Westlund Improves Qualifying Mark At Nebraska Track & Field Qualifier :: Dunlap finishes second in women's pole vault in Lincoln.

Westlund Improves Qualifying Mark At Nebraska Track & Field Qualifier :: Dunlap finishes second in women's pole vault in Lincoln. Westlund Improves Qualifying Mark At Nebraska Track & Field Qualifier

Dunlap finishes second in women's pole vault in Lincoln.

	Michael Westlund improved his NCAA provisional qualifying mark to 17-11 at Saturday's Nebraska Qualifier, assuring himself an invitation to next weekend's NCAA Championships.

March 2, 2002

LINCOLN, Neb. - Junior Michael Westlund finished second in the pole vault at today's Nebraska Qualifier and improved his season best to 17-11, assuring himself a spot in next week's NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships. Westlund was ranked fifth in the country with his previous best mark, 17-10.5, but that mark, as well as today's, met the NCAA provisional rather than the automatic qualifying mark. Entering the final weekend that marks could be posted for consideration for this year's meet, only four vaulters had cleared the automatic mark.

Senior Michael McNamara, one of the four vaulters with an automatic mark to his credit, finished third today with a 17-7.

Sophomore Leslie Dunlap, who has an NCAA automatic mark in the women's pole vault, finished second with a 12-11.75. Freshman Lindsey Bourne tied for seventh with an 11-8.

Vadim Gvozdetskiy of Kansas won the men's title. He cleared 17-11 as well but had fewer misses in the comptition. Oregon's Niki Reed cleared an NCAA automatic mark of 13-5.25 to win the women's competition.

OU's vaulters were the only Sooners to compete in the Nebraska Qualifier. Other Sooners competed Friday at the Iowa State Qualifier on Friday and they were led by redshirt freshman Aldwynn Sappleton who dropped his 800-meter time by nearly a second and in the process improved his chances of earning an invitation to the NCAA.

Sappleton finished fourth with a 1:48.81. His previous season low in the event was a 1:50.55 (converted to 1:49.95 based on track size). He later anchored OU's 1600-meter relay which lowered its NCAA provisional qualifying time by more than a second to 3:07.73. OU's earlier time in the relay, 3:08.78, was produced last Saturday at the Big 12 Championship. OU finished second in the conference meet and posted a time that was the 10th best in the nation. The time on Friday should keep OU in the top 10 and may improve the Sooners' standing. Joining Sappleton on the relay were Raoul Harvey, Ernest Lewis and Moses Washington. Washington also competed in the 800, finishing 11th with a 1:51.63, a season best for the senior.

Junior Aisha Stringer ran a 2:09.20 to finish sixth in the 800-meter run and beat the NCAA provisional qualifying mark in that event for the first time in her Sooner career. The time is a career best in the indoor 800 for Stringer by .45 seconds. She had improved her career best in the 800 to 2:09.65 earlier this season.

Redshirt sophomore Quentin Morgan, who finished sixth in the Big 12 last Saturday, set a school record for the second week in a row. Morgan ran a 6.76 in the semifinals of the last week's Big 12 meet to set the mark. He lowered that record to 6.74 in the preliminaries at Iowa State. He finished fifth in the prelims with the second fastest time in his heat, then was fifth in the semifinals. He finished sixth in the finals with a 6.81.

Other Sooners to compete at Iowa State included Sand