Completed Event: Baseball versus (3) Georgia on June 15, 2026 , Win , 4, to, 3
Final
Baseball
4
vs (3) Georgia
3
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Sooner Track and Field Heads to Nebraska Invitational :: Tough test awaits McNamara and the Sooners.
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Senior Michael McNamara is one of the Sooners who will compete in Friday's Nebraska Invitational. |
Jan. 24, 2002
NORMAN, Okla. -
Many members of the University of Oklahoma track and field teams are headed north for Friday's Nebraska Invitational. The first field event is scheduled for 3 p.m. Friday while the running events begin at 6 p.m. The competition will be held at the Bob Devaney Sports Center, the facility which will host the Big 12 Indoor Championships Feb. 22-23.
A total of 46 Sooner student-athletes and five coaches left Thursday afternoon for the meet.
The Field
Without a doubt, this field is the toughest the Sooners have seen this season. In addition to the host Huskers, Colorado State, Northern Iowa, Stanford and Washington will join the Sooners in Lincoln.
National Rankings
The Sooners are ranked 16th in the country in the latest Trackwire weekly ranking.
The Last Time Out
One week after winning the USA Track and Field Pole Vault Summit men's collegiate elite division title, University of Oklahoma senior Michael McNamara cleared 18-0.5 to meet the NCAA automatic qualifying standard and win the Oklahoma Track Classic title. The meet was held Jan. 19 at the Mosier Indoor Facility on the OU campus.
For McNamara, the height was another career best in as many weeks and marked the first time in his Sooner career for him to clear 18-0 or better in indoor competition. OU volunteer assistant coach Kurt Hanna, jumping for Zero Gravity, also cleared 18-0.5 but had more misses, giving McNamara the title. OU junior Michael Westlund finished third with an NCAA provisional mark of 17-6.5.
In the women's pole vault, Jillian Schwartz, competing unattached, won the meet with a 13-9.25 and set a facility and meet record in the process. OU sophomore Leslie Dunlap cleared 13-3.75 to set a collegiate meet record and improve her season and career best. The mark was 4 centimeters from an NCAA automatic mark and was an OU school record. The previous record was 13-2.25 set by Monika Ehrlach in 1999.
One NCAA automatic mark (McNamara) and six NCAA provisional marks were posted in the first meet of the 2002 semester for most schools.
Big 12 Athlete of the Week -- Three for Three
OU senior Michael McNamara became the third Sooner in as many weeks to be named the Big 12 Athlete of the Week for track and field. The Tulsa pole vaulter won the Oklahoma Track Classic on Saturday with a vault of 18-0.5 and received the conference award on Jan. 21.
The mark is a indoor career best for McNamara who missed the 2001 indoor season while recovering from knee surgery. It also is an automatic qualifying mark for the 2002 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships to be held March 8-9 in Fayetteville, Ark., the first automatic mark in the pole vault recorded to date this season.
McNamara's effort Saturday also ranks as the best height cleared by a Division I collegian this season. He had posted NCAA provisional marks in his first two meets of the season, going 17-0.75 to finish third in the OU All Comers Dec. 1 and 17-8.5 on Jan. 12 to win the USA Track and Field Pole Vault Summit collegiate men's elite division.
Sophomore Leslie Dunlap was named the female Big 12 Track and Field Athlete of the Week on Jan. 14 after finishing fourth in the women's elite collegiate division at the USA Track and Field Pole Vault Summit. Freshman Jason Stanley was named the Big 12's male track and field athlete of the week for the week of January 7 after tying the OU school record in the 60-meter hurdles with the country's fourth fastest time, 7.88, in the OU All Comers. The first award covered meets held from Dec. 1 through Jan. 5.
NCAA Update
The Sooners have one automatic qualifier for the 2002 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships to be held March 8-9 in Fayetteville, Ark. Michael McNamara became OU's first automatic qualifier when he cleared 18-0.5 at the Oklahoma Track Classic.
OU has three provisional qualifiers. Freshman Jason Stanley got an NCAA provisional in the 60-meter hurdles in his first collegiate meet on Dec. 1. Leslie Dunlap has hit a provisional mark in each of her three meets and her last effort is 4 centimeters short of an automatic mark. Junior Michael Westlund became the latest qualifier when he cleared 17-6.5 at the Oklahoma Track Classic.
Next Up
The Sooners will host the J.D. Martin Invitational on Feb. 2. Action begins at 10 a.m. at the Mosier Indoor Facility.
