| Teddy Williams | Devon Bond |
Rolling with the Roadrunners
NCAA Indoor Championships
Friday-Saturday, March 12-13, 2010
Senior All-American Teddy Williams and junior Devon Bond are looking toput a successful finishing touch on their indoor seasons this weekendwhen they compete at the NCAA Indoor Championships. The two-day meet is underway at the Randal TysonTrack Center on the campus of the University of Arkansas and it runs until 9 p.m. on Saturday.
Williams is scheduled to run in the 60-meter dash preliminary heats at 6:25 p.m. on Friday with the final slated for 7:15 p.m. the next night. Bond, meanwhile, will compete in the triple jump at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.
UTSA fans will be able to get a behind-the-scenes look at thepair's quest for All-America honors, as goUTSA.com will give updates of their preparations leading to their respective event competition.
Saturday, March 13 — 9 p.m.
Thanks for joining us the last two days. Hopefully, this blog gave y'all a detailed, behind-the-scenes look at Teddy and Devon's journey through the national meet. For complete recap of today's action, click here.
Saturday, March 13 — 6:30 p.m.
Devon skipped to a series of 49-3 ¾ (15.03m)-49-3 (15.01m)-FOUL and did not advance to the finals. You gotta give him credit, though, as he went from finding out he missed the meet by just a half inch on Monday night to getting the call from Coach Fox less than 48 hours later letting him know he had, in fact, made the field (due to a scratch). It was a whirlwind week for the junior and he definitely will turn this experience into a positive during the upcoming outdoor season and beyond.
Teddy has begun his pre-race warm-ups and is about as relaxed as I have ever seen him. He's been joking around with all of us. He's all stretched out, been given his pre-race rub down from Dale, now is working on his bulid-ups and will be doing block work any minute now. I don't know about you, but I am beyond excited to see if he can finish his indoor career on a high note. When he crosses the finish line, he will be the third three-time men's All-American in school history and a sixth-place finish or better will be the best showing at an NCAA Indoor meet in program annals. ESPN360.com has begun its live coverage, so click here and watch Teddy's attempt at school history. Check back with goUTSA.com between 8-8:30 p.m. for a complete recap of the race.
Saturday, March 13 — 5 p.m.
Coach Burnett, Teddy and I just arrived and Devon has been here for about two-and-a-half hours getting ready for his first-ever NCAA Championships experience. I'm sure the butterflies are swirling around in his stomach right now, but when it's time to go, there's no doubt he'll be ready to fire. He is going to compete in the first flight, meaning he will be among the first eight competitors to jump. He will get three jumps in the opening round and the top nine marks will advance to the finals. Again, if you want to check it out, click here. I'll be back with an update after he has finished up his first three jumps.
Saturday, March 13 — 2:30 p.m.
Not too terribly much to report on since we last were with you. After leaving the track at 11:30 a.m., Teddy and Devon both wanted to grab an early lunch, so we headed over to Noodles Italian Kitchen, which has been voted as Northwest Arkansas' top Italian restuarant for nearly a decade. It definitely lived up to the billing. Teddy chowed down on some chicken parmesan, while Devon went a little lighter with grilled chicken and steamed vegetables. We then headed over to Pinnacle Hills Promenade Mall in Rogers to keep the guys active and I even scored an official Kansas City Chiefs sidelines visor for $5 at Lids. After walking around the outdoor mall for an hour so (the rain has stopped, but it's a chilly 45 degrees with a 10 miles-per-hour wind), it was back to the hotel for an hour of R&R. Devon is heading to Tyson in about a half hour since he competes at 5:30 p.m. Coach Burnett then will come back to the hotel to pick up Teddy and myself and we will make the journey down I-540 south at 4:30 p.m. Click here to watch Devon compete in the triple jump tonight. Meanwhile, Teddy's 7:15 p.m. race can be seen live on ESPN360.com (click here to watch). I'll try to post one more update before the guys get underway this evening.
Saturday, March 13 — 10:30 a.m.
We're back on a cold, rainy morning in Northwest Arkansas after an exciting Friday night that saw Teddy advance to tonight's 60-meter final. He clocked a 6.65, which was the fifth-best qualifying time, and his second-fastest mark of the season. Click here for a complete recap of last night's preliminary heats.
We stuck around for a couple hours after Teddy's race to watch the 200m prelims and finals and we also saw an outstanding performance by Iowa State's Lisa Koll in the 5k, as she won by nearly a full lap. Teddy was particularly interested in the deuce because three of his opponents in Saturday's 60m final — Florida State's Maurice Mitchell, Auburn's Marcus Rowland and Kentucky's Rondel Sorillo — were competing. Boy, weren't we glad we stuck around, as the two-section final was a sight to be seen. The opening heat saw Florida State's Brandon Byram rally in the final meters and post the fastest time in the world this season at 20.46. Well, Texas A&M's Curtis Mitchell bettered that mark moments later by eight one-hundredths of a second (20.38) to win the national title. Meanwhile, Rowland and Mitchell finished fourth (20.613) and fifth (20.62), respectively. Exciting stuff, to say the least.
It was a late-night dinner for the six of us and we headed back to the Olive Garden for the second time in three nights. We got back to the hotel about 10:30 p.m. and, after Teddy broke down the video of his race with Coach Burnett for 30-45 minutes, he and Devon got some late-night maintenance work done by Dale and that was followed by an ice bath. All in all, a busy day for the two Roadrunners.
