The X-Man

SHADES OF JESSE OWENS

JESSE OWENS Prior to Carter’s performance, Jesse Owens of Ohio State was the only collegiate athlete to win four individual national titles at a single NCAA meet as he earned four gold medals at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 1935 and 1936. LSU’S CARTER MAKES HISTORY AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 10, 2006, is a date that is sure live forever in the proud and storied history of the LSU Track & Field program. On a warm afternoon at the Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex on the campus of Sacramento State University in Sacramento, California, LSU great Xavier Carter stepped into history while matching a feat only accomplished by one other man in the history of collegiate track and field – the legendary Jesse Owens.

Not since Owens competed for Ohio State in 1935 and 1936 had a collegiate athlete won four NCAA gold medals at a single national championship meet. That’s until Carter snapped the 70-year drought and added his name alongside one of the true icons of the sport by capturing NCAA championships in the 100-meter dash, 400-meter dash, 4x100-meter relay and 4x400-meter relay. In fact, Carter became the first athlete in meet history to double with NCAA wins in the 100 meters and 400 meters in the same season.

And Carter did so in record-setting fashion while becoming the fastest man in LSU Track & Field history in one of the most exciting NCAA Championships of all-time. It is a performance that will likely never be equaled by another athlete as long as the NCAA Championships are contested and one that should always be celebrated as one of the greatest individual feats in college sports.

4X100-METER RELAY Carter struck gold for the first time at the national meet in on June 9, 2006, by running the second leg on LSU’s 4x100-meter relay team that wrapped up an undefeated season with a comfortable win in the finals while running what was then the sixth-fastest time in NCAA history at 38.44. LSU featured a star-studded lineup as Carter teamed with the likes of future Olympic silver medalist Richard Thompson on the first leg, Marvin Stevenson on the third leg and Olympic gold medalist and seven-time NCAA champion Kelly Willie on the anchor leg to defeat Tennessee (38.86) by more than four-tenths of a second. UTEP finished well back in third place with a time of 38.99. Pictured (from left to right) is the team of Carter, Thompson, Willie and Stevenson following its win at the 2006 Penn Relays.

4X400-METER RELAY With three NCAA gold medals already in the bag, Carter returned to the track for the third time on the meet’s final day to run the anchor leg of LSU’s fearsome 4x400-meter relay team. Just one season after it smashed the collegiate record with an NCAAtitle-winning time of 2:59.59 at the national meet, the squad defended its crown and put an exclamation point onto the end of an undefeated 2006 season with a win in Sacramento. Carter joined Reggie Dardar on the first leg, Kelly Willie on the second leg and Melville Rogers on the third leg to run 3:01.58 and finish more than a half second ahead of TCU (3:02.12) for the title. Baylor finished more than one second behind in third place at 3:02.93. LSU’s victory in the mile relay led to a second-place finish in the final team standings with 51 points for the meet.

100-METER DASH In one of the deepest fields ever assembled for the 100-meter final at the NCAA Championships, Carter outlasted them all to win his second event title of the meet. With defending champion and future Olympic bronze medalist Walter Dix playing the role of favorite, Carter was seen as an All-America contender, but someone who would have to pull out an upset to take the title. That’s exactly what Carter did to dethrone Dix (10.18) as the NCAA champion as he took home the gold with a then school-record time of 10.09 run into a strong headwind. The national final also featured the likes of future collegiate record holder Travis Padgett of Clemson (10.24), future Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles of Texas (10.27) and Churandy Martina of Texas-El Paso (10.29). Perhaps Carter’s most impressive feat of the 2006 NCAA Outdoor Championships came in the 400-meter final when he had only 40 minutes to rest following his win in the 100 meters. After allowing the field to go out fast while holding his ground through the first 300 meters, Carter turned on the jets around the last turn to cross the finish line with another personal-best time of 44.53 that remains as the second-fastest run in the history of the LSU Track & Field program. While crossing his arms in the form of an “X” as he ran through the finish line, Carter took the title ahead of Ricardo Chambers of Florida State (44.71) and future Olympic 400-meter bronze medalist David Neville of Indiana (44.94). In a grueling performance that may never be duplicated, Carter remains the only sprinter in meet history to successfully complete the 100/400 double at the NCAA Championships.