NCAA Track and Field Championships : Conley, Haley Lead Arkansas to Its First Men’s Title

Mike Conley, with a remarkable triple jump victory, and freshman sensation Roddie Haley, with a sizzling win in the 400 meters, led the University of Arkansas to its first men’s title in the NCAA outdoor track and field championships Saturday night.

The Razorbacks, in completing a sweep of the 1984-85 national collegiate track titles--they won the cross-country crown last fall and the indoor championship in March--amassed 61 points in the weeklong meet at the University of Texas.

Conley, the Olympic silver medalist who earlier won the long jump and took second in the 200 meters, won with a wind-aided jump of 58 feet 1 3/4 inches. The wind was 3.2 meters per second. The allowable for record purposes is 2 m.p.s. It was the third best jump ever under any conditions.

Only world record-holder Joao de Oliveira of Brazil, with a leap of 58-8 1/2 in the high altitude of Mexico City during the 1975 Pan American Games, and Keith Connor of Britain, with a wind-aided 58-5 in the 1982 British Commonwealth Games at Brisbane, Australia, have jumped farther than Conley.

Haley, 19, from Texarkana, Tex., sped to victory in the 400 in 44.70, the second-fastest time in the world this year.

Haley, who owns the fastest 1985 clocking of 44.67, beat a field that included Nigeria’s Sunday Uti of Iowa State, the World University Games champion, and Olympic silver medalist Gabriel Tiacoh of the Ivory Coast and Washington State. Uti was second in 44.91, followed by Tiacoh in 44.92.

Sweden’s Thomas Ericksson of Lamar and Thomas McCants of Alabama each cleared 7-7 in the men’s high jump, equaling the collegiate record of 7-7 set by Dwight Stones of Cal State Long Beach in 1976. Ericksson was declared the winner on fewer misses.

Meanwhile, the University of Oregon, led by distance runners Claudette Groenendaal, Leann Warren and Kathy Hayes, won its first women’s title with 52 points.

Florida State and LSU tied for second with 45 points, and UCLA and Arizona tied for fourth with 41.

Sherri Howard of Cal State L.A. won the women’s 400 meters in 50.95, only .01 seconds off the meet record.

In other men’s finals, Brigham Young’s Ed Eyestone became the first American since Gerry Lindgren of Washington State to sweep the 5,000 and 10,000 races. Eyestone, winner of the 10,000 Friday, took the 5,000 Saturday in 13:56.72.

Louisiana Tech’s John Campbell won the shotput with a personal best 69-3 3/4, Abdi Bile Abdi of Somalia and George Mason University took the 1,500 in 3:41.62, Terry Scott of Tennessee won the 100 in a wind-aided 10.02, and Baylor won the 1,600-meter relay in 3:00.84, a meet record.

Darwin Cook of USC was sixth in the 100 in 10.14.

Wisconsin’s Cathy Branta was the only double winner among the women. After winning the 3,000 Friday, she took the 1,500 Saturday in 4:12.64, a meet record.

Jackie Joyner of UCLA was second in the triple jump at 43-2 and third in the 100-meter hurdles in a wind-aided 13.00.

Michelle Finn of Florida State won the 100 in a wind-aided 11.04, Sabrina Dornhoefer of Missouri in the 5,000 in 15:42.22, and Louisiana State in the 1,600 relay in 3:30.39.