By Chandler Harris, Assistant Sports Editor
The men and women’s track and field teams traveled to Lubbock for the second-straight week Saturday and came home with three more automatic qualifiers and four more provisional qualifiers for the NCAA Division II indoor championship meet in March.
The Wildcats competed against such schools as Texas Tech, Wichita State, Sam Houston State, Barton Community College, South Plains College and UTEP, said Don Hood, head track and field coach.
Junior pole vaulter Cory Altenberg won his event, posting an automatic qualifying mark of 16-6.75, good for second best in the country so far. Sophomore Stephen Toler finished second with a provisional qualifying mark of 16-0.75, while Aaron Cantrell took third, equaling his provisional qualifying mark of 15-7.00.
Sophomore Desmond Jackson won the 55 meters with a time of 6.39 seconds, earning a provisional qualifying bid.
“This was Desmond’s first true race, and he ran really well,” Hood said.
Junior Ramon Sparks, who provisionally qualified last weekend in both the long jump and the triple jump, improved his mark in the triple jump with a leap of 49-7.75, placing second in the event. Junior Andrew McDowell improved his automatic qualifying mark in the 55-meter hurdles with a fifth-place finish in 7.42 seconds.
On the women’s side, junior Wanda Hutson earned two automatic qualifying berths: one in the 55 meters and the other in the 200 meters. Hutson posted a run of 6.94 seconds in the preliminary round of the 55 meters and finished second in the finals in 6.95 seconds. Hutson also posted the best time in the nation in the 200 meters with a 24.25.
Hutson’s teammate, junior Kim Prather, provisionally qualified in both the 55 meters and 200 meters, as well. Prather finished fourth in the 55 meters final with a time of 7.04 and fourth in the 200 meters with a time of 24.80 seconds.
The Wildcats travel to Houston this weekend for the Houston Indoor Invitational meet. Hood said the team would only take the multi-event athletes, including heptathletes and decathletes, and the pole-vaulters.
“We want to give the runners a week off to catch up on their studies and their rest,” Hood said. “With the women’s team, we are trying to figure out the relay teams and seeing who will step up to run in the mile relay. On the men’s team, we have a few guys who haven’t met the qualifying marks yet so we have a few holes to fill.”
Hood said the teams need to have an attitude of getting sharper.
“The more we compete, the better off we will be in the long run,” Hood said. “Competing in meets as opposed to practice shows us that we can compete at a national level. You just can’t replicate the intensity of a meet when you are in practice.”
