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Men
set world records at UTA On one of the first warm days of spring, the TCU men’s and women’s track and field teams competed in the UTA Invitational Saturday at Maverick Stadium on the campus of Texas-Arlington. The UTA Invitational was the first full outdoor meet of the season. The Frogs withdrew from the March 24 meet at Baylor because of inclement weather.
Senior sprinter Roy Williams said the meet was a good measuring stick for the team’s success this season. “The first race is always tough,” he said. “You just want to go out, compete well and have something to build off of for the rest of the year.” Senior Kim Collins, who qualified for the NCAA outdoor championships in three events, led the Frogs. He won individual races in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes and anchored the 4x100 relay team, which also placed first. Senior Darvis Patton was also a member of the qualifying 4x100 team. He had a good day in the long jump pit, soaring his way into qualifying for the championships with a leap of 26 feet, 8 3/4 inches, which is also a new TCU record. His jump is the longest in the nation this season. The other Frog who qualified for the championships was junior Eliud Njubi, who turned in a time of 1:47.14 to win the 800-meter. In the 100-meter, Collins blazed his way to a 10.01 finishing time, which was the fastest time in the world this year. But, a tailwind was present, which means the record wasn’t official for international standards. The breeze wasn’t strong enough, however, to keep Collins from officially claiming the fastest NCAA time this year and locking up a place for the championships. In his final event of the day, Collins raced to a win in the 200-meter race with a time of 20.44. But the real story Saturday was the 4x100 relay team. Senior Lindel Frater and junior Steve Slowly teamed with Collins and Patton to turn a time of 38.76. Frater said he was confident about the team’s performance. “We have an excellent team, lots of potential and everybody’s fast,” Frater said. “There was no doubt in my mind that we would do well. It was just a matter of executing and getting the hand-offs.” Collins said the weather was a big help for the team. “We think the weather was a very big factor in the win, because last week we had a lot of rain,” Collins said. “From what happened last week, it made us kind of skeptical as to what we could do (this week), but we did what we hoped to accomplish. We hope we’ll have weather like this next week at the Texas Relays.” Head Coach Monte Stratton agreed that the weather played an important factor, especially in the 4x100 relay. “This is virtually our first race and our first good weather opportunity, and I’m glad to see that we took advantage of it,” Stratton said. “It indicates that if we don’t have something break, rip or tear or something otherwise go wrong, injury wise, we can run sub 38 (seconds) by June.” TCU currently holds the national all-time record for the 4x100 relay with a time of 38.04, which was set in 1998. But Stratton said this year’s foursome has the speed to break that record. “We are capable of breaking it but having the speed and actually doing it requires a little bit of luck too,” Stratton said. “This race has built-in apprehensions. That’s why it’s a great spectator event. It’s the greatest event in track and field unless you’re the coach of the team entered in it.” The men’s team is currently ranked second in the nation by Trackwire, the official NCAA track and field Web site. Sam
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