TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Despite a weather delay that postponed competition for an hour, the Florida State track and field teams put on an exciting last home meet in the Seminole Twilight at the Mike Long Track. Former Seminole Walter Dix highlighted the day with a blistering 100m time of 9.98 that set a new FSU record and then continued to break records in the 200m as he ran a time of 19.89. Both of Dix’s performances today rank second in the world.
“It was pretty good today,” Dix said. “I came out and did what I wanted to do. I wanted to run a sub 10 in the 100 and a sub-20 in the 200. I didn’t know the events were an hour back-to-back so I ran pretty good for the time. This is my home. I like running here because I can run in front of my family and my friends and they get the first taste of what’s going on in my life as far as track and field so it’s a blessing to be able to come here and run well. Most of the crowd is family, friends and teammates. It’s my home crowd so it’s a perfect atmosphere for me to start up in.”
The Elite Section implemented in this meet for the first time was a success as several of the world’s top athletes competed in front of Seminole fans. Throughout the thrilling day, fans were able to see new records broken and many of FSU’s current athletes set some of the nation best performances.
“This was exciting,” FSU head coach Bob Braman said. “More than anything else, hats off to (Assistant Coach) Ken Harnden. He’s been saying for years that we needed to do this, this European model, a 90-minute program with as many stars as we can bring in. I was just amazed that Walter (Dix) could run that double (100m and 200m) in that short period of time where normally he gets much more recovery time. Obviously, we had the rain delay and it ended up clearing up but it’s not ideal conditions, it was awfully thick out here, which certainly hurts the distance runners but it’s not even good for the sprinters.”