Rainstorm, tennis balls cause trouble at NCAAs

Thursday, June 10, 2004 | 10:18 a.m.

SUN STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

AUSTIN, Texas -- Not only did rain and lightning spoil Texas' first day of hosting the NCAA track and field championships, the Longhorns' hopes for the women's team title took a nasty hit, too.

The bad weather wiped out nearly all of Wednesday's schedule.

That means UNLV's Halima DeCree will have to wait one more day before beginning her competition. DeCree, scheduled to run the 100-meter dash on Wednesday, will now run both the 100m and 200m dashes today.

Christine Spence, who was scheduled to run the 400-meter hurdles today, saw her event pushed back to Friday.

One of the few events completed brought the first big controversy of the meet.

The Texas women were disqualified after winning a heat in the 400-meter relay for using an improper marker for the exchange zone.

The disqualification was announced late Wednesday. Coach Bev Kearney immediately sent word she would appeal.

Texas used tennis balls that had been sliced in half to mark the exchange zone on the track. NCAA rules state "two separate pieces of tape or suitable material as determined by meet management" can be placed on the track.

Texas' disqualification, if it stands, would allow UCLA -- another potential contender in the team race -- into Saturday's finals. UCLA finished 10th in the preliminaries, six-thousandths of a second behind TCU. The nine fastest teams advanced to the finals.

LSU, expected to battle Texas and UCLA in the team race, won its relay heat with the fastest time among the qualifiers at 43.04 seconds. Texas had been next at 43.41.

Fans and competitors were evacuated from Mike A. Myers Stadium three times because of lightning nearby, and a constant -- often heavy -- rain drenched the track and those trying to compete there.

With lightning flashing all around and the infield a virtual marsh, all but a few of the day's events were called off Wednesday evening.

"The No. 1 thing is the safety of everybody, fans and student-athletes," NCAA spokesman Mark Bedics said. "In this situation, rain is not going to hurt anybody. It's slippery, but everybody will be on the same playing field. The situation was because of the lightning."

NCAA officials issued a revised, compacted schedule for the remainder of the meet, eliminating one round of qualifying in the 100 meters, 400 meters, men's 110-meter hurdles and women's 100-meter hurdles.

Qualifying was eliminated in the women's pole vault, women's discus, men's and women's long jump and the men's and women's 5,000 meters. In those events, all competitors will go in one final round.