FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. -- Every few moments, Tennessee coach Bill Webb took the stubby pencil from behind his right ear and redid the math on the crumpled blue cover sheet of the NCAA material.

He knew his Vols had 54½ points and nobody could catch them, but he wanted somebody to make it official. Finally, the public address announcer said LSU had 44, Alabama had 47 and Tennessee had 54½.

"Yessss," Webb said.

With one event to go, the Vols' first NCAA Indoor title was secure.

During the final event -- the 1,600-meter relay -- he held up his cell phone so wife Pat at home in Knoxville could hear the announcer's description. When the cheering got too loud, he took over the play by play.

"She's mad because she hadn't been to the meet," he said.

Webb was understandably gun shy about the outcome. Two weeks earlier, in the same facility, he watched Tennessee's 31-point lead melt away when Arkansas had six runners place in the 5,000 meters.

Afterward, he said, " ... another day is coming soon."

This victory -- the Vols' first national title indoors -- was particularly sweet because the venue was Arkansas' home.

The list of Southeastern Conference indoor champions was full of Tennessee and LSU until Arkansas joined the league in 1992. Since then, it's been all Razorback red.

More than once, Webb, promoted to head coach in 1996, has joked, "It wasn't me who voted to let them in."

Prior to the NCAA, he predicted it would be a fight between the Vols, Alabama, LSU and Arkansas, and he was right. He thought Alabama and LSU could score around 50 with their superstars -- distance runner David Kimani, jumper Miguel Pate and hurdler Ron Bramlett for the Crimson Tide and jumper Walter Davis and 400-meter runners Alleyne Francique, Pete Coley and Lueroy Colquohoun for the Tigers.

Although Kimani -- worn down from the distance medley relay and a second in the mile -- could do no better than fourth in the 3000, Alabama wound up with 47. Francique, Cole and Colquohoun scored 23 in the 400 meters and Davis won the triple jump, but the favored Tigers failed to score in the 1600-meter relay after dropping the baton. They finished with 44 and Arkansas wound up fourth with 39.

Webb got 34 must points from sprinters Justin Gatlin and Leonard Scott when they finished one-two in the 60 meters and one-three in the 200. Gatlin has now won four straight NCAA sprints.

On top of that, freshman Marc Sylvester turned in a personal best 1:47.41 in the 800 and Gary Kikaya, a transfer from the Congo, did the same in the 400.

"Sylvester, to get second as a freshman, is huge for him," Webb said. Sylvester was shuffled back to fifth with a couple of laps to go, but finished resolutely to catch everybody except pacesetting Otukile Lekote of South Carolina.

Kikaya was in the fast heat of the 400 along with Francique, Coley and Rickey Harris of Florida. The four were in a line across the track heading into the first turn of the final lap and Harris went sprawling when things got tight.

"Kikaya had a monster 400," Webb said. "He was bumped, almost fell and still had a personal record (45.93).

"What it came down to, we had more bullets to shoot," Webb said.

LSU's women's team was a comfortable winner with 57 points, 14 better than defending champion UCLA. SEC champion Florida was third with 35.

"Quality always wins the NCAA championship," said LSU coach Pat Henry.