International students thriving

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Minnesota's Adam Steele came from far behind to win the 400 meters, a race in which the top three men were separated by 17-thousandths of a second Saturday night at the NCAA track and field championships.\nMinnesota teammate Mitch Potter seemed to be running away from the field with 75 meters remaining, but was caught by South Carolina's Otis Harris in the final few meters. Potter fell across the finish line and Harris raised his arms in triumph as he crossed the line.\nBut Steele had sneaked in to beat them both. His winning time was 44.563 seconds, six-thousandths of a second ahead of Harris. Potter finished in 44.580. All three times were better than any other in the world this year.\n"I've never been in a closer race in my life," Steele said.\nIn the women's 400, freshman Sanya Richards of Texas broke her own American junior record by winning in 50.58.\nPerdita Felicien of Illinois won her second straight NCAA title in the women's 100-meter hurdles, yet another victory for an international competitor at the top U.S. college meet.\nFelicien, a Canadian who became the third woman to win back-to-back NCAA titles in the 100 hurdles, finished in 12.74 seconds to defeat Big Ten rival Danielle Carruthers of IU, who was second in 12.89.\nThe first four finals Saturday at the NCAA track and field championships were won by international students.\nRyan Wilson of Southern California broke the non-U.S. streak when he won the men's 110 hurdles in 13.35. Wilson is from Westerville, Ohio.\nAfter Saturday's first six finals, 10 of the 23 individual champions at the meet had been from outside the United States.\nArkansas has a simple recipe for success in NCAA men's track and field, let other schools' sprinters grab the spotlight while the Razorbacks gobble up points in distance races.\nThat formula has earned Arkansas nine outdoor championships, including eight straight in the 1990s, and had the Razorbacks on the verge of another title Saturday.\nIn that streak of supremacy from 1992-99, Arkansas dominated in the distance races and field events but did not have an individual champion in any event shorter than 800 meters.\nThis year, the team has relied on two distance runners, Dan Lincoln and Alistair Cragg, for most of its points as it has tried to hold off Auburn.\nLincoln contributed 20 points with victories in the 10,000 and the 3,000 steeplechase. It was his third straight national steeplechase title, the first time an American has done that.\nCragg, who finished second to Lincoln in the 10,000 on Thursday, hoped to add the 5,000 title on Saturday night in the second-to-last event of the four-day meet.\nThough Auburn headed into the final day of the meet with 37 points to 30 for Arkansas, the Razorbacks had several top performers left, including Cragg, Robbie Stevens in the 800 and three finalists in the 1,500, while Auburn's best bet was Sanjay Ayre in the 400.\nAuburn had scored points in more events than Arkansas heading into Saturday's competition, ranging from the 100 to the decathlon, the long jump to the hurdles, but had no presence in the distance events.\nAnd the Tigers' chance for the team title was severely undermined by the disappointing showing of hammer favorite Gabor Mate, a former two-time champion who was shut out in the event he was expected to win.\nThe showdown for the women's team title was turning into a three-way fight among LSU, South Carolina and Texas, and the battle was likely to come down to the final event, the 1,600 relay.\nIn the first four of Saturday's 23 finals, Hyleas Fountain of Georgia won the heptathlon, Candice Scott of Florida set a college record of 229 feet in the women's hammer, Hannes Hopley won the men's discus and Dawid Jaworski of Southern California won the men's high jump.\nScott (Trinidad and Tobago), Hopley (South Africa) and Jaworski (Poland) added to the international flavor of the meet.