Teamwork and Clutch in the Relays

Did anyone notice the 4x400m winning time from the NCAA’s was faster than the IAAF World Indoor?

UPDATE: Thanks to Chui for sending the links to the videos!

In fact, all 3 medalist from the NCAA bettered the winning time from IAAF Worlds.

Also, Baylor won the race with only one team member (LeJerald Betters) entered in the open 400 meters, and he came 16th and last in the heats as he suffered from cramps.

Yet they manage time and time again to win the NCAA’s in a performance better than the professionals. Both tracks were banked indoor 200 meter tracks.

Clyde Hart actually explained in his 2007 USATF NPEP seminar how he got his athletes to “step up to the plate” and perform on a single race on race day, when it counts the most. Peaking is the key. I am not allowed to show the whole video from the seminar, but I’ll see if I can extract that portion of his detailed training plan.

Here were the results of the two relays:

IAAF 2008 World Indoor Championships

1. United States (James Davis; Jamaal Torrance; Greg Nixon; Kelly Willie) 3:06.79
2. Jamaica (Michael Blackwood; Edino Steele; Adrian Findlay; DeWayne Barrett) 3:07.69
3. Dominican Republic (Arismendy Peguero; Carlos Santa; Pedro Mejia; Yoel Tapia) 3:07.77

NCAA Division I 2008 Indoor Championship

1. Baylor (Trey Harts, Marcus Boyd, Justin Boyd, LeJerald Betters) 3:05.66
2. Texas Christian (Che Chavez, Dell Guy, Clemore Henry, Matt Love) 3:06.19
3. Arizona State (Jimmie Gordon, Darryl Elston, Justin Kremer, Joel Phillip) 3:06.34

Video of Men’s 4×400 Heat #2 (with TCU):

Video of Men’s 4×400 Heat #3 (with Baylor & Overall winner ASU):

Here’s some press coverage from their relay run: BU 4×400 relay wins 3rd straight NCAA title

Chalk up another gold for the green and gold.

Baylor won its third straight national title in the 4×400 relay and 16th overall to close out the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in winning style Saturday night.

Baylor swept the indoor and outdoor national championships in the relay in 2007, and the 2008 Bears have picked up where they left off. Baylor has now won 21 straight 4×400 finals, having not lost since the 2006 NCAA outdoor meet.

What’s perhaps most significant about that fact is that two of BU’s top quarter-milers, all-Americans Quentin Iglehart-Summers and J.T. Scheuerman, didn’t even compete in this year’s indoor meet due to injuries.

“This one is definitely special, because we had to battle some adversity this season,” Baylor coach Todd Harbour said. “To not have Q or J.T., two guys who had consistently run on last year’s team, was tough, but I can’t say enough about our guys. They really stepped it up.”

Baylor clocked a winning time of 3:05.66, dropping its world-leading time by more than a second. Sophomore Trey Harts led off for Baylor and ran a 46.8-second split, but the Bears were second behind Texas A&M, which led off with junior standout Justin Oliver.

Baylor took the lead on the second leg behind freshman Marcus Boyd (46.8) and then widened the gap on the final two legs, which were run by senior Justin Boyd (46.4) and sophomore LeJerald Betters (45.2). Betters showed no ill effects after cramping up in the prelims of the open 400 Friday.

“This feels great,” Justin Boyd said. “Going in, we knew had the bull’s eye on our back because we’re Baylor, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. We loved it being a race, because we’re all competitors, and there’s nothing we like to do more than compete.”

TCU, running in an earlier heat in the finals, finished second at 3:06.19, while Arizona State was third at 3:06.34.

Baylor’s three straight national titles in the 4×400 have only been accomplished three other times — by SMU in the 1970s, LSU in 1995-96 and by Clyde Hart’s Baylor squads of the early 1990s, which won five straight at one juncture.