University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
NCAA Outdoor Championships
Cross and Sylvester Shine in the 800 at NCAA Championships
June 12, 2004 | Men's Track
June 12, 2004
Results | Final Team Standings
AUSTIN, Texas - After four long, hard days of Texas toil in both the scorching sun and rivers of rain, it only took 800-meter men Paul Cross and Marc Sylvester one minute and 48 seconds to more than double Tennessee's point haul at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships Saturday night.
With Cross breaking the tape third and co-captain Sylvester a blink behind in fourth, the Tennessee two contributed 11 of the Vols' 20 points with poised efforts in the 800 at Texas' Mike A. Myers Track Stadium in Austin. Senior Leigh Smith earned fifth in the javelin to give the Vols upward momentum on the leader list earlier in the day.
The Volunteers finished the meet tied for 13th with 20 points, both a better finish and point total than they were projected to earn in any of the season's NCAA forecasts. As has become custom, the top three teams at the top of the awards stand proved familiar from the nation's toughest conference. Arkansas won the meet with 65.5 points. Florida finished runner-up with 49 points. LSU took third with 31 points.
"We ended up with 20 points after an excellent competitive effort from our 800 guys," head coach Bill Webb said. "At Tennessee, we always want to score more than 20 points, but we have a lot of new people and scrapped for what we got. We have made a lot of progress since the indoor season, have a good nucleus coming back and a good recruiting class coming in. We're excited about the future."
Tennessee saved its exclamation point for its last event of the season. With all Tennessee's other scoring opportunities tapped by Saturday night, Cross and Sylvester took the track for the 800 finals as dusk cast the capital of the Texas Hill Country in a purple hue.
"I wanted to stay close to Jonathan [Johnson, the champion] and be within striking distance," Cross said. "In the first 200, I got boxed in and had to change my plan. I had to run from behind. I had to go with 200 meters left or get left behind. Luckily, I finished third. Our freshmen class held its own this year, and I'm happy about that. Marc and I have been coming along. We've shown the 800 guys have a lot to offer the team thanks to Coach [George] Watts and all the endurance and speed work he has given us."
Tennessee was the only school to advance two to the 800 finals. At the halfway mark, things didn't look too promising for the Tennessee two. Cross stood mired in sixth, and Sylvester labored in seventh. However, both made their move by the time they hit the last curve. However, when the scoreboard told its tale, Cross stood third in 1:47.18 to earn his first All-America certificate. Sylvester took fourth in 1:47.23, capturing his third All-America honor and best NCAA outdoor finish in three tries.
"I ran the race Coach Watts and I wanted me to run," Sylvester said. "I made a couple of moves when I needed to make them. If you're feeling good, you've got to go. Maybe I went a little too strong when I kicked, but you can't second guess. I think it's an amazing feeling to see our 800 group and our team as a whole start to come around. It's almost starting to feel like when Justin [Gatlin] and Leonard [Scott] were the dominant sprint combination. People are going to think about it when they race Tennessee's 800 guys. We complement each other. After Penn Relays I could have fallen over and died, but instead I got my highest finish at outdoor NCAAs."
When the dust settled half of the NCAA's four best two-lap specialists wore Tennessee orange.
"That's a heck of a job for Paul Cross as a freshman," distance coach George Watts said. "In his first NCAA final, he appeared out of it with 300 meters to go but kept his poise and finished strong in a very tight pack. It's been a long road back for Marc Sylvester. He proved how tough a competitor he is today. You never fault a guy for going for the win. It's his best NCAA outdoor finish and a huge relief for him. I think he's going to get better quickly."
Smith, who entered the meet as the NCAA leader, finished fifth in the javelin after having a bit of an off day. Smith did manage a 241-10 flight, but four other competitors achieved farther launches. Smith's fifth-place finish contributed four points to the Tennessee effort to push the Vols to a tie for ninth in the team race following the javelin.
A fairly constant tailwind from the south greeted all the throwers throughout the competition. Smith's first throw measured 213-3. He stood ninth after the first round of throws. However, Smith's second and best throw of 241-10 turned the tables and left the senior from Raleigh, N.C., in second place entering the third round. A third-round throw of 235-9 didn't improve his standing as Smith tiptoed to avoid crossing the foul line after his release.
In the javelin, the top nine finishers after the first three throws are granted three additional throws to improve their lot. Unfortunately for the Vols, several competitors did just that. Smith offered up throws of 229-6, 221-8 and a foul to close his meet. Meanwhile, Boise State's Gabriel Wallin's monstrous 264-9 throw took the win and the collegiate lead as the ninth-best throw ever by a collegian.
"I'm pretty disappointed," Smith said. "I was really psyched to throw today. I never felt like I threw it as well as I could. Maybe it was just the curse of the favorite. I just couldn't throw technically well today. The harder I tried, the sloppier I got."
While Smith didn't put together his NCAA final he wanted, he still leaves as one of the finest javelin throwers to ever take the runway at Tennessee. Smith's career-best throw of 257-10 set Tennessee's school record and smashed the SEC meet record. Smith stands as one of only three Vols in the history of the school to win three SEC javelin titles. Smith also earned three All-America certificates in his specialty. Smith still ranks third among all Americans this year, as the NCAA winner is not a U.S. citizen. If Smith can add a few feet to his lifetime best and finish in the top three at the U.S. Olympic Trials in July, a tall but not impossible task, Smith can be Olympic bound.
"It's been a great four years of competition," Smith said. "Just because I'm mad today doesn't dispel the happiness I've had at Tennessee. I've gotten to hang out and train with some great athletes. It's hard to write a story better than this."
Blake Sabo finished 19th in the decathlon after summing 7,021 points. Sabo also entered the meet ranked 19th.
