
?This has been the best NCAA decathlon in the last 10 years,? Thompson said. ?Scoring for the team was my first goal. I missed that, but I?m glad to get a PR, though?
The window slammed shut as LSU took third in the 4x400M relay in 3:02.33. Tennessee gave its all with a fifth-place, 3:02.83 finish, the second-fastest time in school history. Dwayne Bell Jr., co-captain Hassaan Stamps, Gatlin and Kikaya passed the baton for the Vols. Gatlin led the Vols with a 44.7 split. Kikaya anchored in 45.2 to post the Vols? second-fastest leg. The 4x400M relay results pushed the score to its final resting place -- LSU 64, Tennessee 57, and the Vols were left wondering what could have been if they had been able to continue their good health for one more day.
However, Tennessee proudly accepted the runner-up trophy and began thinking about next year. The 2001-02 Tennessee Volunteers just pulled off the best calendar year in the program?s history. Between June 2, 2001 and June 1, 2002, Tennessee?s track and field/cross country program has won two NCAA Championships (2001 outdoor and 2002 indoor), a SEC Outdoor Championship (2002) and went to the NCAA Cross Country Championships for the first time since 1998.
