Yeldell, a former North Rowan High School All-American, finished fifth in the triple jump in the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Duke University’s Wallace Wade Stadium.

The 19-year-old Indiana University sophomore went into the NCAA meet as the No. 1 seed in the triple jump after winning the Big Ten title with a conference and personal record of 55 feet, 2 inches.

“It’s not rather I win or lose,” said Yeldell the day before the meet. “I’m just happy down here, because last year I wasn’t here. Right before the Big Ten, I was ranked 17th or 18th.”

Yeldell failed to qualify for the NCAA outdoor meet a year ago. He was 10th indoors as a freshman and fourth last winter, so he’s finished in the nation’s top 10 three times.

Yeldell now has more than a month to prepare for the United States Olympic Trials in Sacramento, Calif., July 21.

“I’m really looking forward to that. Last year, I went to the USA Outdoor Championships in Oregon and didn’t really do too good. I was ready, but I wasn’t like mentally ready. I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said.

“I saw all the pros and I said, ‘I can’t believe I’m here with these guys.’ Now I look at them as the next person on the list I’ve got to go get. If I had jumped my personal best, I’d have finished like second. That’s what really let me know that I can compete on this level. It gave me confidence even though I lost,” Yeldell added.

If Yeldell does as well this summer as he did in 1999, he’ll have a shot at placing well in the Olympic Trials. He took second place in the U. S. Junior National Championships at North Texas State University in Denton, Texas, where he leaped 53-1 1/2. That earned him a berth on the U. S. Junior National team for the second straight year.

Then, last July, he won the triple jump with a leap of 52-9 1/2 while competing for the U.S. team in the Pan-American Games in Tampa, Fla.

Arkansas’ Lister bounced back to win the triple jump after being upset in the long jump competition on Wednesday.

“Losing in my last year, I was as down as anybody can be,” the senior said about his fourth-place finish in the long jump on Wednesday after being ranked No. 1 in the world. “I knew it was no good for the team to see me down like that.”

Arkansas’ eight-time NCAA champions climbed from 16th to fifth place with one day left in the meet today.

“You feel bad for awhile, but you’ve got a job to do,” said Lister. “We’re out here for a purpose. We want this national championship, and I had to get myself ready.”

Lister will run a leg in today’s 1600-meter relay, one of five events in which Arkansas can score.

Stanford, in first place with 36 points, can score today in only two events. LSU is second with 28, followed by Arizona, 26, Auburn, 24, and Arkansas, 23.

“I feel so confident going into the relay,” exclaimed Lister. “I ain’t going to talk too much about what I am going to do or what we’re going to do, but if you watch it, it’s going to be a sight to see.”

He came up short of promising a ninth straight national title for the Razorbacks, but said it was a mistake to count the Razorbacks out after a slow start.

“We were never out, never out,” he said. “We messed up a cushion that we had, but we were never out.”