AUBURN, Ala. — Mel Rosen was Auburn’s head track and field coach for 28 years before he decided to retire after the 1991 outdoor season.

“Everybody thought I was a dummy for retiring when I did,” Rosen said. “But I did it the year before John McDonnell came into the conference.

“ That makes me look pretty smart now.”

McDonnell’s Arkansas cross country and track teams have dominated the ultracompetitive SEC since taking the first five places in the 1991 conference cross country meet.

ADVERTISEMENT

In the 17 school years in which McDonnell’s Razorbacks have competed in the SEC, they’ve won championships in 46 of 51 meets and never finished lower than third. Their latest title came at the SEC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which ended Sunday night with

Arkan-1 sas on top with 131 / 2 points. LSU was second with 122 points. Tennessee took third 1 with 97 / 2. It was the final conference meet for McDonnell, who is retiring at end of the outdoor season. Since 1974, his Arkansas teams have won a combined 84 conference championships.

That includes 21 Triple Crowns, a sweep of the cross country and indoor and outdoor track titles in the same school year, which the Razorbacks did again in 2007-2008.

“The numbers are mind-boggling for Coach McDonnell, but a problem when you win that many is everybody just kind of expects it and some people actually think that it’s easy to do — and it’s not,” LSU Coach Dennis Shaver said. “Everybody here is trying to win the track meet. You’ve got to really earn it.”

Arkansas had 20 athletes score in a combined 13 events, including championships for senior James Strang (5, 000 meters ), junior Nkosinza Balumbu (triple jump ), sophomore Alain Bailey (long jump ) and freshman Luke Laird (javelin ).

“As far as a gut-wrenching performance, that was it, because this is the best track conference in the United States by far,” McDonnell said. “Every event is absolutely loaded.”

Yet Arkansas again added to its SEC trophy collection.

“We came in as a winner 17 years ago in the conference and now we’ve gone out as a winner in my last conference meet,” McDonnell said. “I wanted it more for the kids than I did for myself because I know they were talking about how I was going out a winner.

“ I knew it was going to be tough, especially against LSU and Tennessee, but our kids did a super, super job.

“ We’ve had a lot of great performances, and this has to be one of the greatest ever.”

Rosen, head coach of the 1992 U. S. Olympic team, said he hates to see McDonnell retire.

“He really gave credibility to the SEC,” Rosen said. “We’ve always had some good coaches and good athletes in the conference, but now everyone finally has realized it’s the best track conference in America.

“ Everybody always thought of John as a distance coach, but he’s also won with his jumpers, with his throwers, with his sprinters. John has had an overall program and taught the rest of the conference people to do the same thing.”

Shaver said he’s also saddened by McDonnell’s impending retirement.

“He teaches the young men a lot about life, and in life you’re always going to be up against competition,” Shaver said. “You have to know how to find something in you that you didn’t realize was there, and I know those guys learned that lesson with John Mc-Donnell being their head coach.

“ It’s sad that after this year other kids aren’t going to have the opportunity to be coached by him, because the things he teaches go way beyond track meets.”

McDonnell has two meets left to coach the Razorbacks, the NCAA Mideast Regional on May 30-31 in Fayetteville and the NCAA Championships on June 11-14 in Des Moines, Iowa.

“I’m not finished yet,” Mc-Donnell said while accepting congratulations for his final SEC title. “I think this is a good national team, too.

“ We’ve got some really good athletes who are going be up at the top, and that’s what wins at nationals.”