Walter Dix leads FSU to another NCAA track crown

He captured the 200-meter title for the third straight year.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Appropriately enough, Walter Dix left Florida State a winner.

Dix won his third consecutive 200-meter title and led the Seminoles to their third straight men’s team crown Saturday at the NCAA track and field championships.

“We came out and gave a great effort,” Dix said. “Three-peat, I’m proud of that.”

The LSU women edged defending champion Arizona State for the women’s championship, a race that came down to the meet’s final event, the 1,600 relay.

The two teams entered the race tied. LSU finished second for eight points, Arizona State fifth for four points.

LSU won its 25 women’s track title, 14th outdoors, but its first since Dennis Shaver replaced Pat Henry as coach in 2005.

The Tigers didn’t win an event Saturday, but won the team crown with exceptional depth. LSU had 67 points, to 63 for Arizona State. Texas A M was third with 48.

Dix, in his final race as a collegian, built a big lead coming off the turn, then held off 100 champion Richard Thompson of LSU to win in 20.40 seconds. Thompson was second at 20.44.

“It’s time to move on,” said Dix, who got his degree in social science in April. “It was fun, but I’m excited to move on to the pro level.”

Florida State finished with 52 points. LSU and Auburn tied for second with 44.

Jacquelyn Johnson of Arizona State became the fourth woman ever to win four NCAA championships in a single event when she captured the heptathlon.

Arizona State piled up 23 points in the first two events Saturday to take a 28-point lead over LSU (59-31), but the deep, talented Tigers roared back.

The Tigers scored 11 points in the 100 hurdles, nine in the 200 and eight in the 800 to tie the race at 59-59 entering the relay finale.

The Sun Devils’ Jessica Pressley won the shot put at 59 feet, 53‚Ñ4 inches. Teammate Sarah Stevens, who won the discus on Friday, was fifth in the shot to give Arizona State 13 points in the event.

Then Johnson wrapped up her outstanding collegiate career with the 800, the final of the seven events of the heptathlon. She finished with 6,053 points to 5,811 for runner-up Liz Roehrig of Minnesota.

The only other women to win four NCAA titles in one event were Suzy Favor of Wisconsin in the 1,500 (1987-90), Seilala Sua of UCLA in the discus (1997-2000) and Angela Williams of USC in the 100 (1999-2002).

Auburn’s Cory Martin won the shot put at 66-91‚Ñ4. He became the first to win the hammer and shot at an NCAA championships since Jack Merchant of California in 1922.

Mexican-born Leo Manzano of Texas, a member of the U.S. team at the world championships last year, won the 1,500 at 3:41.25. Hannah England of Florida State set a meet record in the women’s 1,500 at 4:06.19.

Erica McLain of Stanford won the triple jump with a wind-aided 47-11 on her last attempt, the second-longest mark by an American under any conditions.