Zippity-do-da! My, oh my, what a wonderful runner

Now that Chris Carter's dream of a freshman season at BYU is finally finished, it's time to take inventory of what just happened. These things aren't supposed to happen to 19-year-old white kids from Utah who competed in virtual anonymity in high school:

• Become the only American, male or female, to win an individual gold medal earlier this month in the World Junior (19 and under) Track and Field Championships in Beijing, easily taking the 400-meter intermediate hurdles (he also anchored the USA's winning 4 x 400-meter relay).

• Place third in the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a time of 49.19.

• Run a 44.8 anchor leg on BYU's 4 x 400-meter relay team, outrunning an NCAA champion sprinter in the process. For the uninitiated, hurdle coach Kyle Grossarth spells it out: "If you run under 45, you're in elite company. There are not many guys in the world who run that fast."

• Cause veteran coaches to flat out gawk at his performances.

"Chris is that type of special athlete who, when he steps on the track, people stop what they're doing," says BYU distance coach Ed Eyestone, a two-time Olympian who has seen his share of great athletes. "They're thinking, we've got to watch this; this has the potential to be something special. When Chris was going to race, you'd see people pulling out their stopwatches. After a race it was fun to look around and see other coaches with their stopwatches out and their mouths open. On two separate occasions, I missed getting the splits of the other guys in our relay because I was gawking at Chris' time, and I'm supposed to be a coach."

No one saw this coming. In high school, Carter produced good but not spectacular performances. His senior season was hampered by injuries, which was fine with BYU head coach Mark Robison. "He didn't come close to his potential, and for us that was great," says the coach. That meant other recruiters wouldn't find out what Robison suspected — that Carter was a raw talent who had sprinter's speed and a distance runner's endurance. He ran everything from the high hurdles to the 800-meter run and cross country races at Roy High School, where he was the team's No. 1 cross country runner.

"I was impressed with how he moved and with his range," says Robison.

Robison and his assistants all mention another trait in Carter. "He's a ferocious competitor," says Robison. "That's going to take him to incredible levels. He has no fear. It didn't matter if he was competing against the Pac-10 or NCAA champions, he went after them."