April 13, 2007
DENTON, Texas - The UT Arlington men's and women's track and field teams will look to add to their list of NCAA Region qualifiers when the Mavs compete at the North Texas Classic at Fouts Field Saturday.
UT Arlington will be joined by teams from Baylor, North Texas, TCU, Arkansas-Little Rock, Dallas Baptist, McMurry, Northwood, Oklahoma Baptist, Paul Quinn College, Southwest Christian, and Texas A&M Commerce. In addition, four Olympic medalists from the 2004 Athens games are scheduled to compete at Fouts Field.
Jeremy Wariner will headline the group as the former Baylor standout and Arlington Lamar High School graduate is scheduled to compete in the 200 meters. Joining him with their own Olympic medals on Saturday are scheduled to be his former teammate Darold Williamson, former Texas Longhorn Sanya Richards, and thrower Alex Tammert. Both Williamson and Richards claimed gold medals as members of the 4x400 relay teams in 2004, while Tammert claimed a bronze medal in the discus.
UT Arlington senior sprinter, Jared Connaughton, will compete against Wariner for the second time this spring season. Wariner ran a 21.03 at the Arlington Invitational while Connaughton ran closely behind with a region-qualifying time of 21.06. He also qualified for the region meet in the 100 meters.
Senior Coby Morrison (Wichita Falls, Texas) has already qualified for the region meet in three events - 200 meters, 4x100-meter relay and 400-meter hurdles.
Both Morrison and Connaughton have the top two times in both the 100 and 200 meter events in the Southland Conference this spring entering this weekend's events.
Senior Jon McDowell has the top 110-meter hurdle time in the SLC with a 13.91 is clocked at the Horned Frog Invite. Morrison's time of 51.18 he clocked at the Texas Relays last Wednesday is the top time in the league this season.
The Mavs 4x100-meter relay team of Connaughton, Byron Majors, Morrison and Jarid Vaughan have the top time in the SLC with a 40.06.
For the women's team, sophomore high jumper Stacey Bennett has qualified with a height of 5-08.75 cleared and senior Ivorita Taylor has run a qualifying time of 2:08.99 in the 800 meters.
Senior sprinter Kourtnee Jones has qualified for the region meet in the 100 meters after an 11.70 she ran at the Horned Frog Invitational on March 24.
- utamavs.com -
