June 10, 2009

By Brett Hess
Special to NCAA.com

This week's NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships figure to be a coronation of Galen Rupp as the University of Oregon star carries his storied program to its first title since 1984. But the Ducks will need more than Rupp's expected wins in the 5,000 and 10,000 meter runs if they want to win the title.

According to the form charts put out by Track & Field News, the Ducks figure to win the title with 66 points and Texas A&M to place second with 56. But how often do meets run "true to form"? Not very often; which is why they play the game. Or hold the meet.

The meet begins Wednesday with Day One of the decathlon along with several preliminaries.
 
If Oregon is able to win the title, the Ducks will become the first school since Arkansas (1998-99) to win the national triple crown: cross country, indoor track and outdoor track. Ironically, the Razorbacks are the host of this week's championships.
 
Win or lose, Rupp is the key story line. The 2008 Olympian (10,000 meters) is college track's biggest star and for good reason. This scholastic year alone he has three individual national titles (cross country, indoor 5,000 and indoor 3,000) and another as a member of a relay. If he were to win two more this week, his year would go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, in collegiate history.
 
But again, that is only 20 team points and it certainly wouldn't be enough for an Oregon title. And that's where Rupp's reinforcements come in. It took five runners to win the cross country team title last November and several of those same athletes will figure prominently in a track title. The Ducks also have the top seeds in the 1,500 meters with Matthew Centrowitz and the 800 with Andrew Wheating and No. 6 seeds in the 5,000 (Shadrack Biwott) and the 10,000 (Luke Puskedra).
And not to be left out, Chris Winter carries a No. 9 seed into the steeplechase for the Ducks. And it's going to take more than just distance stars: Oregon's Ashton Eaton is No. 1 in the decathlon and Alex Wolff is No. 6 in the javelin.
 
While Oregon figures to dominate the distance events, Texas A&M should rule the sprints. The Aggies have the top seed in the 4x100 meter relay and the No. 3 seed in the 4x400 relay. Individually, Gerald Phiri is seeded third in the 100 and sixth in the 200. Also, Chris Dykes is fourth in the 200 and Justin Oliver is eighth in the 400.
 
Texas A&M does have a strong presence in the field events, particularly the jumps. Julian Reid is seeded third in the long jump and second in the triple jump. In the later, the Aggies also have Tyron Stewart seeded third and Zuheir Sharif seeded sixth. Also, the Aggies have a decathlete, Trinity Otto, seeded sixth.
 
Host Arkansas has vowed to defend its home turf and the Razorbacks certainly have the potential, figuring to score 45 points according to the form charts. Alain Bailey is seeded first in the long jump and is one of three Razorbacks seeded in the event. Historically strong in the middle-distance and distance events, the Razorbacks hope to continue their tradition there also with seeded athletes in four of the five events.
 
After Oregon, Texas A&M and Arkansas, the field is wide open with Southeastern Conference powers Florida, South Carolina and LSU leading the way.