Sooners Open Indoor Track and Field Season Saturday

Jan. 16, 2003

NORMAN, Okla. - After many months of training, the 2003 indoor track and field season is set to open this weekend. Eight Sooner vaulters left Thursday for Reno, Nev., and the USATF Pole Vault Summit. The rest of the Sooner team will be in Norman to host the Oklahoma Track Classic Saturday at the Mosier Indoor Facility.
Field events begin at 10 a.m. at the Classic and the first running event is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. The meet will follow a rolling time schedule the rest of the day with finals only in every event except the men's and women's 60-meter hurdles and dashes.
The vault Summit will have competition that begins Friday night but OU's entries will start competing on Saturday.
The Track Classic Field
Joining the host Sooners in the meet are student-athletes from Texas A&M, Texas Christian, Tulsa, Barton County CC, Texas-Arlington and Emporia State.
Getting to the Meet
With all the construction that is ongoing, the area around the Mosier Indoor Facility has undergone major changes. These changes will present some challenges for fans attending the indoor track and field meets. Parking for the meet is available in the Duck Pond lot which is accessible from Brooks Street. To access Brooks Street, fans should use Jenkins from the north and Classen from the east or south. Once parked, fans should walk to the northeast corner of the Mosier building and enter the door that is on the east side of the building (facing the Duck Pond). Parking in any other area around the building is not allowed.
Last Year at the Track Classic
One week after winning the USA Track and Field Pole Vault Summit men's collegiate elite division title, OU's Michael McNamara cleared 18-0.5 to meet the NCAA automatic qualifying standard and win the Oklahoma Track Classic pole vault title. Michael Westlund finished third with an NCAA provisional mark of 17-6.5.
In the women's pole vault, Jillian Schwartz, competing unattached, won the meet with a 13-9.25 and set a facility record in the process. OU's Leslie Dunlap cleared 13-3.75 to set a meet and school record and improve her season and career best. The mark was .04 centimeters from an NCAA automatic mark. The previous school record was 13-2.25 set by Monika Ehrlach in 1999.
A total of three facility record (Schwartz, pole vault; Veronica Campbell, Barton County CC, 60 dash; Leevan Sands, men's triple jump) and four meet records (Dunlap, Campbell and Sands plus Eliud Njubi, TCU, men's 3000) were set. One NCAA automatic mark (McNamara) and six NCAA provisional marks were posted in the first meet of the 2002 semester for most schools.
Making The Trip to Reno in 2003
A pair of All-Americans, junior Leslie Dunlap and senior Michael Westlund, are leading the Sooner contingent to Reno. Other Sooners scheduled to compete include past NCAA qualifiers Austin Landreth and Robin Hanna on the men's side and Lindsey Bourne, Jennifer Plank, Devon Fox and Mary Waytula on the women's side. Landreth and Bourne are sophomores, Plank is a redshirt freshman, Waytula is a junior and Hanna is a senior. Former Sooner Michael McNamara will also compete. Organizers are expecting up to 1800 vaulters for the summit. Elite division competition is set for Friday with all other divisions going off on Saturday. Action begins at 8 a.m. (PT) and continues through 10 p.m. (PT).
Last Year at the Summit
This meet marked the start of a special season for Leslie Dunlap. She established a career best and finished fourth in the women's collegiate elite division. Less than two months later, she become OU's first Big 12 women's pole vault champion. Michael McNamara also set a career best in winning the collegiate elite division title.
This Year's Sooner Track and Field Team
The Sooners will be a developing team during the 2003 indoor season but there is plenty of talent to build around. The Sooners return three Big 12 Indoor champions, two from 2002 and one from 2001. Another Sooner is back from a redshirt year, the returnees have an additional year of experience and the newcomers bring strong credentials and successful backgrounds to the Sooner program.
The returning champions include Leslie Dunlap (pole vault in 2002) and Aldwyn Sappleton (600 in 2002) and Michael Westlund (pole vault in 2001). Jason Stanley, who qualified for the NCAA Indoor as a freshman, is back and is healthy once again. He competed in only three events during the indoor season and sat out the entire outdoor season. Jimyria Hicks, a past NCAA qualifier, is back from a redshirt year. Other key returnees include sprinter LaKisha Robinson, middle distance/relay specialist Aisha Stringer, sprinter Brontez Steele, hurdler Tiffany Davis and pole vaulters Robin Hanna and Austin Landreth. All of those student-athletes have met NCAA qualifying marks in the past.
Next Up
The Sooners will Radio Shack/Missouri Southern Invitational next weekend. Hosted by Missouri Southern, the Joplin meet will run Friday and Saturday, Jan. 24-25.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooners Open Indoor Track and Field Season Saturday

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