The boys slept in a little longer than normal this morning because they were up so late getting ready for today. After a little breakfast, we have made the trek back to Tyson for another morning "shake down." I have a feeling we will stick around to watch Oregon heptathlete Ashton Eaton, who is on pace to shatter his NCAA record of 6,256 points and he has a shot to take down Dan O'Brien's 17-year-old world standard of 6,476. He has 3,561 points entering the day, which is 361 ahead of his nearest competitor (UPDATE: Eaton was successful in setting a new world record with his 6,499 points and won the event by a whopping 613).
The updates won't be quite as frequent as yesterday because, quite frankly, I think I would be rehashing the same stuff for the second day in a row and who wants to read that? However, there will be a couple entries, nonetheless, so check back throughout the afternoon and evening leading up to tonight's triple jump (5:30 p.m.) and 60m final (7:15 p.m.).
Friday, March 12 — 5:45 p.m.
A little more than a half hour to go and Teddy has just finished his pre-race warm-up. I know I am a biased observer, but I gotta tell you, he looks ready to roll. He was exploding out of the blocks and has a look of focus and intensity that you want to see from a championship athlete. Most importantly, he knows this is HIS time. This is what he has been training for all season long. It was a year ago, in this moment, that he clocked the best time of his illustrious career, a Southland-record 6.59, and that was the third-fastest in the preliminary heats. If the 60-meter hurdles prelims are any indication, the Tyson track is a fast one tonight, as the top three times of the season in the event were recorded just moments ago. Don't forget, if you want to check out tonight's race, click here. Check back with goUTSA.com later tonight for a complete race recap and thanks for joining us today. Good luck, Teddy!
Friday, March 12 — 4:15 p.m.
We have arrived. Dale has set up shop at the far end of the sports medicine area (next to Texas of all schools) and I have staked claim to a pretty good seat in a jam-packed press box. Teddy's plan for the next two hours is to begin warming up, continue to stay hydrated and get a good fine-tuning massage from Dale in about an hour or so. As for Devon, well, his plan is to keep active, but, most importantly, root his teammate on when he hits the track at 6:25 p.m. It should be an exciting night.
Friday, March 12 — 3:45 p.m.
We're on are our way to Tyson (a little more than two-and-a-half hours to go!). I just realized that you may not be aware that the San Antonio-Express News and Tyler Morning Telegraph both ran great stories on Teddy in today's sports pages. Click here for the column written by UTSA beat writer Dan McCarney (Express-News) and here for the article penned by Harold Wison (Morning Telegraph).
Friday, March 12 — 1 p.m.
We're back to the hotel for a little R&R. Teddy plans on taking a little cat nap and hydrating, while Devon is going to chill, watch some college basketball, surf the Internet and talk with his girlfriend. It's all about relaxing and getting your mind right during this down time. The van is scheduled to leave for the track at 3:45 p.m., so we'll check back with you after we set up camp.
Friday, March 12 — 12 p.m.
Lunch time has arrived and we're off to Quizno's for the second day in a row ("Mm mm mm mm mm … toasty"). It's light eating for Teddy, as he goes with a regular-sized chicken bacon ranch sandwich to go along with a half dozen honey BBQ wings from the KFC two doors down. As he always says on race day, "I can't be full when I race." Meanwhile, Devon goes with a large chicken cardonara while he continues to comb through eBay in search of his Xbox dream on his iPod Touch.
Friday, March 12 — 10:15 a.m.
We have arrived to the site of this weekend's meet, the Randal Tyson Track Center, which just happens to be the premier facility in the country and one of the best in the world. The 5,500-seat venue opened in 2000 and it has hosted the NCAA Championships every year since its opening, with the exception being 2009, when the national meet was in College Station. Teddy and Devon head to the warm-up area located in the south end of the facility, while Dale heads over to the sports medicine area to stake claim to an area where he can work his pre-competition magic on the pair of Roadrunners. Teddy and Devon do some light jogging and moderate-intensity buildups for about 45 minutes, a "shake out" as it's called in the track & field world, just to keep them moving and fresh for their upcoming events over the next two days. We take in a little bit of the heptathlon long jump and see Oregon's Ashton Eaton set a new meet record in the event (25-4 ½). Earlier in the morning, Eaton set an NCAA meet and Tyson Track Center heptathlon record in the 60 meters (6.71).
Friday, March 12 — 9:45 a.m.
The group piles into the white Toyota Sienna mini-van that we've rented from Hertz Rent-a-Car for the 20-minute drive south to the Arkansas campus. We are staying close to Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Bentonville, which just happens to be the world headquarters of Wal-Mart. The topics of conversation range from Teddy's choice of pre-race music (Mystikal's "Here I Go" and 'Lil Wayne's "BM Jr.") to Devon's new obsession of purchasing an Xbox on eBay this weekend. The two also talked about the importance of always looking good. Their motto is "if you look good, you feel good" … "if you feel good, you run/jump good" … "if you run/jump good, they pay good" … "if they pay good, you live good" … "if you live good, it's all GOOD." After that line comes out of Teddy's mouth, everyone in the car just cracks up laughing.
Friday, March 12 — 9 a.m.
The six of us (Teddy, Devon, Coach Fox, Coach Burnett, massage therapist Dale Londos, associate sports information director Brian Hernandez) meet down in the lobby at the Spring Hill Suites in Bentonville, Ark., for the free continental breakfast. Teddy has his usual race-day meal of a cinnamon bagel and two cups of orange juice. Devon, meanwhile, has a little more since he isn't competing until tomorrow evening (scrambled eggs, sausage, waffle, orange juice). Coach Fox decides that we will head down to the Tyson Track Center at 9:45 a.m. for a quick workout before eating lunch and coming back to the hotel for a little rest and relaxation before tonight's big race.