Blanton, Bookout Named All-Americans

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- DaBryan Blanton finished fourth in the 100-meter dash and Kevin Bookout finished seventh in the shot put to earn All-America honors Friday night at the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The meet runs through Saturday at Hornet Stadium in the Alex G. Spanos Sports Complex on the campus of Sacramento State University.

Blanton ran a 10.31 for the third time in this meet and, despite getting a great start, slipped to fourth in the final 10 meters of the race. Walter Dix of Florida State won the title with a 10.21, just edging Wes Felix of Southern Cal who finished with a 10.25.

For Bookout, the return trip to Sacramento was a pleasant one as the redshirt sophomore had three personal best throws in the finals to finish seventh overall. Bookout was seeded 25th in the original 27-man field and entered the finals ranked sixth. A total of 12 athletes advanced to the final and after the first three throws, the field was cut to nine. Bookout was seventh heading into the final three rounds of throws after recording a PR of 61-7 on his first throw of the competition.

His first throw in the final round was 61-9.50, another PR. He added another 61-footer with a 61-7.75 on his fifth throw and closed the competition with a throw of 60-8. Combined with his 60-1 in the preliminary round on Wednesday, Bookout had five of his six best throws of the season during the two days of NCAA competition.

His previous PR was 61-4.75, recorded in 2003 at the NCAA Championships when he finished eighth.

“If I only had another two or three weeks, I probably could have thrown another foot farther,” Bookout said after the meet. “I am so happy with this performance ... three PRs in one day is huge. I'm excited about this performance because I had three lifetime bests and I earned All-America honors again.”

“This was a great meet for Kevin,” said OU throws coach Ed Wade. “It's huge to have three PRs in one day of competition. It was an exciting meet to watch and speaks highly of the Big 12 that two of the top seven throwers in the country came from our conference (Sheldon Battle of Kansas was second with a 66-7.25). We've got a tough conference in this event and we showed that tonight.”

Blanton became a five-time All-American with his fourth place finish tonight while it marks Bookout's second time to earn All-America honors.

The Sooner men are tied for 21st at the end of the third day of competition. Tonight's action marks the end of the collegiate season for the OU men and women as all the other Sooners who qualified have been eliminated from the meet.

Complete results from the NCAA Championships on a daily basis are available at www.NCAAChampionshps.com.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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