Greg Hansen's top 10 track and field athletes in UA history
- Updated
Six-time NCAA champion Lawi Lalang tops the list.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Editor’s note: This summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports.
Today’s list: The top 10 UA men’s track and field athletes.
Three of the world’s leading track legends, distance runners Jim Ryun and Kip Keino and pole-vaulter Bob Seagren, were the headliners at the 1966 Coliseum Relays in Los Angeles.
A crowd of 17,253 attended and the night’s star was an undersized javelin thrower from Libby, Montana: Arizona senior John Tushaus.
In the performance of his life, Tushaus broke the American record with a throw of 284 feet, more than 31 feet better than his previous best. Later that month, the 185-pound Tushaus, a transfer from Palomar Junior College in California, won his second consecutive NCAA javelin championship.
A year earlier, Tushaus became the second Wildcat ever to win an NCAA track and field championship.
“The good Lord gave him that arm,” said UA coach Carl Cooper, who took a chance on Tushaus during the 1964 recruiting year, a time at which Tushaus’ career best throw was 228 feet.
It was a Cinderella story like few others in track and field. Tushaus did not have a javelin coach while in his Montana high school. He said he learned the techniques of the javelin by studying sequential pictures of the discipline in an encyclopedia.
Tushaus wasn’t the first UA track and field headliner; four-time Olympic distance runner George Young of Silver City, New Mexico, occupies that role. But Tushaus was the first to set an American record as a Wildcat, which easily earns his spot on our list of Top 10 track and field male athletes in UA history.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
No one in UA history can touch Lalang’s résumé: six NCAA championships in distances from 3,000 to 5,000 meters, four Pac-12 titles and school records in the 1,500- and 5,000-meter runs.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
He ran in the 1960, 1964, 1968 and 1972 Olympics, winning a bronze medal in the ’68 Mexico Olympics steeplechase.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Winner of back-to-back NCAA decathlon championships in 2006 and 2007, scoring a robust 8,215 points while winning in ’07.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Although Johnson made his name nationally as an All-Pac-10 tailback and an NFL receiver, the Cholla High grad won the 1982 NCAA long jump with a still-standing school record of 26 feet 11¼ inches. He was then second in the NCAAs in 1983 and third in 1984 — and also third in the NCAA 4x100 relay — while splitting time between football and track.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
At 185 pounds, the two-time NCAA javelin champion was about 50 pounds lighter than the average world-class javelin thrower.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
A member of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team (steeplechase), Davis won NCAA titles at Arizona in the 5,000 meters and steeplechase, won three Pac-10 titles at 5,000 meters and two in the steeplechase.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Son of gold medalist distance legend Kip Keino of Kenya, Martin won four Pac-10 distance running championships and the 1995 NCAA 5,000-meter championship, and was the NCAA cross country national champion.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Perhaps the top Finnish athlete in UA history — even beyond basketball’s Lauri Markkanen — Mikkola won NCAA championships in the javelin in 1998 and 2000, and also won three Pac-10 championships.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Brother of Tucson Olympic distance running standout Bernard Lagat, Cheseret won NCAA championships in the 5,000 meters in 2004 and the 10,000 meters in 2005. He also won give Pac-10 championships.
- Greg Hansen
- Updated
Bates ran a still-standing UA-record 10.17 seconds in the 100 meters in the summer of 1991 after he swept the Pac-10 championships in the 100 and 200 and had been a three-time NCAA All-American in the sprints and 4x100 relay. Bates capped his track career by winning the bronze medal at 200 meters in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and then became a five-time NFL Pro Bowl special teams player.
More like this...
- Greg Hansen
Editor’s note: This summer, Star columnist Greg Hansen is counting down the top 10 of just about everything related to Tucson sports.
Today’s list: The top 10 UA men’s track and field athletes.
Three of the world’s leading track legends, distance runners Jim Ryun and Kip Keino and pole-vaulter Bob Seagren, were the headliners at the 1966 Coliseum Relays in Los Angeles.
A crowd of 17,253 attended and the night’s star was an undersized javelin thrower from Libby, Montana: Arizona senior John Tushaus.
In the performance of his life, Tushaus broke the American record with a throw of 284 feet, more than 31 feet better than his previous best. Later that month, the 185-pound Tushaus, a transfer from Palomar Junior College in California, won his second consecutive NCAA javelin championship.
A year earlier, Tushaus became the second Wildcat ever to win an NCAA track and field championship.
“The good Lord gave him that arm,” said UA coach Carl Cooper, who took a chance on Tushaus during the 1964 recruiting year, a time at which Tushaus’ career best throw was 228 feet.
It was a Cinderella story like few others in track and field. Tushaus did not have a javelin coach while in his Montana high school. He said he learned the techniques of the javelin by studying sequential pictures of the discipline in an encyclopedia.
Tushaus wasn’t the first UA track and field headliner; four-time Olympic distance runner George Young of Silver City, New Mexico, occupies that role. But Tushaus was the first to set an American record as a Wildcat, which easily earns his spot on our list of Top 10 track and field male athletes in UA history.
- Greg Hansen
Although Johnson made his name nationally as an All-Pac-10 tailback and an NFL receiver, the Cholla High grad won the 1982 NCAA long jump with a still-standing school record of 26 feet 11¼ inches. He was then second in the NCAAs in 1983 and third in 1984 — and also third in the NCAA 4x100 relay — while splitting time between football and track.
- Greg Hansen
Bates ran a still-standing UA-record 10.17 seconds in the 100 meters in the summer of 1991 after he swept the Pac-10 championships in the 100 and 200 and had been a three-time NCAA All-American in the sprints and 4x100 relay. Bates capped his track career by winning the bronze medal at 200 meters in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics and then became a five-time NFL Pro Bowl special teams player.
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