NCAA Track and Field Meet : Rice’s Cavanaugh Breaks Women’s Shotput Record

Rice’s Regina Cavanaugh, three-time national collegiate indoor champion, shattered the meet record in the women’s shotput twice Wednesday during qualifying in the weather-plagued NCAA Outdoor track and field championships.

After the start of competition in the opening program of the four-day meet was delayed 2 hours, 40 minutes by heavy rain and lightning, Cavanaugh unleashed her two big throws.

The first, on her second throw in the qualifying, traveled 57 feet, 2 3/4 inches. The second, on her third and final try, measured 57-6 1/2.

Those surpassed the NCAA record of 56-8, set by Ramona Pagel of San Diego State in 1984.

“It was the best series of my life,” said Cavanaugh, the defending NCAA outdoor champion and winner of the indoor title each of the past three seasons. In winning this year’s indoor championship, Cavanaugh, the first woman ever to win three NCAA indoor titles, threw 57-11 3/4, the best ever in an NCAA meet.

The shotput final will be held Friday, and Cavanaugh said she wanted to exceed her personal best, and even throw as far as 59 feet.

“I’m mentally prepared, physically ready,” she said. “I can do it. I’m ready.

“Look for a record-breaking throw.”

Two foreign male athletes, one banned by the International Amateur Athletic Federation, the other banned by his national organization, are competing in this week’s meet here.

The athletes--Lars Sundin, a shotputter and discus thrower from Borlange, Sweden, at BYU, and Ahmed Shata, a shotputter from Cairo at Abilene Christian--have been banned for testing positively for drugs.

Sundin, a senior, has been banned by the Swedish Federation after “excessive testosterone levels” were found in his system.

Shata, a sophomore, flunked a drug test after the 1985 World Cup at Canberra, Australia, and was suspended by the IAAF.

Dennis Poppe, the director of championships for the NCAA, said that Sundin and Shata were eligible for the NCAA championships because the national collegiate organization has not yet implemented its drug-testing program.