Seven Sooners Advance To NCAA T&F Championships

NORMAN, Okla. - A total of seven Sooner track and field student-athletes will be in the field next week when the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships open in Sacramento, Calif.

Austin Landreth (pole vault), Michael Westlund (pole vault), Laverne Jones (200), DaBryan Blanton (100) and Kevin Bookout (shot put) were automatic qualifiers. Kyle Bookout (discus) and Aldwyn Sappleton (800) earned at-large invitations in their events. Jones also got an invitation as an at-large entry in the 100.

Events begin on Wednesday and continue through Saturday. With the increase in the size of the field to 544 men and 544 women, field events will have two rounds of competition and most races on the track will have at least two and most will have three.

he first rounds of the 100 for men and women are scheduled for Wednesday at 10:25 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. (PT). Landreth and Westlund will begin competition in the qualifying round of the pole vault at 11 a.m. Sappleton will run the preliminary round of the 800 at 11:30 a.m. The semifinals of the men's and women's 100 are set for 8:50 p.m. and 9:05 p.m. Wednesday. The qualifying round of the shot put is set for 8:35 p.m. Wednesday.

On Thursday, the qualifying round of the discus is set to begin at 10:15 a.m. Preliminaries in the women's 200 are scheduled for 10:15 a.m. Thursday and the semifinals of the men's 800 are set for 11:25 a.m. The semifinals of the women's 200 are scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

On Friday, the finals of the men's pole vault are set for 6 p.m. with the finals of the men's shot put set for 7:30 p.m. The finals of the women's 100 is scheduled for 8:55 p.m. followed by the final in the men's 100 at 9:05 p.m. On Saturday, the finals of the men's discus is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. with the finals of the men's 800 set for 8:30 p.m.

Blanton has the country's leading performance in the 100, a 10.07 he ran last Friday in the NCAA Midwest Regional. Sappleton is ranked 15th in the country in the 800 entering the meet. Westlund is 11th in the pole vault and Landreth, who won the regional title last Saturday, is ranked 15th. Kevin Bookout is 20th in the shot put and Kyle Bookout is 17th in the discus. Jones is 15th in the women's 100 and 16th in the 200.

For fifth year senior Kyle Bookout, this marks his first trip to NCAA competition. It's also a first time in track and field for Kevin Bookout. It marks the second trip to NCAA competition for Blanton and Jones, the first for the outdoor season. For Sappleton, it marks the fourth overall appearance in the NCAA field and second in outdoor. For Landreth, this marks the second trip to NCAA competition, both during the outdoor season.

Westlund is the veteran NCAA performer of this year's qualifiers. The 2003 meet marks the seventh trip to the NCAA Championship and fourth outdoor meet for the fifth year senior to enter. The 2003 NCAA Indoor was the only meet in his Sooner career that he did not qualify for.

Westlund is a four-time NCAA All-American while Sappleton has earned All-America honors twice as a member of the 1600-meter relay. Blanton was an NCAA Indoor All-American in the 60 in March while Jones earned All-America honors in the 60 and 200 during the 2003 NCAA Indoor meet. With that performance, she became the first Sooner woman to earn All-America honors in two individual event in NCAA competition and the first to achieve the double since 1982.

While the news was good for these seven Sooners, several others competed in their final meet at last weekend's regional. Senior Robin Hanna was ranked 21st in the country with a season best mark of 17-4.5 in the pole vault . However, the final at-large selection in the pole vault came at 17-8.5. Two other vaulters who had cleared 17-4.5 were also left out of the field. Hanna's chances to go to the NCAA were hurt by the number of higher ranked vaulters who did not earn automatic slots at last weekend's regional meets. Six vaulters, ranked higher on the season list than Hanna, did not earn automatic berths last weekend and they took those at-large positions.

Others who were in the at-large field but were not selected included Nicola Maye in the 800; Tiffany Davis in the 100-meter hurdles; Kelsey Moore in the high jump; Leslie Dunlap, Lindsey Bourne and Mary Waytula in the women's pole vault; Renea' Burns in the javelin; Kevin Bookout in the discus; Jimyria Hicks in the 100; Dwayne Duhaney in the 400; the men's and women's 400-meter relay; and the men's and women's 1600-meter relay.

The Sooners and their coaches will head to Sacramento on Sunday to begin preparations for the meet.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Seven Sooners Advance To NCAA T&F Championships

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors