Sooner T&F Send Competitors To National Championships :: OU athletes to compete in Canadian, Jamaican and U.S. Nationals next weekend.

Sooner T&F Send Competitors To National Championships :: OU athletes to compete in Canadian, Jamaican and U.S. Nationals next weekend. Sooner T&F Send Competitors To National Championships

OU athletes to compete in Canadian, Jamaican and U.S. Nationals next weekend.

	Raoul Harvey is one of 12 current and former Sooners heading to national championships next weekend.

June 14, 2002

NORMAN, Okla. - A total of 12 current or former OU track and field athletes will be heading to four different meets next weekend as they represent the University of Oklahoma at their national track and field championships. Another current Sooner is waiting for a call to invite her to compete as well.

Freshman Dan Strong will be the first to enter competition. He is scheduled to begin competition in the USA Track and Field Junior Nationals Combined Events Championships Tuesday and Wednesday. The two-day decathlon championship will be held at the University of California-Berkeley campus. Strong, a sophomore-to-be from Enid, is one of 13 decathletes who have qualified for the meet. Two other competitors may be added to the field after paperwork is completed.

Strong's best mark came at the Kansas Relays. He finished sixth at that meet with 5,965 points. He was forced to pull out of the Big 12 Championships after an injury in the first event but has had successful workouts after extensive rehab work.

On Friday, Austin Landreth will open competition in the Junior Nationals in the pole vault. The Junior Nationals will be held at Cobb Field on the campus Stanford University in conjunction with the U.S. Senior Nationals. Landreth, a sophomore-to-be from Elk City, finished sixth in the Big 12 Outdoor competition. He tied for 11th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships after clearing 16-10.75. Landreth was the only freshman to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor field. His cleared a season best of 17-7 in early May and ranks seventh on the all-time OU list with that mark. He is one of 15 vaulters with nine more entries pending scheduled to compete

Another Sooner pole vaulter, Lindsey Bourne, is one of 20 women vaulters scheduled to compete on Saturday, June 22. Bourne finished fifth at the Big 12 Outdoor meet, clearing 11-9, her season best. Bourne, another sophomore-to-be, is from Joplin, Mo.

The U.S. Junior Nationals will serve as the selection meet for the World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica, July 16-21.

Jimyria Hicks, who will be a senior in the fall after using a redshirt this past school year, is entered in the 100 and 200 meter dash competitions in the U.S. Senior Nationals. Hicks, whose performance at last year's Senior Nationals earned her a trip to the 2001 World University Games in Beijing, China, will begin competition in the 100 on Friday and will start competing in the 200 on Saturday, June 22. Both events have three rounds leading up to finals in the 100 on Saturday and the 200 on Sunday, Jne 23. She is from Arlington, Texas

Leslie Dunlap, who won the 2001 Big 12 Outdoor pole vault title as a true freshman and finished third at the 2002 Big 12 Outdoor, earned NCAA All-America honors with a sixth-place finish in the pole vault in May. She is the first alternate for the meet and will find out Tuesday if she will get to compete. The pole vault competition is scheduled for Sunday, June 23. Dunlap is a junior to be from Choctaw.

A pair of former Sooners, Alesha Peel and LaBoris Bean, will also be competing in Palo Alto. Peel, a former All-American for OU, won the women's 100-meter hurdles at the Drake Relays earlier this spring. She will compete in the 100 hurdles beginning on Saturday, June 22. Bean, a multi-time All-American for the Sooners, will compete in the 400 hurdles beginning on Friday. Both events have three rounds with the finals scheduled for Saturday, June 22, for the 400-meter IH and for Sunday, June 23 for the 100-meter hurdles.

The U.S. Senior Nationals will serve as the selection meet for the 2002 IAAF World Cup and the USA vs. Great Britain and Russia meets.

While their American counterparts are competing in California, six current or former Sooners will be competing in the national championships of their countries. Freshman Chaundra Allard will be competing in the heptathlon at the Canadian Senior Championships on June 22-23. She has the fifth best mark entering the meet which will be held in Edmonton, Alberta, on the campus of the University of Alberta. Allard's best mark came during the Big 12 Championships when she finished sixth with 4,757 points. She also finished second at the Kansas Relays.

The Jamaican National Championship is scheduled for Thursday through Saturday in Kingston. Representing the Sooners will be Aldwyn Sappleton in the 800; Raoul Harvey, Michael Blackwood and Danny McFarlane in the 400; Sand