Sabo began the second day of the decathlon with a windy lifetime-best clocking of 14.53 in the 110 hurdles, one of his strengths. Sabo finished seventh in the shrinking 24-man field. A wind reading of 3.5 meters per second remains barely legal for the decathlon but is otherwise wind aided. Sabo jumped from 15th in the overall standings to 10th following his productive run in the hurdles.
Sabo dropped a couple of rungs to 12th overall following the decathlon discus. Standing in the back of the throwing circle to start his technique, Sabo spun and flung the discus 122-1 into the gusty southern wind to finish 19th. His first throw measured 105-6 before Sabo added nearly 17 feet and valuable points to his second attempt. Sabo fouled his third throw.
In the pole vault, Sabo finished tied for 14th with a 14-1 ? clearance. Sabo cleared his first three heights on his first attempt. Sabo easily cleared 13-1 ? to enter the event. Sabo used a little twist at the top to clear 13-5 ?. He also cleared 13-9 ? on his first try with an unconventional but effective leap. Sabo missed his first try at 14-1 ? but looked good in his second successful try. Sabo took his three attempts at 14-5 ? but couldn't get over that bar.
In the decathlon's ninth event, the javelin, Sabo left a few points out in the infield in typically one of his strongest events. Sabo finished 13th with a 173-5 mark in the javelin, 25 feet shorter than his javelin launch at the Sea Ray Relays Decathlon. Sabo did improve on each of his three throws. Sabo opened with a 159-11 effort. He added a couple of inches on the second attempt with a 160-1 measurement. He saved his biggest improvement for last as his third throw reached 173-5 down the infield. Sabo stood 12th entering the 1,500. In the 1,500, the last event of the decathlon, Sabo finished 21st in 5:54.06.
"Leigh's a little disappointed," Webb said. "He's come a long way, though. Blake was competitive for eight of 10 events. One of the biggest disappointments in my coaching career is not getting improvement from him in the 400 and 1,500."
As Tennessee puts the bookend on its 2004 season, the Volunteers find themselves in a unique position--evaluating a rebuilding year. True, this squad won't be compared with the recent SEC and NCAA championship squads from 2001 and 2002. It can't match the "flashing smiles, flying feet" squad that took over Austin in 1974 for the school's first NCAA track championship under the leadership of coach Stan Huntsman, Reggie Jones, Doug Brown, Ron Addison, Willie Thomas and Darwin Bond.
However, there's also a sense that this rebuilding project is moving ahead of schedule. To the Vols' credit, they have made significant progress since the anemic 56th-place tie finish at the NCAA indoor championships in March and two-point total contributed solely by co-captain Sean Lambert. The Vols multiplied that indoor total by 10 at the NCAA outdoor championships this week. Tennessee continued to add to its swollen All-America list and will send current athletes to the U.S. Olympic Trials. There will be new additions to the school record book and revisions in the all-time top-10 lists.
Most importantly, while the Vols don't relish seeing NCAA qualifiers Lambert, Smith, Sabo and Jak Taylor ride into the sunset, most of the Tennessee scorers at both the SEC and NCAA level return for 2005. In fact, in quite a rarity, Tennessee's freshman class led the sophomores, juniors and seniors in scoring at the 2004 SEC outdoor championships. The freshmen also led the Vols with 11 points at the NCAA outdoors, thanks to Aries Merritt and Cross. Additionally, Sylvester returns for his senior season. The goals for Tennessee track and field rise a little loftier than a tie for 13th-place finish at the NCAA outdoors, but the Volunteers look like they're blazing a trail back to the high ground of the scoreboard.
CBS will televise two hours of NCAA championships coverage Saturday, June 19 beginning at 4 p.m. ET.
TENNESSEE RESULTS
NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, Austin, Texas
Saturday, June 12, 2004
TOP 15 TEAM SCORES
1. Arkansas 65.5
2. Florida 49
3. LSU 31
4t. Ohio State 30
TCU 30
SMU 30
7. Baylor 27
8. Texas Tech 26.5
9. Oregon 26
10t. Wisconsin 22
Arizona State 22
12. Arizona 21
13t. TENNESSEE 20
Nebraska 20
15t. Minnesota 18
Boise State 18
Tennessee All-Americas/scoring
Paul Cross, third, six points, 800m run, 1:47.18
Marc Sylvester, fourth, five points, 800m run, 1:47.23
Aries Merritt, fourth, five points, 110m hurdles, 13.47 (freshman school record)
Leigh Smith, fifth, four points, javelin, 241-10
Decathlon (final)
1. Ryan Harlan, Rice 8,171
19. Blake Sabo, Tenn. 7,021
Decathlon 110m hurdles
1. Ryan Harlan, Rice 13.85
7. Blake Sabo, Tenn. 14.53 PR
Decathlon discus
1. Maurice Smith, Auburn 159-0
19. Blake Sabo, Tenn. 122-1
Decathlon pole vault
1. Andy Young, Ore. 17-?
14t. Blake Sabo, Tenn. 14-1 ?
Decathlon javelin
1. Mustafa Abdur-Rahim, Dartmouth 204-0
13. Blake Sabo, Tenn. 173-5
Decathlon 1,500m run
1. Joe Detmer, Wis. 4:12.40
21. Blake Sabo, Tenn. 5:54.06
800m run (final)
1. Jonathan Johnson, Texas Tech 1:46.39
3. Paul Cross, Tenn. 1:47.18
4. Marc Sylvester, Tenn. 1:47.23
Javelin (final)
1. Gabriel Wallin, Boise State 264-9
5. Leigh Smith, Tenn. 241-10
SB-season best; PR-personal record/career best.
