Sheffield and Harris Run Fastest Times of Year in 400 Hurdles

Latanya Sheffield of San Diego State and Danny Harris of Iowa State ran the fastest times in the world this year in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles Friday night in the NCAA track and field championships at Austin, Tex.

Sheffield’s clocking of 54.64 seconds broke the American women’s record of 54.93, set last year by Judi Brown-King in the U.S. Olympic trials.

The previous fastest time in the world this season was 55.03 by Debbie Flintoff of Australia.

Second to Sheffield was Jackie Joyner of UCLA in 55.19. The Bruin women were third in the scoring with 21 points, going into the final day of competition today. LSU led with 28 points, followed by Oregon with 24.

Harris, the Olympic silver medalist, won the men’s intermediate title for thesecond year in a row with a clocking of 48.42, lowering the meet record of 48.44 set by David Patrick of Tennessee in 1982.

Another world-leading time was turned in by Kenya’s Peter Koech of Washington State, as he steamed to a 25-yard, frontrunning victory in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase in 8:19.84, the fifth-fastest clocking ever by a collegian.

The 2-3 steeplechase finishers, Kenyan Patrick Sang of Texas (8:23.68) and Rickey Pittman of Tennessee (8:23.97) also were under the previous 1985 best of 8:24.8 by Koech.

Mike Conley overcame a leg cramp and won the men’s long jump title for the second straight year with a leap of 27 feet 2 inches, equaling his meet record. He also ran second to Olympic silver medalist Kirk Baptiste of Houston in the 200 meters and ran a leg on the Arkansas 400-meter relay team which finished sixth.

Baptiste was timed in a wind-aided 20.03. Conley’s time was 20.12.

Arkansas was leading in men’s team scoring with 24 points. Baylor was second with 23 points, followed by Washington State with 22.

Other men’s winners included Ed Eyestone of Brigham Young in the 10,000 in 28:46.87; Olympic bronze medalist Earl Jones of Eastern Michigan in the 800 in 1:45.12, a stadium record, and North Carolina State in the 400 relay in 39.12.

The remaining women’s winners were LSU in the 400 relay in 43.82, a stadium record; Oregon’s Claudette Groenendaal in the 800 in 2:01.20, a meet mark; Wisconsin’s Cathy Branta, for the second straight year, in the 3,000 in 9:08.32, and Juliet Cuthbert of Texas in a wind-aided 22.55.

A searing afternoon sun sent the temperature to 93 degrees. On the artificial surface of Memorial Stadium temperatures were recorded as high as 127 degrees.

Said Sheffield after setting her record: “This is just unbelievable. All the other meets I’ve run this year were building blocks for a house. Now, I’ve just put the roof on it.

“Why aren’t you all as excited as I am?” she said to a group of media representatives. “Somebody give me a hug! I’m going dorm dancing tonight.”

Harris, winner of 25 of 28 hurdles races in his two years at Iowa State--he finished second in his other three races, losing only to world record holder and two-time Olympic champion Edwin Moses--had run the previous fastest time of 49.69 in 1985.

Harris the first to win two consecutive NCAA 400 hurdles titles since James Walker of Auburn did it in 1978-79.

“I didn’t run the technical race I was supposed to,” he said. “I was a little bit out of control. My steps weren’t quite together, but I was able to recover well enough.”