Sooner Track Teams Head To El Paso

March 30, 2000

NORMAN, Okla. - The University of Oklahoma men's and women's track and field teams will head south for their second meet of the outdoor season. OU will join host Texas-El Paso, Brigham Young and New Mexico in the four-team scored meet. Action begins at 10 a.m. (MT) with the women's hammer throw while the first event on the track is the women's 5,000-meter run which starts at 12:30 p.m. The final event of the meet, the men's 1600-meter relay, is scheduled for 4:55 p.m.

BEST OF THE WEST - BYU, New Mexico and UTEP are all former members of the Western Athletic Conference. Of the 100 men's running titles produced by the WAC, UTEP and BYU have taken 83. BYU and New Mexico are now part of the Mountain West Conference while UTEP is still part of the WAC.

TO DATE - This is the second full meet for the Sooners (the multi-event athletes started a week earlier). New Mexico and BYU have already competed while this is the outdoor season opener for the Miners.

STRONG FIELD - Several competitors in Saturday's event have qualified for the NCAA Outdoor. BYU already has 10 provisional and one automatic qualifier while OU has three provisional qualifiers.

LAST WEEK - Both Sooner teams finished third in the U.S. Collegiate Track and Field Series in Baton Rouge. The women trailed LSU by ust 14.5 points while Texas A&M won the men's meet. Texas A&M finished second in the women's meet and LSU was second in the men's meet. TCU finished fourth in both events. Staneshia Bell was a double winner for the Sooners, taking the women's 100- and 200-meter dash. She ran a 11.70 in the 100 and a 23.85 in the 200. Other Sooner winners included Jennifer Fontenot in the 400, Bambi Carson in the shot put, Katie Webster with a 143-3 in the javelin and Michael Westlund with a 16-4.75 in the pole vault. While the Sooners had a number of finishes that would have earned points, the meet was set up to allow each team to only have two athletes score in each event, regardless of finish.

NCAA UPDATE - Three Sooners met the NCAA Provisional Qualifying marks in the season-opening meet. Jennifer Fontenot, Michael Blackwood and Bambi Carson posted NCAA provisional qualifying marks. Fontentot and Blackwood are coming off trips to the NCAA Indoor Championship while Carson also beat the provisional mark for the indoor meet. Fontentot won the 400-meter dash at LSU with a time of 53.45. Blackwood finished second with a 45.86. Carson won the shot put with a 49-5.75.

NEXT UP -- The Sooners will travel to Austin, Texas, for the Texas Relays. Action begins on Wednesday and continues through Sunday.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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