Track and Field
The Crimson Tide's Men's Track and Field Program has produced numerous individual National Champions, including Jan Johnson (pole vault), Gary England (shot put), Jeff Woodard (high jump), William Wuycke (1000 yards and 1000 meters), Emmit King (100 meters), Keith Talley (55-meter and 100-meter hurdles), Andrew Owusu (long jump), Miguel Pate (long jump and NCAA national record), Mats Nilsson (javelin), David Kimani (3000 meters indoor and 5000 meters), Kirani James (400 meters), and the 4 X 100 meter Relay Team of Richard Beattie, Brad McQuaig, Eduardo Nava, and Clive Wright, and the Mile Relay Team of Joe Coombs, Darroll Gatson, Tony Husbands, and Ike Levin.
Individual National Champions from the Crimson Tide Women's Track and Field Team have included Disa Gisladottir (high jump), Iris Gronfeldt (javelin), Lillie Leatherwood (400 meters), Liz McColgan (formerly, Lynch) (mile), Pauline Davis-Thompson (200 meters), Flora Hyacinth (triple jump). Many of the track and field athletes at the University of Alabama have been Olympians.
Coach Dan Waters is the head coach for both the men's and women's track and field program, assuming the position in 2012. The University hosts the Alabama Relays and the Crimson Classic annually, which brings many of the top programs in the country to compete at the University's Sam Bailey Track and Field Stadium, built in 1975 with seating for 4500 fans. The renovation project occurring in 2012 is destined to make Alabama's track and field stadium among the best in the nation, with a track that is expected to be among the fastest in the nation due to its premier surface and wider curves.
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Famous quotes containing the words track and/or field:
“If you are ambitious of climbing up to the difficult, and in a manner inaccessible, summit of the Temple of Fame, your surest way is to leave on one hand the narrow path of Poetry, and follow the narrower track of Knight-Errantry, which in a trice may raise you to an imperial throne.”
—Miguel De Cervantes (1547–1616)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)