NCAA Track : McRae, Haley Each Set a World Indoor Record

OKLAHOMA CITY — Lee McRae of Pittsburgh and Roddie Haley of Arkansas each set a world record Friday in the NCAA Indoor Track Championships.

McRae, a sophomore, ran a 5.99 in the 55-meter dash, bettering Carl Lewis’ three-year-old record of 6.02, and Haley, also a sophomore, ran a 1:00.69 500-meters, breaking the 1:00.85 mark of Florida’s Clarence Daniel, set earlier this year.

McRae was the first out of the blocks and beat Olympian Sam Graddy of Tennessee, who ran a 6.05. In the preliminaries, Graddy had broken his own NCAA indoor meet record with a time of 6.03.

“I felt with Graddy and me in the same race, it was going to be a fast race,” McRae said. “I had a feeling I had a chance to win or break the record with a little more work on my part.”

Haley, after his heat, said competition from Olympian Danny Harris of Iowa State and Harold Spells of SMU might push him to another world mark in Saturday night’s finals.

“With this field, I’ll probably have to (break a record),” Haley said.

In the women’s 55-meter dash, Gwendolyn Torrance of Georgia broke the meet mark twice with a 6.63 in the preliminaries and a 6.62 in the final. She bettered a 1984 mark of 6.70 set by Merlene Ottey of Nebraska.