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Ziegler launches new best to defend NCAA title in convincing fashion
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The surprise withdrawal of NCAA leader Conor McCullough (Princeton) due to academic reasons looked like it might have opened up the competition for several people to win. But instead defending champion Alexander Ziegler (Virginia Tech) once again stepped up his game to not only defend his title, but do so in a dominating fashion. At last year's NCAA championships Ziegler threw a season's best to win my little more than a foot over his then teammate Marcel Lomnicky. This year, Ziegler again threw a season's best in the prelims and led by nearly four meters entering the finals. However, that was not all we heard from him. In the fifth round, Ziegler again improved to 75.78m, a two meter personal best for the German and the seventh best result ever in NCAA history. By the end of the competition all six of his throws were better than the best of runner-up Jeremy Postin (Florida) and his winning mark was more than six meters ahead. Postin, meanwhile, had a great meet. Three of his four legal throws landed over 69 meters, not far from his personal best. Sophomore and 2011 Pan Am junior champion Alec Faldermeyer took thid place with a throw of 68.37. After that, the depth began to drop off, with just one more athlete breaking 65 meters this year. Minnesota had an impressive showing with athletes placing fifth (Quentin Mege) and seventh (Micah Hegerle). Mege was actually the only athlete to change their rank in the final, moving from sixth place to fifth place in the fourth round.
NCAA Division I 2012 Outdoor Track & Field Championships Drake University - 6/8/2012 Men Hammer Throw ========================================================================================== Two flights. Random draw 30 minute flight specific warm-up. 20 min max before finals Advance best 9 after tie breaking to finals. Reverse order American: A 82.52m 9/7/1996 Lance Deal, NYAC College Best: C 81.94m 5/19/1995 Balazs Kiss, USC NCAA Meet: M 80.86m 5/31/1996 Balazs Kiss, USC Name Year School Seed Finals Points ========================================================================================== 1 Alexander Ziegler JR Virginia Tech 70.13m 75.78m 248-07 10 70.86m 72.96m 73.35m 72.59m 75.78m 70.29m 2 Jeremy Postin JR Florida 66.50m 69.47m 227-11 8 69.47m 69.36m FOUL FOUL 69.24m 68.24m 3 Alec Faldermeyer SO UCLA 67.04m 68.37m 224-04 6 67.29m FOUL 68.37m FOUL 67.70m FOUL 4 Michael Lauro SR LSU 64.38m 66.04m 216-08 5 64.57m 66.04m FOUL 64.18m 65.47m 65.73m 5 Quentin Mege JR Minnesota 65.61m 64.90m 212-11 4 63.59m 64.66m FOUL 64.90m FOUL FOUL 6 Brandon Pounds JR Indiana State 64.94m 64.66m 212-02 3 64.11m 64.66m 62.36m FOUL FOUL FOUL 7 Micah Hegerle JR Minnesota 63.52m 63.90m 209-08 2 FOUL 63.90m FOUL 62.04m 62.23m FOUL 8 Tyler Johnson JR Arizona 65.05m 63.88m 209-07 1 62.37m 63.17m 63.88m 62.11m 61.57m 63.29m 9 Justin Welch SO Georgia 65.97m 63.82m 209-04 FOUL 58.55m 63.82m 62.94m 63.18m FOUL 10 Jordan Clarke JR Arizona State 62.26m 63.67m 208-11 60.37m 62.08m 63.67m 11 Akil Mills SO Illinois State 62.26m 63.61m 208-08 61.17m 63.61m 62.32m 12 Daniel Szabo FR USC 62.99m 63.56m 208-06 FOUL FOUL 63.56m 13 Ryan McCullough SR Cen Michigan 63.17m 62.85m 206-02 62.85m 62.10m 61.18m 14 Nick Miller FR Okla. State 64.52m 62.84m 206-02 62.84m FOUL FOUL 15 Pascal Tang SR No. Arizona 62.58m 62.54m 205-02 62.54m FOUL FOUL 16 Anastas Papazov FR Manhattan 64.73m 61.85m 202-11 61.65m 61.85m 60.75m 17 Leonard Joseph JR Bucknell 62.86m 61.59m 202-01 60.74m 61.35m 61.59m 18 Eric Hubbard SR Akron 63.20m 60.73m 199-03 56.75m 60.73m 60.31m 19 Vincenzo Chiariello SR Virginia 64.29m 60.66m 199-00 57.58m 57.59m 60.66m 20 Matt Banse SR Iowa 61.55m 60.33m 197-11 58.68m 60.19m 60.33m 21 Scott Esparza FR California 62.87m 58.99m 193-06 58.44m FOUL 58.99m -- Caleb Stuart JR UC Riverside 63.60m FOUL FOUL FOUL FOUL -- Denis Mahmic JR Virginia Tech 63.17m FOUL FOUL FOUL FOUL |