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Track and Field
at Battle on the Bayou
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Sooner Track & Field Teams Earn Academic Honors
September 27, 2002 | Track and Field
Sept. 27, 2002
NORMAN, Okla. - Three members of the 2002 University of Oklahoma men's and women's track and field teams have been named Academic All-Americans by the National Collegiate Division I Track Coaches Association.
Aldwynn Sappleton, with a 3.79 grade point average, and Austin Landreth, with a 3.59 grade point average, were named to the men's 2002 Academic All-America team. Leslie Dunlap, with a 3.11 grade point average, was named to the Academic All-America women's team. Sappleton, who is from James Hill, Clarendon, Jamaica, will be a junior this spring. Landreth, who is from Elk City, is a sophomore and Dunlap, who is from Choctaw, is a junior.
To be considered for the team, student-athletes had to have at least a 3.10 grade point average and have met the qualifying standard for the NCAA Indoor or Outdoor Championship. Sappleton earned All-America honors as a member of OU's indoor 1600-meter relay team that finished sixth in 2002. He qualified for the NCAA Indoor in the 800 and met the provisional mark for the outdoor 800-meter run. Landreth finished 11th in the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the pole vault, the only true freshman to qualify for the meet in that event. He also met the NCAA provisional mark in the indoor pole vault. Dunlap earned All-America honors in the outdoor pole vault with her sixth -place finish. She also qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in the pole vault. Her trip to Baton Rouge for the outdoor meet marked the fourth time (twice Indoor and twice Outdoor) for her to qualify for the NCAA field in her two-year Sooner career.
Additionally, the Sooner women's team earned All-Academic team honors with a team composite grade point average of 3.06. To be considered for that honor, a team's cumulative GPA had to be at least a 3.00.
The latest awards continue a string of academic honors already earned by the cross country/track and field programs. Darren Hutchins was named to the Verizon Academic All-America men's track and field team. He and Sappleton also were named to the Verizon All-District VI team as well. Hutchins earned first team honors and Sappleton was a second team honoree on the district list.
A total of 14 Sooners were named to the 2002 Track and Field Big 12 All-Academic teams and four of them received special recognition for earning a 4.0. OU had eight student-athletes named to the Big 12 All-Academic Cross Country team.
"We are proud of all of the accomplishments of our student-athletes," said co-head coach Jill Lancaster. "We have always made academic performance a point of emphasis. Coach (Rodney) Price and I stress that every time we talk to the team and it's always something we talk about as we are recruiting future Sooners. We want our student-athletes to understand that they will be given all the tools to succeed and it is to their benefit to make use of those tools. These awards confirm that they understand the importance of academic success as well."
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