DENVER - A total of 58 student-athletes will represent the Western Athletic Conference at the 2001 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships that begin tomorrow and run through June 2. The four-day event will be held at host University of Oregons Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore.
In mens competition, the WAC will have 32 student-athletes entered in 17 events. Fresno States Ryan Beckenhauer and Mark Unzueta will be among the near 400 athletes challenging for a national title. Beckenhauer, a two-time WAC athlete of the week, automatically qualified for the shot put championships with his personal-best throw of 64-2 on May 5. Unzueta, who swept the indoor and outdoor conference titles this year, is ranked 22nd of 23 and is the only WAC athlete entered in the pole vault.
For Rice, freshman Adam Davis, and sophomores Tommy Oleksy and Ryan Harlan qualified for the national meet. Davis will run in the 800 meters having clocked the 12th fastest time of 1:47.69 at the Cardinal Qualifier on May 13 to earn a spot in Eugene. He placed seventh at this year's NCAA indoor championships. Oleksy, who finished fourth at the 2001 indoor meet, posted a long jump mark of 25-10 3/4 at Texas A&M to qualify for the national meet. Harlan qualified for the decathlon, which begins on Wed., May 30, and will compete in ten events over a two-day period. He is the defending junior national decathlon champion and recently won the WAC decathlon title with a new school record 7,319 points.
SMUs travel party consists of six men, including Dalibor Balgac in the 1,500-meters, Andrey Borodkin in the shot put, Bouna Diop in the javelin, Janus Robberts in the discus and shot put, Youssoupha Sarr in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles and Mark Simmons in the discus. Balgac is one of three runners from the WAC entered in the 1500 and is ranked 18th in a field of 19th with a time of 3:44.22 set on April 20. Sarr, who finished second in the 400 hurdles at the WAC championships, clocked the 14th quickest time nationally with a 50.42 effort on May 19. In the field, SMU will look to continue its dominance. An All-American, Robberts leads all 19 contestants in the shot put with a record-setting effort of 21.60 to win the conference championship on May 19. He is also ranked sixth in the discus. Also in contention to win a title are Bordokin, who is seeded fifth in the shot put (19.71), Diop, a top-10 thrower in the javelin and Simmons, the 13th seed in the discus (59.10)
WAC champion TCU is sending nine athletes and its 4x100 relay. The Frogs will be lead by Kim Collins, who was recently named the South Central Region Male Outdoor Athlete of the Year by the United States Track and Field Association. Collins enters the national meet with the fastest time recorded in the 100 meters, a 9.99 clocking on April 7, and the second fastest time in the 200 meters, a 20.34 mark on May 19. The senior, who was the 2001 NCAA indoor champion at both 60 and 200 meters, will also anchor TCU's 4x100-meter relay team, which owns the nation's fastest time this spring at 38.68 seconds. Senior Darvis Patton automatically qualified for the 100 and 200 sprints as well as the long jump, events in which he ranks ninth, fifth and fourth nationally, respectively. Fellow sprinter Lindel Frater's best mark, a 10.11 time in the WAC Championships, is the third fastest time entering the meet. Steve Slowly and Kendrick Campbell will also run in the 200 meters, while Eliud Njubi, who finished eighth in the mile at the indoor national meet and was the WAC champion at 800, 1,500 and 5,000 meters, will participate in two events at the outdoor national meet. He owns the fourth fastest time in the 800 meters (1:47.17) and the third fastest mark in the 1,500 meters (3:39.14). Reggie Harrell, who was the WAC Freshman of the Year in both the indoor and outdoor seasons, qualified for the national meet in the 110-meter high hurdles. Joining Patton in the field events are Jason Howard, who will double in the long jump and triple jump, and Abdul Rasheed, who will compete in the triple jump.
With 12 qualifiers on the men's side, UTEP will be vying for its seventh NCAA Outdoor title. Heading the charge will be the 400-meter relay of Taiwo Ajibade, Caimin Douglas, Jermaine Joseph and Aaron Egbele, which has been one of the fastest in the NCAA and world this season entering with the third fastest collegiate time and the ninth best clocking internationally. On April 14 at the UTEP Invitational the squad broke a 29-year-old school record (38.98). Douglas also qualified for the 200, an event which he ranks seventh, while Egbele, who is seeded 18th, will race in the 100. Carlos Suarez-Gonzalez will compete in the 3,000-meter steeplechase as the second seed. Suarez-Gonzalez was the NCAA runner-up at the 1999 championships and heads to Oregon with the second-fastest time in the nation this season. Also entered in the distance events are Bashar Ibrahim and Alvaro Jimenez who seek to score points for the Miners' team. Ibrahim is entered in the 1,500-meter run, an event in which he holds the nation's ninth fastest time this season. Jimenez, a freshman, is currently 20th in the NCAA in the 5,000-meters. Nick Stewart will make his first appearance at the NCAA Championships in the 400-meter hurdles, after posting the ninth-fastest mark with a WAC Championship winning time of 50.26. In the field events, sophomore Janne Vartia, who finished third last year, holds the third best hammer throw this season. Javelin thrower Vesa Jppenin, a junior, enters the championships ranked sixth and seeks to become the fourth Miner javelin thrower to gain All-America honors in the last three years. Triple jumper Bobby Agins heads to Eugene with the 17th best mark in that event this season and hopes of becoming the first Miner in 16 seasons to earn All-American honors.
