Sooners Set to take 20 to NCAA T&F Regionals This Weekend

NORMAN, Okla. -- A total of 20 University of Oklahoma track and field student-athletes will head to College Station, Texas, on Wednesday to prepare for the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships, scheduled to begin at noon Friday.

The two-day meet will held at the Anderson Track and Field Complex on the campus of Texas A&M University.

The top five individuals in each event from each of four regionals to be held this weekend will advance to the NCAA Championships which are scheduled for June 9-12 in Austin, Texas. Additionally, the top three relay teams from each of the four regionals will advance to the NCAA meet.

After all regional qualifiers have been placed in the national field, at-large entries will be added from the ranking list to get the total number of competitors to the allowed mark of 544. This process allows a second chance for highly ranked athletes who don't advance from regional action. Last year, Sooner sprinter DaBryan Blanton went to the meet as an at-large entry in the 100 after suffering an injury during the prelims of regional action.

The Midwest Region includes a total of 39 Division I track and field programs from the states of Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming. Eleven of the 12 Big 12 schools are in the Midwest Region with Missouri competing in the Mideast Regional. This marks the second year of a two-year trial with the regional qualifying format for outdoor track and field. An announcement will be made later this summer concerning qualifying for future NCAA outdoor meets.

Senior Laverne Jones leads the Sooner qualifiers, ranking as the top declared competitor in the region in the 100 and 200. She also is scheduled to run on OU's 400-meter relay. Jones also had a qualifying time in the open 400 but will not compete in that event. Freshman Jessica Eldridge is ranked first in the region in the 1500, the only race she is scheduled to run after posting qualifying marks in the 800, 1500 and 5000.

Senior Robert Smith is the only other Sooner athlete scheduled to compete in two events after qualifying in the long and triple jumps.

Freshman high jumper Jon McMillian will be OU's first competitor. His event is scheduled for noon on Friday. The women pole vaulters, Lindsey Bourne, Leslie Dunlap and Jennifer Plank, will open competition at 4 p.m. Friday with running events also scheduled to start at 4 p.m. On Saturday, Renea' Burns (javelin), the men's pole vaulters (Austin Landreth and Scott Martin) and Smith (triple jump) will start competition at 3 p.m. Running events begin at 6 p.m. Saturday.

Landreth is the defending champion in the men's pole vault, winning the initial regional title last May in Lincoln, Neb., with a vault of 17-0.

Sooner qualifiers and their rank in the region heading into the meet include Jones, first in the 100 and the 200; Dunlap,10th in the pole vault; Bourne, tied for 19th in the pole vault; Plank, tied for 19th in the pole vault; McMillian, tied for third in the high jump; Cory Crosby, fourth in the long jump; Smith, ninth in the long jump and 16th in the triple jump; the women's 400-meter relay (Ashely Freeman, Yolanda Goff, Kelsey Strecker, and Jones), sixth; Eldridge, first in the 1500; Lucretia Rimmer, seventh in the triple jump; Salah Hussein, sixth in the 1500; Blanton, third in the 100; Josh Scott, 12th in the 200; Burns, 18th in the javelin; Martin, sixth in the pole vault; Landreth, tied for seventh in the pole vault; Catherine Odell, 14th in the 3000 meter steeplechase; and Blake Culp, 15th in the 3000 meter steeplechase.

The final start list for the meet will be announced on Tuesday afternoon.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooners Set to take 20 to NCAA T&F Regionals This Weekend

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