NCAA Football Track And Field

At least four college football players competed at this weekend's NCAA outdoor track championships. This is a high honor for those players as they are true two-sport stars which is rare nowadays. I wrote earlier about LSU's Trindon Holliday being college football's fastest man. Well, he and his second-place 10.06 times in the 100 meters happen to share some fast company.

Florida State cornerback Michael Ray Garvin placed sixth in the 100 meter finals, completing the race in 10.30 seconds.

The other event to feature a quartet of football players was the final of the 4x100 meter relay. Michael Ray garvin ran the #3 leg for Florida State. He and his teammates won the event in 38.60 seconds. Holliday ran the anchor leg for second-place LSU as they came in at 38.85 seconds.

Clemson tailback C.J. Spiller ran the anchor leg for his Tigers who clocked in at 40.07 seconds to finish seventh in the event. Finally there was Arizona cornerback Antoine Cason who ran the third leg for his eigth-place Wildcats who finished the race in 40.13 seconds.

There are many more college football players who compete in track during the spring, but few reach the NCAA Championships. Congratulations to Holliday, Garvin, Spiller and Cason for representing their programs well in Sacramento.

(Photo Credits L-R: Streeter Lecka, Grant Halverson and Harry How, Getty Images)

Our apologies to the many other fast and talented college football players out there, but this honor is going to LSU's diminuitive Trindon Holliday. Holliday finished second in the 100 meters to the immortal Walter Dix at this weekend's NCAA outdoor track championships. In placing second, Holliday finished in a sizzling 10.06 seconds. That time probably wins him the championship in any other year but Dix clocked in at 9.93 which very nearly eclipsed the collegiate record of 9.90 held by UCLA's Ato Boldon.

Holliday's fast time isn't a flash in the pan either, as he bested his blazing 10.08 effort at the SEC Championships in May. If Dix turns pro as expected and Holliday returns for another track season (and especially if he ditches football) he will become the early favorite to claim next year's NCAA 100 meter outdoor sprint title.

So, who is Trindon Holliday? Well, he's a smurfish (5'-5")rising freshman receiver and returnman for the LSU Tiger football team. He did not record any receptions last year, but carried the ball 14 times for 172 yards (14.3 average) and a touchdown, returned one punt for six yards and returned five kicks for 162 yards (32.4 average) and a touchdown.

Sending just seven male athletes to the NCAA outdoor track championships in Sacramento, California, the Florida State Seminoles overcame the numbers challenge and repeated as champs behind a memorable effort from star sprinter Walter Dix.

Dix won the 100, the 200 and the 4x100 relay to earn three titles. He is the first male athlete to win all three races since San Jose State's John Carlos in 1969. His 9.93 in the 100 was just a hundredth of a second of Ato Boldon's NCAA championship-best time of 9.92.

Dix must now decide between running another year for the Seminoles or turning pro and focusing on international and Olympic-level competition as one of America's best sprinters.

Other NCAA Championship Notables

Arizona State won the women's championship behind a strong field effort.

The day's best race was the 400 meters as Florida State's Ricardo Chambers beat USC's Lionel Larry by .02 after matching strides down the final 100 meters.

Cal's Alysia Johnson almost set a collegiate record, winning the 800 meters in 1.59.29, just fractions away from Suzy Favor's 1:59.11 in 1990.

Other NCAA or championship best marks set

South Carolina's Natasha Hastings in the women's 400 at 50.15, North Carolina's Brie Felnagle in the women's 1,500 at 4:09.93, LSU's Isa Phillips in the men's 400 hurdles at 48.51, Michigan's Anna Willard in the women's 3,000 meter steeplechase in 9:38.08, Wake Forest's Michelle Sikes in the women's 5,000 meters at 15:16.76 and Georgia's Jenny Dahlgren set the collegiate women's hammer record with a throw of 232 feet.