Gators capture fourth title, Trojans have best finish since 1972

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

For the second year in a row, Florida came up just short in a thrilling men's 4x400-meter relay final at the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Championships.

Only this season, the Gators had enough insurance points already accumulated to secure their fourth men's national indoor title.

Despite a world record from USC sophomore Michael Norman in the 400, as well as him anchoring a world all-time best performance by the Trojans in the 4x400 relay, in addition to Randall Cunningham winning the high jump, Florida had enough strong performances in the horizontal jumps to prevail with 40 points in College Station, Texas.

USC had its best result since winning the title in 1972, taking second with 37 points. Georgia (32) enjoyed its best finish in program history by taking third with 32, as did Virginia Tech, which captured the final trophy by taking fourth with 31.

Sophomore Grant Holloway repeated in the 60-meter hurdles in 7.47 for Florida's lone win. Holloway also took second in the long jump at 26-8.25 (8.13m) and was overtaken in the final round by Texas A&M senior Will Williams, who produced a leap of 26-10.50 (8.19m).

KeAndre Bates finished second in the triple jump with an effort of 54-8.25 (16.67m) and teammate Clayton Brown finished fourth with a mark of 53-7.50 (16.34m), combining for 13 points, which gave Florida the lead entering the 4x400. Bates added three more points in the long jump, taking sixth with a leap of 25-11 (7.90m).

USC clocked 3:00.77, followed by Texas A&M (3:01.39) and Florida (3:01.43), as all three teams ran faster than the 3:01.77 world record set March 4 by Poland at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, U.K.

Norman broke the 2005 world indoor record of 44.57 set by Kerron Clement at the 2005 NCAA Indoor Championships by clocking 44.52. Norman also anchored USC's relay in 44.52, with Rai Benjamin producing the fastest indoor relay split in history by running 44.35 on the second leg. Zach Shinnick and Ricky Morgan Jr. ran the other two legs for USC.

Benjamin also placed third in the 200 in 20.34, with Shinnick taking eighth in the 400 in 45.81.

Cunningham cleared 7-6 (2.29m) without any misses at earlier heights to prevail on fewer attempts over Texas Tech's Trey Culver and Alabama's Shelby McEwen. Cunningham then broke his tibia and fibula in his left leg on his first attempt at 7-7.25 (2.32m) and was transported by paramedics to a nearby medical facility for further evaluation.