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Track and Field
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University of Oklahoma Athletics
OU To Send Three to NCAA Track & Field Meet
March 09, 2004 | Track and Field
NORMAN, Okla. For freshman Jessica Eldridge, the news from the NCAA Track and Field Committee was good while two other Sooners, junior Aldwyn Sappleton and junior Austin Landreth, came up just short when the field for the 2004 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships was announced late Monday night. The meet opens Friday morning at the Randal Tyson Track Complex in Fayetteville, Ark., and continues through Saturday.
Eldridge will be joining OU's two automatic qualifiers, sophomore DaBryan Blanton (men's 60) and senior LaVerne Jones (women's 60 and 200) in the field. A provisional qualifier in the 800 and the mile, Eldridge will be one of 18 competitors in the women's mile preliminaries on Friday. Her first race is set for 6:45 p.m. After final declarations were made and final invitations issued, Eldridge ended up as the fourth ranked runner in the mile with her season best of 4:38.79. She recorded that time last weekend at the ISU NCAA Qualifier, setting a school record in the process.
Eldridge also had a provisional qualifying time in the 800, a school record 2:06.33. That time would have been the 13th best on the final entry list but she will only run in the mile at the meet.
Jones, who became the first OU woman since 1982 to earn All-America honors in two individual events in the same meet at last year's NCAA Indoor, will run her preliminary heat of the 60 at 6:15 p.m. Friday. Her preliminary heat in the 200 is set for 7:20 p.m. Friday with the final for the 200 scheduled for 8:50 p.m. Friday. The final for the 60 is set for 7:05 p.m. Saturday. Jones, who had automatic qualifying times in both the 60 and the 200, is ranked fifth in the 60 with a 7.24 on the final entry list and she is seventh in the 200 with a 23.31on the same list.
Blanton, an All-American in the 60 in 2003 as a freshman, is tied for second in the 60 on the final entry list with a 6.57. His first race is set for 6:30 p.m. Friday. A total of 16 runners were included in the field for the 60. The final in that event is set for 7:15 p.m. Saturday.
The news Monday night was not as good for Sappleton and Landreth. Both were ranked 17th in their events after final performances were include and neither was included in the final entry field. Sappleton, who was hoping to make a second consecutive trip to the NCAA Indoor after qualifying last year in the 800, missed the automatic mark by .12 seconds. The field in the 800 was limited to 15 runners and all 15 had met the automatic qualifying time of 1:48.30.
For Landreth, the margin was just as small. The field in the vault includes 16 who had cleared 17-6.5 and Landreth was ranked 17th with a season best vault of 17-5.75, just 0.75 of an inch away from his first trip to the NCAA Indoor Championships.
Other Sooners who met provisional standards but did not advance to the meet included Salah Hussein in the mile run; the men's 1600-meter relay and the women's distance medley relay. Hussein recorded a school record 4:04.64 Saturday at the ISU NCAA Qualifier, his first NCAA provisional time of the season. The women's distance medley relay had a season best time of 11:30.53 on Feb. 6 at the Meyo Invitational. That time also was a school record. The men's 1600-meter relay's best time was a 3:10.24 recorded on Feb. 28 at the Big 12 Championship.
While Blanton, Jones and Eldridge focus on the NCAA meet this weekend, the rest of the Sooners will turn their attention to outdoor season openers. The combined event athletes will travel to Texas A&M for a meet March 18-19. Some Sooners will participate in the Dr Pepper Invitational in Waco, Texas, on March 20 while the remainder of the team will open the 2004 outdoor season on March 27 at either the UTEP Invitational in El Paso or the UTA Invitational in Arlington.
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