Brent Vaughn walked over to visit his Colorado teammate Jeremy Dodson a year ago in Nebraska at the end of the Big 12 outdoor track and field championships and told him the Buffs were going to win the title in 2008 on their home turf at Potts Field.

The CU men have spent a year with that thought in the back of their minds motivating their training. Following a Saturday filled with surprise performances and personal records, they are in position today to make Vaughn's prediction a reality.

The Buffs enter today's championships trailing Missouri in the team standings by three points. The Tigers finished the first two days with 45 points earned mostly from the strength of their throws. The Buffs are second with 42 points and Nebraska is third with 25.

All of those teams will face a surge up the standings from Big 12 South Division foes that are strong in sprints and relays.

The same is true in the women's title chase where the Cornhuskers lead in commanding fashion with 79 points earned in the heptathlon and strong showings in most of the field events. Kansas State is second with 45.5 points and Kansas is third at 40.5.

The strength of the Colorado men's team always has been its distance runners, and senior Stephen Pifer came through Saturday qualifying for today's 1,500-meter final with the second fastest time.

But the story of the day was the unexpected efforts from unlikely sources such assenior James Begley. He followed up a personal best in the hammer throw on Friday with another personal record in the shot put. Begley finished fifth in the shot put and qualified for regionals, throwing 56-4.5. He will be back in action today in the discus, his best event.

Former CU tailback Hugh Charles has spent the majority of the past two months working out for NFL teams and focusing on trying to start a professional football career. He had spent only 20 minutes practicing the long jump in the past month, and that came just last Wednesday.

Charles finished fourth in the event Saturday and also is qualified for the regional meet, which means his CU career will be extended at least two more weeks. He jumped 25-2.75. Texas A&M freshman Julian Reid won the long jump with a leap of 25-6.25.

"With not much practice and traveling week to week going to see teams and stuff, I'm pretty pleased with my performance and I think coach is, too," Charles said. "I think did my job today."

Charles narrowly missed qualifying for today's 100-meter finals, but Jeremy Dodson will be in the mix in both the 100 and the 200 meters. Dodson figured to have a chance considering he had produced one of the five fastest times in both events in the conference prior to this weekend. His teammate Ryan Campbell earning the final spot in the 200 meter final put a perfect cap on the day.

"Other than Brent Vaughn not getting through in the 1,500, everybody else exceeded our expectations," CU coach Mark Wetmore said. "... I know we're ahead of where I hoped we'd be at he end of Saturday."

Wetmore said the Buffs can win the team championship today with solid efforts across the board, but it will be a tough challenge.

The Texas A&M teams came into the meet ranked No. 1 on the women's side and No. 3 on the men's and both could still win team titles today because they figure to do well in the sprints and relay finals. The Aggie women were in fourth place after Saturday and the men were in fifth.

Texas A&M coach Pat Henry said the Aggies are on track and might even be a little ahead of where he thought they would be going into today's finals.

"I think if we do the things we're capable of doing, I think we have a great opportunity of winning both these championships," Henry said. "But there is a number of teams that have that opportunity. I think there a couple of teams that think if they do everything right, they're going to have a chance to win too."

The Aggies showed they remain a force to be feared when the preliminary sprints began in the late afternoon Saturday. Texas A&M athletes were at or near the top of the finals fields in most of the sprint events.

There was no better example than sophomore Porscha Lucas who ran the third fastest time in the world this year in the 200 meters to win her preliminary heat. She crossed the finish line in 22.49 seconds, her personal best tying the Big 12 meet record held by teammate Simone Facey.

"It's exciting for me," she said. "I just know I have to keep working hard so hopefully I can be No. 1."

Nebraska coach Gary Pepin acknowledged his team's best events are in the rearview mirror and it will be a challenge to hold off a charge from the likes of Texas A&M.

"My estimate and best guess would probably be no," Pepin said. "Typically the events we've had so far are our best. I don't know that we will be able to score well enough in the remaining running events to compete for a championship."