Track and field: Wehr leads national qualifiers for UNT

Track and field: Wehr leads national qualifiers for UNT

12:07 AM CDT on Sunday, May 31, 2009

Staff report

NORMAN, Okla. – North Texas kept alive its tradition of being a regular at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday.

Jordan Wehr earned a national berth in the pole vault and the men’s 4X100 relay team also advanced at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships at Oklahoma.

UNT has sent at least one athlete to the national meet in each of the last five seasons and will send multiple athletes for the second consecutive year.

“To keep this string alive of consecutive appearances was one of our goals,” UNT head coach Rick Watkins said. “These kids elevated their expectations coming into this weekend. To come here and compete against the best country says a lot about our team.”

Wehr finished fifth in the pole vault with a mark of 16-11, adding to his recent run of success that includes setting the school record in the event at the Sun Belt Conference Championships earlier this month.

“Coming into this meet we thought Jordan’s mark was probably good enough to advance through but that didn’t slow him down,” Watkins said. “He has really come on strong towards the end of the season and he’s starting to figure things out.”

Joining Wehr will be the quartet of Keyth Talley, Ryan Varner, Byron Washington and C.J. Fowler, who teamed to finish second in the 4X100 relay in a season-best time of 39.83.

Alysha Adams (100 hurdles) and Brock Stickler (discus) were UNT’s other two competitors on Saturday. Adams just missed earning a birth to Fayetteville, Ark., with a sixth-place finish in a time of 13.70. Stickler placed 10th in the discus with a throw of 175.

While Stickler didn’t earn an automatic berth in the national meet, he has an outside shot of receiving an at-large berth to the event that will take place June 10-13. He is among a group of UNT athletes who will wait to see if they are selected by a group of coaches based on their season-best marks, a process that is expected to be completed sometime on Tuesday.

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