Hakeem Mohammed may have scored his final points for N.C. Central, but if he gets his wish, his career on the track has just gotten started. 

The senior ran a personal-best 45.37 seconds four days ago in Charlotte to win the 400 meters at the NCAA Division II Track & Field Championships, and he's hoping someday to be on the medal stand in the Olympics. 

The Winston-Salem native's time -- which was 0.03 faster than Cal State Stanislaus' Joel Stallworth, who was coming on in the final 100 meters -- was the fastest time in the NCAA Division II meet in nine years. 

In the Eagles' final athletic event at the Division II level before they begin Division I competition in the fall, Mohammed also ran a leg of the third-place 400-meter relay to help the NCCU men's team to a seventh-place finish. 

Mohammed, who won his only individual NCAA title on his final try, already has qualified and registered for the USA Track & Field Nationals June 20-24 in Indianapolis. Only 10 Americans have run faster times than Mohammad in the 400 this season. 

"It was a tough few days, running in all those preliminaries and relays," Mohammed said. "But I ran the [400] final aggressively. I had a lead after 200 and then held off [Stallworth] down the stretch. That time, I think I ran my perfect race." 

The Eagles' next best performance at the meet came from their only female entrant, as sophomore Jessica Mills flew a season-best 12.74 meters to place second in the triple jump. 

"We're going to do fine when we go to Division I," said Mills, a former field hockey star in New Jersey who joined her high school track team as a junior to help increase her speed and wound up as a jumper/hurdler. "We've already been competing at that level anyway. The only time we've been going against a lot of Division II teams were at the CIAA meet and the NCAA." 

Mohammed became the sixth NCCU track & field athlete to win an individual national title in the 18-year tenure of Coach Mike Lawson, who was inducted into the NCAA Division II Track & Field Coaches' Association Hall of Fame last week. 

The others have included Mills, who won the triple jump last year; sophomore Christopher Davis, who won the 60 at this year's indoor meet; six-time champion sprinter Jason Smoots ('03); Katerina Glosova, winner of the 800 at the 2002 women's indoor; and Elisha Marshall, winner of the women's 100 at the 1998 outdoor meet. 

"We didn't quite meet our expectations, but it was a good meet for us," Lawson said. "You never know how they're going to come out. 

"On the final day [of the three-day meet], it was a test to see who was the fittest, and Hakeem ran a great race." 

Mohammed was one of four NCCU men to claim All-American status at Saturday's meet in Charlotte. 

Freshman Karjuan Williams was fourth in the 400 and eighth in the 800, while junior Maurice Gailey was sixth in the 200 and sophomore Brandon Jones seventh in the 800. 

Gailey, Davis and freshman Rigdon Whitfield ran with Mohammed in the 400 relay, while Williams, Jones and seniors Brian Hope and Shareef Muhammad finished fifth in the 1,600 relay.