This year’s class features some of the greatest names in collegiate track & field and cross country history. With 55 national collegiate titles, 17 collegiate records, eight Olympic/World Championships medals, and six world records while in college, these athletes have left an indelible mark on the sports.
Amy Acuff of UCLA won five NCAA DI high jump titles, with three coming indoors and two outdoors. She never finished lower than third in an NCAA competition, adding a pair of runner-up honors and one third-place finish. During her college years, she won three U.S. titles (two Senior, one Junior), made the 1996 U.S. Olympic team and won the 1997 World University Games.
In 1995 she became the first woman in 17 years to hold both the indoor and outdoor collegiate record at the same time after clearances of 1.97m (6-5½) indoors and 1.98 (6-6) outdoors – both in championship competition (NCAA Indoor and Pac-10 Outdoor, respectively). She was the first collegian to clear 2.00m (6-6¾), doing so in the summer of 1997.
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Bert Cameron of UTEP won five NCAA DI 400-meter titles – three outdoors and two indoors. He was the third man to win the DI outdoor 400 three times and was just 0.02 seconds away from being the first to win the event four times. He was a member of six of the Miners’ NCAA team titles (three indoor, three outdoor) from 1980-83, and he also won the inaugural World Championships in the summer of 1983.
Cameron posted several fast times as a collegian. His 44.58 to win the 1981 NCAA Outdoor was a collegiate record and the fastest in the world that year, while his bests in 1982 (44.69) and 1983 (44.62) were second-fastest worldwide in those years. After his senior year 1983 he owned the three fastest in-season collegiate performances in history.
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Cathy Branta of Wisconsin won five NCAA DI titles in cross country, indoors and outdoors, and her 1984 cross country victory led the Badgers to its first-ever NCAA title in any sport. As a collegian, she helped the U.S. win World Cross Country team titles in 1984 and 1985 with individual finishes of 10th and second, respectively.
Three of her four NCAA track titles were Championship records at the time, with her 1985 win in the outdoor 1500 of 4:12.64 also doubling as a collegiate record. That victory came as part of a 1500/3000 double prior to a summer that included winning the U.S. 3000 title and gold in the 5000 at the World University Games.
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Joaquim Cruz of Oregon was a dominating middle-distance runner at any
distance, winning three NCAA DI Outdoor titles and never losing to another
collegian. His 1983 victory in the 800 meters was in a meet record 1:44.91,
while his 800/1500 double in 1984 helped the Ducks to its first men’s team
title since 1965.
Internationally he was a force as well, earning bronze in the summer of
his 1983 freshman year at the inaugural World Championships. His 1984 summer
was incredible, highlighted by the Olympic gold medal. That was part of series
of races over 19 days in which he recorded four of the eight fastest 800 times
ever, with three of them sub-1:43 topped by a 1:41.77 that missed the world
record by just 0.04 seconds.
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Forrest “Spec” Towns of Georgia won two NCAA titles in the 120-yard/110-meter hurdles, becoming the event’s first two-time winner (1936-37).
His 1936 undefeated season was magnificent, setting or tying the world record six times en route to winning the Berlin Olympic gold. The Berlin preliminaries was the site of one of his six WRs, but his final mark came later that summer with an incredible 13.7 in Oslo. That performance not only made him the first sub-14 hurdler in history, it also shattered the record by 0.4 seconds – still the largest single improvement on the WR. His 13.7 WR wasn’t improved on for almost 14 years.
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Joe Falcon of Arkansas won seven NCAA DI titles in a range of events from the 1500 to 10,000 meters and included a distance “Triple Crown” in 1987-88 – titles in cross country, indoors and outdoors. His victories in the outdoor 1500 (1988) and 10k (1987) made him the first athlete to win NCAA titles in such a combination, and his achievements helped Arkansas to six of the 40 compiled by legendary Coach John McDonnell.
Falcon’s racing featured a powerful finishing kick and he set two collegiate records – the indoor 3000 at 7:46.42 in 1989 and as a member of the Razorbacks’ distance medley relay that won the 1989 Penn Relays, with Falcon anchoring in a 3:53.8 for 1600 meters.
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Diane Guthrie of George Mason won five NCAA DI titles – three in long jump and two in the heptathlon. Her first NCAA heptathlon victory (1994) made her the first athlete to have won individual titles in a combined event and another event, and her second (1995) was achieved with collegiate record of 6527 points that still stands. She scored 23 of George Mason’s 29½ points at the 1995 as the Patriots finished fifth – its highest ever.
Guthrie’s long jump titles included a sweep of the indoor and outdoor versions as a freshman in 1991 and in four years never finished lower than third in the NCAA Championships – indoors or outdoors, while also scoring three times in the high jump.
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Larance Jones of Truman (then Northeast Missouri) won six NCAA 400-meter/440-yard titles combining the NCAA Division I and Division II. He lost only once in any NCAA final, finishing second.
Two of his titles came in the NCAA College Division prior to the current three-division setup, one in NCAA Division II and three in NCAA Division I. Those DI titles included two indoors, during a time when there was no indoor championships for DII. His senior year of 1974 saw him sweep the NCAA DI Indoor before both the outdoor DII and DI, making him the first and only athlete with that combination of victories.
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Madeline Manning of Tennessee State won Olympic gold in the 800 meters at Mexico City in 1968 in 2:00.92 – just 0.42 seconds off the world record at the time. It was the zenith of her first three years in college in which she won five indoor or outdoor U.S. titles along with golds at the 1967 Pan-American Games and World University Games. She lost only once during that span.
Her time of 2:00.92 lasted as an all-dates collegiate record until 1976, and as an American record until 1975, when she herself broke it as a post-collegian (she lowered it three more times to an eventual 1:57.90). She was also successful in the 400, earning a silver medal in the Munich Olympics with a split of 51.9 on the second leg after her final year of college in 1972.
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Scott Neilson of Washington won seven NCAA DI titles, with four outdoors in the hammer and three indoors in the weight throw. He was the first field-event athlete to win four NCAA titles in the same event and the first athlete to win seven indoor/outdoor field event titles. He never lost a collegiate hammer or weight competition.
He was most dominant in the hammer, setting a collegiate record of 72.72m (238-7) in 1978 and nearly matching that with his NCAA title that year at 72.36m (237-5) to win by more than 25 feet – a margin that would remain the event’s longest for 18 years. After his 1979 senior year, he owned 10 of the top-11 throws all-time.
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Suziann Reid of Texas dominated the collegiate 400, winning a combined 10 NCAA DI titles, with five coming individually and five as part of Texas’ 4×400 relay team. Three times her anchor leg provided the decisive points for her Longhorns to win NCAA team titles – 1998 and 1999 outdoors and 1999 indoors.
Reid was the first woman to win three DI Outdoor 400 titles, and in the final one (1999) she led the first men’s or women’s 1-2-3 finish in the event by one program. She was part of four DI Outdoor 4×400 winning squads, with her final effort a 50.6 split as Texas set a collegiate record of 3:27.08 to break the 3:27.50 that she was part of as a freshman in 1996.
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Gillian Russell of Miami (Fla.) won five NCAA DI titles – three outdoors in the 100-meter hurdles and two indoors in the 55-meter hurdles. Her final outdoor title, as a senior in 1995, made her the first woman to win three DI 100-meter hurdle titles. Her first indoor title, as a freshman in 1992, made her the first male or female NCAA champion for the Hurricanes in track & field.
Russell won the 1994 NCAA DI outdoor title by a margin of 0.40 seconds – the largest in the event’s history – and she was just the second woman to make four consecutive finals in the DI 100 hurdles.
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