June 9, 2003

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Members of the University of Missouri track and field team left for Sacramento, Calif., on Sunday and will compete in the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships starting Wednesday. Eleven Tigers will take part in the four-day event and will compete for All-America status in several events. The following week the team will head to Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., to complete in the USA Track & Field Championships and will attempt to qualify for a spot in the IAAF World Championships.

Starting on Wednesday, senior Knut Sommerfeldt (Norway), three-time Big 12 decathlon champion, and freshman Hans Uldal (Norway) will compete in the two-day decathlon. Both Sommerfeldt and Uldal have good chances of finishing in the top 10 as they are seeded fifth and seventh, respectively. The first event of the decathlon, the 100-meter dash, will take place Wednesday at 3 p.m. The 1,500-meter run will conclude the event on Thursday and will be held at 9:30 p.m.

Seniors Christian Cantwell (Eldon, Mo.) and Russ Bell (Jefferson City, Mo.) will also be busy on the first day as both will compete in the qualifying round of the shot put. The event gets underway Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. Cantwell, coming off of a Big 12 title, currently holds the best mark among collegians this year as he threw for 70 feet, 5? inches in the Prefontaine Classic on May 24th. Bell is currently ranked eleventh in the country in the shot and will be competing for All-America status as well. Bell qualified in both the discus and hammer throw events. The finals of the shot put event have the potential to be one of the best of all-time as three throwers, Cantwell, Nebraska's Carl Myerscough, and Ohio State's Dan Taylor, could possibly reach the 70-foot mark.

Senior Fiona Asigbee (Walford, Iowa) and freshman Jessica Stockard (Godfrey, Ill.) will participate in the heptathlon that gets underway on Friday. Asigbee won Big 12 championships in both the indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon this year and is ranked fourth in the country (5,583 points).

Six Tigers will take part in the qualifying rounds of their respective events on Thursday and try to reach the finals on Saturday. Senior co-captain Timothy Dunne (Jerome, Idaho) will battle for a top spot in the 800 meters. Junior Jennifer Bennett (Ashland, Mo.), the outdoor Big 12 pole vault champion, will try to duplicate her All-America performance from the indoor season. Bennett currently ranks seventh in the collegiate circuit (13 feet, 6? inches). Janae Strickland (Jr., Houston, Texas) will compete in the shot put trying to improve on her 53 feet, 8? inch performance of May 3rd. Ranked 13th in the country, Strickland was the NCAA Midwest Regional runner-up and is currently the school's record holder in the event. Sophomores Jesse Sims (Paola, Kan.) and Jenny Bybee (Springfield, Mo.) both qualified in the high jump event. Sims jumped seven feet, 2? inches in April making him 12th-best in the country. Bybee also ranks in the top 15 in the high jump (5 feet, 10? inches) and will make her NCAA Outdoor Championships debut.

At the conclusion of the NCAA Championships, five Tigers will compete in the USA Track & Field Championships held on the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, Calif. Cantwell, Bell, and Strickland will compete and will attempt to qualify for the IAAF World Championships in the shot put event. Jennifer Bennett qualified as a "B" standard in the pole vault and Jessica Stockard will compete in the USA Jr. National Championships in the heptathlon.

For complete results at the conclusion of each day of the NCAA Championships log-on to mutigers.com or for complete coverage and live results go to host school Sacramento State's website at www.hornetsports.com/ncaa/.