University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooners Await NCAA Track & Field Invitations :: Seven individuals, one relay on the provisional qualifying list.

Sooners Await NCAA Track & Field Invitations :: Seven individuals, one relay on the provisional qualifying list. Sooners Await NCAA Track & Field Invitations

Seven individuals, one relay on the provisional qualifying list.




Junior Tiffany Davis is awaiting an NCAA invitaiton after posting a provisional qualifying mark at the Big 12 Championships Sunday.

May 22, 2002

NORMAN, Okla. - It's a time for anxious waiting as one relay and seven Sooner individuals wait on invitations to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Those athletes all met NCAA provisional qualifying standards but must wait to see if they get the call to participate in the meet.

Hosted by Louisiana State University, the championships are scheduled for May 29-June 1 in Baton Rouge, La. The list of participants for the meet is scheduled to be released on Thursday, May 23, by the NCAA.

NCAA Update

Sophomore Leslie Dunlap became OU's first provisional qualifier for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with her winning vault at the Hurricane Invitational March 16. It marked the 11th consecutive meet for her to clear at least a provisional mark. The men's 1600-meter relay team joined the list with a season-best 3:06.49 to win the John Jacobs Invitational. Aldwyn Sappleton added his name to the list with a 1:48.87 in the 800 at the Michael Johnson/Southwestern Bell Classic. Tiffany Davis became the latest to add her name to the list with her time of 13.46 in 100-meter hurdles at the Big 12 Championships.

The Sooner vaulters have come up strong in the last three weeks as four men have added their names to the list. Austin Landreth was the latest to join the list with his winning vault on May 11. Previously, Michael McNamara, Michael Westlund and Brett Corlett (at the Texas Invitational and the ACU Invitational) had posted provisional marks. Westlund improved his mark at the Big 12 Championships last Saturday.

NCAA Ranking

Austin Landreth has the best ranking of any Sooner on the NCAA lists. He is 13th on the men's pole vault list as of May 20. Leslie Dunlap is ranked 15th on the women's pole vault list. Michael McNamara and Michael Westlund are tied for 17th in the men's vault followed by Brett Corlett, who is tied for 24th. The men's 1600-meter relay has the 22nd best time but moves up to 18th when duplicates are taken out. Aldwyn Sappleton, a member of that relay, is tied for 28th in the 800-meter run. Tiffany Davis ranks 21st in the 100-meter hurdles.

Sooners At The Big 12 Championship

Junior L'eron George was busy Sunday at the Big 12 Track and Field Championships and in the process, he produced 13.5 points for Oklahoma Sooners, the most produced by a Sooner man during the 2002 meet.

George ran the second leg of OU's 400-meter relay that finished seventh and the third leg of the 1600-meter relay that was third; finished fourth in the 100-meter dash and was third in the 200-meter dash, a race whose top three finishes were decided by .06 seconds. George ran a 21.03, a season best, to finish third in the 200.

Junior Tiffany Davis posted an NCAA provisional mark in the 100-meter hurdles. Seeded eighth heading into the final, she finished sixth with a wind-aided 13.46. That mark was 0.14 better than the NCAA provisional standard. It also was .16 seconds better than her previous season best in the event.

It was a day of individual highlights for the Sooners who finished 10th in the women's team standings and 11th in the men's team standings. It also was a day that the Sooner track and field program clinched the 2002 Bank of Oklahoma Bedlam Series Presented by Ford trophy for OU. The yearlong series was tied heading into the outdoor track and field championships. The Sooner men posted a combined indoor/outdoor score of 88.50 while Oklahoma State had a combined score of 35. The Sooner women had a combined score of 59.5 while the OSU women finished with a combined score of 46. Those advantages gave OU the Bedlam trophy by a 10-9 margin.

Jennifer Ledford broke her own school record in the 3000-meter steeplechase with a 10:54.62 to finish fifth in that event. Her time Sunday lowered the mark by another 26 seconds, the third time this season for her to drop the mark. The women vaulters, Leslie Dunlap and Lindsey Bourne, finished third and fifth. Freshman Amanda Warehime finished sixth in the shot put and Megan Crystal was eighth in that event. LaKisha Robinson was eighth in the 400-meter dash and ran on the women's 4 x 400-meter relay that finished eighth as well. She was joined on that quartet by Aisha Stringer, Kim Thomas and Alicia Emanuel.

For the Sooner men, sophomore Aldwyn Sappleton was third in the 800 and senior Raoul Harvey was seventh in the 400. That duo joined George and Moses Washington on the third-place 1600-meter relay. George was joined on the 400-meter relay by Andrew Crabbe, Brontez Steele and Edwin Jones.

Junior Michael Westlund cleared a season best 17-6.5, then missed on his next three attempts to finish second in the pole vault at the meet on Saturday. The Sooner men scored well in the pole vault, picking up 20 points. In addition to Westlund's second place finish, Brett Corlett was fourth, Robin Hanna was fifth and Austin Landreth was sixth.

In the women's heptathlon, freshman Chaundra Allard held onto sixth place during the final three events and junior Taylor Cates moved into eighth place on the first event of the second day of competition, then held on to earn a medal. The Sooner women also got points from senior Sand

RELATED