March 10, 2012

Final Meet Results: Women

Final Meet Results: Men

Boise, Idaho - The Arizona Wildcat No. 5 men's and No. 12 women's track and field teams concluded competition at the NCAA Indoor Championships on Saturday with the men finishing in third place and the women coming in 11th place. Arizona added two more individual titles on Saturday as well.

The UA men's third-place finish is the best in school history. Their previous best was 10th, occurring in 2005 and 2006. Arizona had 41 points in third, Florida won their third-straight title with 52 points, Arkansas took second with 47 points and Arizona State came in fourth with 31 points. The UA women's squad had 19 points, good for an 11th-place finish. Oregon also won their third-straight title with 49 points. Kansas took second with 30 points, LSU had 27 points in third place and Texas had 25 points in fourth place.

"It was one of those meets where, I don't know if you could ask for a better performance from our guys," head coach Fred Harvey said. "We came in with four guys and all four scored huge. We ended up with three national championships from that bunch and it's exciting because you want your best people to perform at a meet like this. It is a great feeling, I'm proud of all the athletes and I'm excited for the University of Arizona."

"With three ladies we ended up 11th," Harvey said. "The ladies came here and performed well, you look at what Elvin Kibet did in the 5,000 meters, you come back and look at Brigetta Barrett being the high jump champion again, and that is just excellent work."

Junior Nick Ross won the 2012 NCAA Indoor Championship in the high jump, clearing 7-3.75 (2.23m). Ross won with the least amount of jumps in the competition. Ross' previous best finish at the NCAA Championships was seventh in 2010. Ross is the first Wildcat to ever win an NCAA title in the high jump, indoor or outdoor. Junior Edgar Rivera-Morales came in seventh, clearing 7-2.5 (2.20m). Rivera-Morales came in sixth at the 2011 championships. The two of them added twelve points to the men's total. Arizona swept the high jump competitions at the NCAA Championships with junior Brigetta Barrett won her second-straight title with a clearance of 6-5 (1.97m).

"It feels great (to be the NCAA Champion)," Ross said. "I knew that if I stayed mentally tough and hit some big jumps on my first attempts that I could put the pressure on a lot of guys and that's what I did. I'm not happy or content with what I jumped but a win is a win. A national championship, you can't argue with that.

Sophomore Lawi Lalang won the 3,000-meter race, earning his second NCAA Championship of the weekend. Lalang clocked a time of 7:46.64. Senior Stephen Sambu earned a sixth-place finish, clocking a time of 7:53.08. The duo earned 13 points in the event, and a total of 29 for the UA men over the course of the weekend.

"I knew Chris Derrick (Stanford) would be there," Lalang said. "I've been racing him for a long time. I know he's a kicker, but I had to trust myself and I know I can kick too. I knew there were some good guys in this race, but I had to fight and give it my all. If I won it, that'd be great and if I didn't win it, I knew I gave it my all. I was confident and I knew I could do it."

Junior Julie Labonté could not successfully defend her 2011 title. She earned a third-place finish with a toss of 58-0.25 (17.68m). Labonté added six points to UA's total score of 19 points.

Arizona's outdoor season begins next weekend when UA will host the Willie Williams Classic.