DRC NT women in position to win Sun belt track

[OldTimer]

Track & field: Ladies first

North Texas women in position to win Sun Belt title

05/11/2003

By Tim MacMahon / Staff Writer

The North Texas women’s track and field program is positioned to win its first conference title after a stellar showing Saturday in the Sun Belt Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Fouts Field.

The Lady Eagles, who were picked by the league’s coaches as the meet favorite, scored 62.66 points during the meet’s second day. Western Kentucky is in second place with 48 points.

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DRC/Hiroyuki Komae

North Texas’ Deidra Wesley fails to clear the bar in the high jump during the Sun Belt Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Fouts Field Saturday. Wesley got sixth in the event.

The UNT men, the defending Sun Belt champions, enter the meet’s final day in second place with 40 points. Western Kentucky, which dominated the throwing events, is in the lead with 78 points.

The UNT women claimed six medals, including golds by juniors Rhonda Williams in the long jump and Jessica Henderson in the discus.

"You just hope when you come to a championship meet like this that everybody’s at their best," UNT director of track Rick Watkins said. "That’s the way it’s been. They’ve just got to come back [sunday] and not let up."

Henderson heaved the discus 167-2, which qualified her for the NCAA Central Region meet May 30-31 in Lincoln, Neb. She broke her own school record by more than 18 feet.

"I really didn’t believe it until after everything was over," Henderson said. "It’s not going to set in until after [the meet is over]."

Williams also qualified for the regionals with a jump of 19-10 ?, the third-best in school history. The Denton High School product eclipsed her previous personal best four times Saturday.

"I was just feeling it," Williams said. "I was ready to compete."

UNT claimed five of the top seven spots in the women’s high jump, with Chelsea Creech and Jessica Shockley tying for second behind Florida International’s Linda Loussaint. The Lady Eagles had three of the five top finishers in the heptathlon, with defending Sun Belt champion Rhatisha Scott and Deidra Wesley earning silver and bronze medals, respectively.

UNT senior Ben Botello claimed a gold in the decathlon with 6,999 points — one shy of the NCAA provisional qualifying mark. Botello entered the 1,500 — the final event of the decathlon — needing to beat Louisiana-Lafayette’s Ben Rogers by at least nine seconds. Botello finished first in 4:42.51, while Rogers brought up the rear in 5:52.43.

"I was pretty confident," Botello said. "I knew that even if he ran hard, I was going to run harder."

UNT senior Jerome Carrothers won silver medals in the shot put (53-11 3/4) and discus (170-5). His throw in the discus was the third-best in school history and qualified for the regionals. Carrothers won a total of eight silvers in Sun Belt competition without taking a gold.

Carrothers was beaten by Western Kentucky’s Raigo Toompu in both events. Toompu threw the discus 170-9 and the shot 54-1.

"Today he was the better man in his throws," Carrothers said. "That’s OK. We got 16 points out of it and that’s the main thing right now."

UNT senior Ron Paris also qualified for the regionals in the discus, taking third with a throw of 165-11.

The UNT men had 10 runners qualify for the finals Sunday, more than any other school but Middle Tennessee. The Blue Raiders, the meet favorite, qualified 16 runners, several of whom are expected to contend for gold. Western Kentucky had only four runners qualify.

"We knew it was going to be tight and iffy on the men’s side," Watkins said. "We have to have our guys do what the women did today. Everybody’s got to be at their best."

The Lady Eagles had 10 runners qualify for the finals, equaling Florida International for the most among the women’s teams.

"I don’t know if there’s such a thing as momentum in track, but I believe there is," Watkins said. "And we definitely have momentum right now."

TIM MACMAHON can be reached at 940-566-6870.