Baxter was Purdue's top finisher, placing second in the 200-meter dash with a school-record time of 20.57 seconds. His previous best was a 20.78, which he recorded at the 2003 national indoor championships. Kansas' Leo Bookman was the only man faster than Baxter Friday night, as he came across in 20.42.
In three trips to a NCAA Championship, Baxter is three-for-three in attaining All-America honors in the 200. At his first indoor championship last year, he placed fourth in 20.78; at the outdoor championships, he clocked a seventh-place time of 20.99.
Baxter's two indoor All-America citations tie him with former Boilermaker greats Rod Woodson, Greg Fenza, Randy Miller and Michael Turner. Only high jumper Shaun Guice has more with four titles, which he earned every year from 2000 to 2003.
"I'm absolutely speechless," said head coach Lissa Olson. "For him to go from a season best of 21.13 to a prelim time of 20.89 and then to end with a 20.57, it's simply amazing; that is a huge time difference. His 200 hadn't been coming along as well this year, as it was last year, so I was thinking he would run a 20.70. This was truly an awesome achievement for him and this team."
Mulabegovic, who is the school record holder in the shot put, was Purdue's second best finisher, placing fourth with an effort of 63 feet, 10 1/2 inches. The native Croatian placed behind Ohio State's Dan Taylor, Nebraska's Carl Myerscough and UCLA's Dan Ames.
In his two previous NCAA Indoor Championships, Mulabegovic placed ninth in 2002 and 10th in 2003. He received his first All-America award at the 2003 outdoor national championships, scoring a fourth-place effort of 64-8.
Heading into the national championships, Mulabegovic finished runner-up to Taylor at the Big Ten Championships, topping out at 63-10 1/2. He has consistently broken his own school records in both the indoor and outdoor shot put, with his indoor record currently standing at 64-5 1/4. Mulabegovic's outdoor record stands at 66-1 1/2.
Hecht placed tenth with his toss of 60-5 1/4, but since several of his opponents are of foreign descent, the former walk-on advanced in the All-America standings and claimed his first citation.
The native of Naperville, Ill., is in the midst of his indoor national championship debut, and will compete again Saturday morning in the weight throw with teammate Keith McBride. Olson believes that the throwers will score in this event, since both are ranked among the top five in the nation.
Hecht has greatly improved in both events since arriving at Purdue four years ago. Last outdoor season, he qualified in three throwing events at the NCAA Mideast Regionals, and two weeks ago placed third in the weight throw and shot put at the Big Ten Indoor Championships. Hecht attained a career best mark of 61-9 1/2 in the shot at the conference meet, which ranks him third in the school record books.
Friday afternoon, Baxter competed in the prelims of the 60-meter dash, but did not qualify for Saturday's final. Baxter tied for 13th with several competitors as each recorded a time of 6.77. Olson believed that Baxter may have been using the 60 prelims as a warmup to the 200, since the two events were within 90 minutes of each other.