On the womens side, 18 student-athletes and three relay teams will suit up at the championships. Sophomore Crystal Simmons who qualified for the triple jump after leaping a distance of 42-10 on May 5 will represent Fresno State. The school record holder enters the national meet as the 18th seed in a field of 23. Cheryl Smith will represent Hawai`i in the 10,000 meters after clocking a provisional time of 34:25.35 at the Mt. Sac Relays on April 20. In securing her spot at nations, Smith, a junior, posted a WAC season-best and personal best mark as well as a Hawai`i school record.
Five-time WAC champion Rice qualified eight student-athletes in six events. Allison Beckford will run in three races for the Owls and enters the national competition with the fifth fastest 400-meter time, an automatic qualifying time of 52.06 set on May 19 at the WAC outdoor championships. Her time was a new WAC all-time record and earned her the conference title. The freshman also has the fifth fastest 400-meter hurdle time, an automatic mark of 56.31 set at the Drake Relays on April 27. She will run the anchor leg of the Owls' 4x400 meter relay that won the Drake Relays with a time of 3:34.78. Joining her on the track for that event will be seniors Kelechi Anderson, LaKeisha Robertson and junior Aimee Teteris. Teteris will also run the 800 meters, having qualified for the national meet with a time of 2:06.02 set at the conference outdoor meet. Tanya Wright, a sophomore, was the teams top 800-meter qualifier having posted a time of 2:05.31. The Owls also qualified the 4x100 meter relay squad of Anderson, Robertson, junior Keitha Moseley and senior Konnett Mays. The foursome notched a time of 44.24 to qualify for Eugene. Additionally, Alice Falaiye, will look to better her 13th-place finish in the long jump at last year's NCAA championships. Falaiye, who finished third at the NCAA indoor meet, automatically qualified for the outdoor meet with the fourth-best jump in Division I (21-04 ).
SMU will be well represented in the field events. Top seeded Florence Ezeh looks to earn her second title in as many meets in the hammer. Having won the WAC title earlier this month with a heave of 66.58, Ezeh returns to the national stage to defend her hammer crown. Joining Ezeh in the hammer is Nancy Gullien, who took second at the league championships with a mark of 61.90 on May 19. Seeded 14th and 15th, respectively, in the triple jump are Diana Nikitina and Lavada Hill. Nikitinas mark of 13.09 was established on April 21, while Hill leapt a distance of 13.06 on March 31. Liza Randjelovic is the only WAC athlete entered in the javelin. She posted a qualifying distance of 51.98 on April 21.
Monica Twum, who finished sixth at the indoor championships, will lead the TCU women at the outdoor meet. Twum will compete in both the 100 and 200 meters, and will anchor the Frogs' 4x100 meter relay team that also features Sonia Williams, Chaunte Baldwin and Janice Thomas.
UTEP has four women entered in the championships, including national contenders Anna Tarasova in the triple jump and Sveltana Badrankova in the 800-meter run. Tarasova holds the nation's best mark in the triple jump of 44-9 (13.64), which helped her break both the conference all-time and school records earlier this season. Badrankova ranks second in the 800-meter run, after breaking a 16-year-old record in the event at the Drake Relays (2:02.99). Badrankova will be joined by Jose van der Veen, who was added to the championships late Sunday evening, with a provisional time of 2:06.48 set at the WAC championships. Junior Anne- Laure Gremillet, who was third in the hammer at the WAC Championships, qualified for the national championships with the nation's 16th best throw in that event.
Freshman sensation Shana Robinson is one of three female runners from Tulsa to qualify for the postseason. Joining Robinson are distance runners Fride Vullum and Charlotte Sanderson. Robinson qualified for the 100 dash with a time of 11.42, which is currently the 14th fastest time in the country. The first freshman in TU history to compete at the NCAAs, Robinson is also the second fastest freshman in the field of 22 runners and one of only two runners from the WAC entered in the event. Sanderson, a junior who finished second at the conference championships, will compete in the 10,000-meter run for the Hurricane, having clocked a school-record time of 34:25.78 earlier this season to rank 17th in the nation. Vullum, a senior and TUs most decorated runner, will compete in her second outdoor championship in the 23-man 5,000 meters. Recently, Vullum won her fifth and sixth conference titles, finishing first in the 1,500 and the 5,000 at the WAC Outdoor Championships.
Results for the championships can be found on the Oregon Athletics homepage at www.goducks.com.