TRACK AND FIELD / NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS : USC Giving It a Run for Title

USC’s Quincy Watts set a stadium-record in qualifying for the 400 meters Friday as the Trojans tried to sprint into position to win the NCAA track and field championship.

Watts won his preliminary round heat in 44.56 seconds, breaking the mark of 44.70 by Arkansas’ Roddie Haley in 1985. Travis Hannah also advanced to the finals with a season-best 45.71.

Mark Crear won his heat in the 100-meter hurdles and was the fastest qualifier with a personal best of 13.46 seconds.

The USC men’s 4x100 relay finished fifth in the finals with a season-best 39.21, the eighth-fastest time in USC history.

Jeff Laynes advanced to finals in the 100 meters.

After eight men’s events, Arkansas, the NCAA cross-country and indoor champion, led with 28 points, followed by defending champion Tennessee with 20. Favored Florida led the women’s standings with 28 points, two ahead of five-time defending champion Louisiana State.

The remaining 24 finals will be held today.

USC brought only six men to the meet and they have run 25 sprints through three days.

“If the wind is right, I can see us getting 38 or 39 points on Saturday,” said Jim Bush, USC’s coach. “Add that to what we already have and we’re still short on points for a national championship. If a few things go wrong for a few teams, perhaps we could still win the title.

“Realistically I think we can finish in the top three and that would be a heck of a job for these six guys. They are doing a superhuman job against some incredible competition.”

Inger Miller of USC advanced to finals of 100 and 200 meters.

UCLA’s David Bunevacz finished second in the javelin with a throw of 242 feet 11 inches, the third best in school history. Dawn Dumble was fourth in the women’s discus at 171-5.

The Bruins’ Marty Beck won his 400 hurdles heat in 50.20.

Meanwhile, LSU won the men’s and women’s 400-meter relays, becoming the first school to sweep those events in the same meet. The men, clocking 38.70 seconds, shattered their stadium record of 38.85 set during the preliminaries, and the women, with Dahlia Duhaney outkicking Florida’s Michelle Freeman, were timed in 43.03.

Olapade Adeniken of Texas El Paso bettered Leroy Burrell’s meet record, winning his 100-meter semifinal heat in 9.97.

In other events, Kamy Keshmiri of Nevada won his third consecutive NCAA discus title and Arkansas long jumper Erick Walder added the outdoor title to his indoor title, with both setting meet and stadium or field records.

George Mason’s Istvan Bagyula also made meet history, winning his third consecutive pole vault championship and his sixth overall, including three indoors--more than any competitor in history. He also tied the meet record.

Keshmiri, the fourth thrower in meet history to win three consecutive discus titles and the first since John Van Reenen of Washington State completed a triple in 1970, won with a heave of 220 feet.

Walder, a sophomore who has blossomed this year after a lackluster freshman season, leaped 27-9 1/2, erasing the NCAA meet record of 27-5 1/2, set by Burrell in 1989.

Walder won the NCAA indoor long jump and triple jumps titles at Indianapolis in March, joining former world long jump record-holder Bob Beamon of Texas El Paso and former Arkansas star Mike Conley, the 1984 Olympic triple jump silver medalist, as the only jumpers to accomplish that feat. Walder will be vying for the outdoor triple jump title today.

Bagyula, the silver medalist at last year’s World Championships at Tokyo, cleared 19-0 1/4, matching the meet record he set last year. Only four vaulters have won three consecutive outdoor titles, the last being Earl Bell of Arkansas State (1975-77).