The majority of college track athletes are finished competing until next season, but a select few still have some big races on their plates before school begins again.

Sara Dietz

Keyth Talley

Two of those are at North Texas, as freshmen Sara Dietz and Keyth Talley will compete at the U.S. Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships at famed Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore. The meet is for athletes ages 19 and under.

The two will compete today, with Talley going in the men’s 100-meter dash and Dietz going in the women’s 800. Talley will also compete in the 200 on Saturday, and a top-two finish by either will advance them to the Junior Pan American Games next month in Trinidad.

“It’s a big accomplishment for them,” North Texas head track and field coach Rick Watkins said. “That’s one of the goals. About half of the freshmen in the country are eligible and the rest are high schoolers. That’s always your goal as a freshman is to meet that junior qualifying standard because that puts you in the top 10 percent of freshmen in country. For them to meet that standard is a pretty big honor.”

Watkins has had only one athlete make the U.S. junior national team in his 15 years on the job, and that was in 1999, when Dionte Campbell made the Pan Am team in the women’s triple jump.

Now, he feels like he has a chance to get at least one more.

Talley was the Sun Belt Conference Freshman of the Year in both the indoor and outdoor track seasons. He qualified in the 200 for the senior national championships, which features the top runners in the world, with his time of 20.86 seconds at a meet in Norman, Okla., earlier this year. His top time in the 100 is 10.35.

“That’s the best this country has to offer, and this will be his best chance to make the finals,” Watkins said of Talley’s choice to go the junior route. “The seniors will be down the road for him. It will be a great experience for him to compete in this meet, and hopefully they can both make the finals and move on to the next round.”

Even if Talley does not qualify in the 100 or 200, Watkins said he has a great chance to make a relay squad for the U.S. team, which is a possibility for anyone who finishes in the top six in the sprints.

Talley was the leadoff leg for the Mean Green’s 4x100 relay team, which qualified for the NCAA Championships, and Watkins said he has what it takes to be a great relay runner — not just blazing speed.

“Part of the problem this country’s had in relays is we have the fastest people in the world, but we can’t get the baton around the track,” Watkins said. “It’s about being comfortable with the baton while you’re going full speed.”

Dietz has done a bit of everything for the Mean Green since arriving on campus last year. She was named the Sun Belt Freshman of the Year in cross country and earned all-conference honors in the 800 with her third-place finish at the Sun Belt Championships.

Dietz was perhaps a bit more under the radar than Talley, but Watkins insists it’s not a surprise that she has gotten this far.

He added that Texas high school athletes are usually dominant sprinters on a national scale, while the top distance runners in the country are usually on the coasts.

And when Dietz ran a 2:12.40 at the Sun Belt Championships, he knew her hard work had paid off.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a surprise because she’s worked really hard this year,” Watkins said. “A lot of it is her getting the confidence to be able to do that. There aren’t that many people in high school in Texas that ran what she did [in high school], but on the coasts there were a lot.”

Watkins said the opportunity in front of Dietz and Talley should they make the Pan Am Games is one that could alter their expectations for years to come, and in a positive way.

“Doing that as a freshman can adjust your sights a little bit,” he said. “You tend to aim high when you’ve been somewhere like that. For them, it’s a big confidence boost and can adjust your aim upwards a little bit.”

ADAM BOEDEKER can be reached at 940-566-6872. His e-mail address is aboedeker@dentonrc.com.