FROM STAFF REPORTS

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — D’Andra Carter was one more errant throw away from not even making it to the last day of the discus competition at the NCAA outdoor track and field meet. Once Carter clinched a spot in the finals, however, she seized the opportunity.

The daughter of former Olympic medalist shot putter Michael Carter became Tech’s fourth individual track and field champion Saturday, throwing 182 feet, 5 inches and winning the discus. The senior from Red Oak joined distance runners Leigh Daniel and Sally Kipyego and 800-meter runner Jonathan Johnson as the school’s only national champion track athletes, becoming the first to win a field event.

“It’s amazing. I’m so happy, and I’m extremely grateful,” she said. “I’m just so grateful that I was able to do that. There’s no better way to end a season than to win a national championship.”

Tech expected a strong showing from Carter, a four-time national outdoor qualifier who placed 13th, sixth and third on her first three trips. But expectations seldom panned out the last two weeks for Tech, which had five athletes with national top-10 rankings not even make the finals for reasons that ranged from disqualification to injury to lack of performance.

“It was mixed (emotions),” Carter said. “Of course I’m happy that I won, but it would have been a lot better if Patience (Knight) and Ozie (Okolie) and everybody else were able to be happy and win, too.”

Carter came close to ending on a downer, too. During Thursday’s preliminaries, she fouled by throwing out of bounds on her first two throws, something she said she’d never done in college. She blamed nervousness. Down to her third and last chance, she finally landed a 174-foot throw that was good for third and a spot in Saturday’s finals.

Then she seemed to relax.

“She really just dominated the event,” Tech coach Wes Kittley said. “From her warmups to the first throw, she set the precedent with a 176 throw (on her second attempt), and then everybody else was trying to play catch-up. Her whole series was good.”

Carter, in first after the three-round preliminaries, lost the lead to Arizona State’s Sarah Stevens in the first round of the three-round finals when Stevens threw 177-1. But Carter broke 181 feet on her next throw and, with the championship already clinched, went longer on her last turn.

Unlike Thursday, Carter’s first couple of attempts were confidence builders.

“I was just able to build on that,” she said. “Sarah Stevens got off a good throw that moved her in front of me, but I just really wanted to win, so I threw harder to get back in front.”

Tech had athletes in only two events Saturday, the last day of the four-day meet at John McDonnell Field. The men’s 1,600-meter relay achieved all-America status, which goes to the top eight places, by finishing eighth in 3 minutes, 4.81 seconds.

They did it without usual anchor leg Gil Roberts, who pulled up lame in the semifinals of the 400 meters Friday night. With Roberts, Kittley’s goal was a top-three finish. Without him, top eight was the target.

Tech coaches stayed with the same lineup that ran in Thursday’s preliminaries: sophomore Brandon Washington, senior Rodney Mims, junior Tim Foster and sophomore Lamont Adams.

“They ran faster than they did in prelims,” Kittley said. “I think they were shell-shocked a little bit without Gil, but they got in there and competed hard and got all-America status. I was real proud of that. That’s all we could do today, and we did it.”

Roberts pulled up shortly after the start of his race Friday night, favoring his right quadriceps. Kittley said Saturday it’s believed to be a slight strain. Kittley said Roberts probably will need a couple of weeks off, making him questionable for the U.S. Track and Field Championships scheduled for June 25-28 in Eugene, Ore.

“I don’t think it’s too bad, but being so sore today he couldn’t lift and do the job he needed to do to run full speed,” Kittley said.

Florida State’s Jonathan Borlee won the 400 in 44.78 seconds, and indoor champion Michael Bingham from Wake Forest finished second in 45.09. Roberts won the Big 12 title in May running 44.86.

Also Saturday, Tech senior Harrison Benjamin was named an all-American by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The senior from Humble was ranked fourth going into the national meet, but didn’t make the finals.