The surprise withdrawal of NCAA leader Conor McCullough (Princeton) due to academic reasons looked like it might have opened up the competition for several people to win. But instead defending champion Alexander Ziegler (Virginia Tech) once again stepped up his game to not only defend his title, but do so in a dominating fashion. At last year's NCAA championships Ziegler threw a season's best to win my little more than a foot over his then teammate Marcel Lomnicky. This year, Ziegler again threw a season's best in the prelims and led by nearly four meters entering the finals. However, that was not all we heard from him. In the fifth round, Ziegler again improved to 75.78m, a two meter personal best for the German and the seventh best result ever in NCAA history. By the end of the competition all six of his throws were better than the best of runner-up Jeremy Postin (Florida) and his winning mark was more than six meters ahead.

Postin, meanwhile, had a great meet. Three of his four legal throws landed over 69 meters, not far from his personal best. Sophomore and 2011 Pan Am junior champion Alec Faldermeyer took thid place with a throw of 68.37. After that, the depth began to drop off, with just one more athlete breaking 65 meters this year. Minnesota had an impressive showing with athletes placing fifth (Quentin Mege) and seventh (Micah Hegerle). Mege was actually the only athlete to change their rank in the final, moving from sixth place to fifth place in the fourth round.

                         NCAA Division I 2012 Outdoor                          
                          Track & Field Championships                          
                          Drake University  - 6/8/2012 

Men Hammer Throw
==========================================================================================
 Two flights. Random draw
 30 minute flight specific warm-up. 20 min max before finals
 Advance best 9 after tie breaking to finals. Reverse order
    American: A 82.52m  9/7/1996    Lance Deal, NYAC                           
College Best: C 81.94m  5/19/1995   Balazs Kiss, USC                           
   NCAA Meet: M 80.86m  5/31/1996   Balazs Kiss, USC                           
    Name                    Year School                  Seed     Finals            Points
==========================================================================================
  1 Alexander Ziegler         JR Virginia Tech         70.13m     75.78m     248-07  10   
      70.86m  72.96m  73.35m  72.59m  75.78m  70.29m
  2 Jeremy Postin             JR Florida               66.50m     69.47m     227-11   8   
      69.47m  69.36m  FOUL  FOUL  69.24m  68.24m
  3 Alec Faldermeyer          SO UCLA                  67.04m     68.37m     224-04   6   
      67.29m  FOUL  68.37m  FOUL  67.70m  FOUL 
  4 Michael Lauro             SR LSU                   64.38m     66.04m     216-08   5   
      64.57m  66.04m  FOUL  64.18m  65.47m  65.73m
  5 Quentin Mege              JR Minnesota             65.61m     64.90m     212-11   4   
      63.59m  64.66m  FOUL  64.90m  FOUL  FOUL
  6 Brandon Pounds            JR Indiana State         64.94m     64.66m     212-02   3   
      64.11m  64.66m  62.36m  FOUL  FOUL  FOUL
  7 Micah Hegerle             JR Minnesota             63.52m     63.90m     209-08   2   
      FOUL  63.90m  FOUL  62.04m  62.23m  FOUL
  8 Tyler Johnson             JR Arizona               65.05m     63.88m     209-07   1   
      62.37m  63.17m  63.88m  62.11m  61.57m  63.29m
  9 Justin Welch              SO Georgia               65.97m     63.82m     209-04 
      FOUL  58.55m  63.82m  62.94m  63.18m  FOUL
 10 Jordan Clarke             JR Arizona State         62.26m     63.67m     208-11 
      60.37m  62.08m  63.67m            
 11 Akil Mills                SO Illinois State        62.26m     63.61m     208-08 
      61.17m  63.61m  62.32m            
 12 Daniel Szabo              FR USC                   62.99m     63.56m     208-06 
      FOUL  FOUL  63.56m            
 13 Ryan McCullough           SR Cen Michigan          63.17m     62.85m     206-02 
      62.85m  62.10m  61.18m            
 14 Nick Miller               FR Okla. State           64.52m     62.84m     206-02 
      62.84m  FOUL  FOUL            
 15 Pascal Tang               SR No. Arizona           62.58m     62.54m     205-02 
      62.54m  FOUL  FOUL            
 16 Anastas Papazov           FR Manhattan             64.73m     61.85m     202-11 
      61.65m  61.85m  60.75m            
 17 Leonard Joseph            JR Bucknell              62.86m     61.59m     202-01 
      60.74m  61.35m  61.59m            
 18 Eric Hubbard              SR Akron                 63.20m     60.73m     199-03 
      56.75m  60.73m  60.31m            
 19 Vincenzo Chiariello       SR Virginia              64.29m     60.66m     199-00 
      57.58m  57.59m  60.66m            
 20 Matt Banse                SR Iowa                  61.55m     60.33m     197-11 
      58.68m  60.19m  60.33m            
 21 Scott Esparza             FR California            62.87m     58.99m     193-06 
      58.44m  FOUL  58.99m                        
 -- Caleb Stuart              JR UC Riverside          63.60m       FOUL            
      FOUL  FOUL  FOUL
 -- Denis Mahmic              JR Virginia Tech         63.17m       FOUL            
      FOUL  FOUL  FOUL