Three Sooners Added to NCAA Field

March 9, 2009

NORMAN, Okla. — Three Oklahoma Track and Field student-athletes received four at-large spots for the 2009 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships as the NCAA announced its field for this weekend's event Monday evening. Will Claye (long jump), Scottesha Miller (60- and 200-meter dash) and Paul Gill (high jump) will join five Sooners and one relay who had recorded NCAA automatic qualifying marks. Jacob Boone (mile), Shardae Boutte (triple jump), Claye (triple jump), Leslie Cole (400-meter dash), Ti'Anca Mock (long jump) and the men's distance medley relay all eclipsed the automatic qualifying standard in their respective events.

The core of seven athletes and the one relay account for six top-10 national rankings entering the final weekend of the indoor season. Claye is tied with Boutte at No. 2 in the triple jump and is also ranked No. 8 in the long jump. Cole is ranked No. 2 in the 400 and Mock No. 8 in the long jump while Boone ranks No. 9 in the mile.

The only automatic qualifier not ranked in the top 10, the men's DMR quartet of Scott Cooper, Jarell Warren, Chris Sweeney and Boone, is ranked No. 12 with only two seconds separating No. 12 from No. 2 nationally. The four shattered the Oklahoma program record by 11 seconds at last weekend's Alex Wilson Invitational with a time of 9:31.38.

Miller was the final athlete added in both the 60 and 200, ranking 17th in each event. Gill enters the national high jump competition ranked No. 13 in the nation.

The NCAA has established a qualifying procedure that allows a maximum of 284 men and 284 women to participate. All eligible student-athletes who meet an automatic standard will be entered in the championships. Performances meeting provisional standards will be used to develop a descending-order list to fill the field for each event. If the numbers of allowable student-athletes established by the DI Championships/Sports Management Cabinet have not been reached after automatic qualifiers and minimum field sizes have been accommodated, the committee will add athletes to the meet by adding equally to all events (including relays) for as long as the number of available athlete spaces will allow. At this step, if two or more athletes are tied for the next qualifying performance, all such athletes will be added to the field as long as the number of spaces available is sufficient.

The 2009 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships will be held this Friday and Saturday inside the Gilliam Indoor Stadium on the campus of Texas A&M University.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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