Sonia O Sullivan

Sonia O'Sullivan won her second consecutive NCAA cross-country title as heavily favored Villanova earned its third women's crown in a row. Arkansas won its second consecutive men's championship. O'Sullivan finished the 5,000-meter course at the El Conquistador Country Club at Tucson in 16 minutes 30.3 seconds, with Villanova teammate Carole Zajac second at 16:34.9. The Wildcats scored 85 points, 83 points better than Arkansas (168).

Arkansas anchor Joe Falcon ran a 1,600-meter anchor leg of 3:53.7 as he rallied Arkansas to a U.S. record of 9:20.10 in the distance medley Friday at the 95th annual Penn Relays in Philadelphia. Arkansas broke the record of 9:20.96 set by Georgetown in 1987. Less than an hour earlier, Villanova, led by sophomore Sonia O'Sullivan's sizzling 4:16.4 second leg, won the women's 6,000 relay in a world-best 17:22.58.

Uta Pippig of Germany set a world indoor record for the women's 5,000 meters Sunday at Stuttgart, Germany, with a time of 15 minutes 13.71 seconds. Sonia O'Sullivan of Ireland and Villanova University had set the previous record of 15:17.28 on Jan. 25 at Boston University. There were several other good performances at the Stuttgart meet, with three Americans setting 1991 bests. Leroy Burrell won the 60-meter dash in 6.57 seconds, Danny Everett clocked 45.

Brian Lewis outran world-record holder and fellow American Maurice Greene to win the 100 meters Thursday at the Ericsson Grand Prix. Lewis won in 10.06 seconds, followed by Greene, who finished in 10.08 after a slow start. "It is nice to get one over this man," Lewis said of Greene. "For me it is a confidence boost with the U.S. trials coming up." Greene, who is also preparing for the U.S.

Arkansas won its fourth men's NCAA cross-country championship in seven years Monday, and Villanova's women won their second in a row in a meet at Knoxville, Tenn. Arkansas placed two runners in the top 10 and finished with 68 points, beating defending champion Iowa State by 28 points. Iowa State's Jonah Koech was the men's champion, covering the 10,000-meter course in 29 minutes 5 seconds.

Phillimon Hanneck of Zimbabwe, recent Rogaine 5K winner in Los Angeles, will try for a world record in today's eighth annual Carlsbad 5,000. The record for a 3.1-mile road course is 13 minutes 11.7 seconds, set at Carlsbad last year by William Mutwol of Kenya, and Hanneck is capable of breaking it if conditions are favorable. Leading American runners in the elite international field are Olympians Steve Scott, Mary Slaney and Shelly Steely.

Ireland's Sonia O'Sullivan, a favorite next week in the 1,500 and 5,000 meters, doesn't have a problem with the weather in Atlanta. "I got here yesterday and I've been for two runs and it's no different than running anywhere," she said Wednesday. "I think there was so much emphasis put on the heat and the humidity that I expected it to be so much hotter and so much worse. But it's fine."

UC Irvine's Buffy Rabbitt finished fourth in the NCAA women's cross-country championships Monday, leading the team to fourth place, the best finish in the program's history. Rabbitt was 25 seconds behind the winner, Villanova's Sonia O'Sullivan, whose time of 16 minutes 6 seconds on the 5,000-meter course sparked her team to the NCAA title at Knoxville, Tenn. Villanova scored 82 points, defeating second-place Providence by 90 points.