 
Men’s Track and Field preview: Arkansas Last Chance Invitational
· AUSTIN, Texas -- The ninth-ranked Texas Men’s Track and Field team will send three competitors to the Arkansas Last Chance meet on Friday, March 7. Houston natives Maston Wallace and Will Paine are entered in the pole vault to improve their provisional qualifying heights. Junior Tevan Everett (Bel-Aire, Kan.) is looking to qualify for nationals after narrowly missing the 800-meter provisional mark with a season-best 1:50.58 from the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 16. Wallace, in his first year on the Forty Acres, is 15th on the NCAA descending order list after clearing 17-5.75 (5.33m) at the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 16 while Paine, in his second season at Texas, is 28th with a career-best 17-0.75 (5.20m) from last weekend’s Big 12 indoor championship. Everett is the reigning 600-yard champion as he was one of four individual champions on UT’s 2008 Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championship team. The Longhorns captured their third consecutive indoor conference title in a 106-104 win over host-school Nebraska. Texas became just the second school in league history, joining the Huskers in winning three straight indoor championships. The Longhorns have two individual NCAA automatic qualifiers -- reigning indoor mile national champion Leo Manzano and two-time Big 12 champion 800-meter Jacob Hernandez. Both have the fourth-fastest times in the nation -- Manzano (mile – 3:59.21) and Hernandez (800 – 1:47.89). The world-record setting distance medley relay also has an automatic qualifying mark with their world-record setting time of 9:25.97 from the Tyson meet. The group enters the national championship race with the fastest time in the NCAA for the second consecutive season. In addition to the automatic qualifying group and the members traveling this weekend, Texas has six other NCAA provisional marks. Junior Raymond Harris (Nacogdoches, Texas) is No. 13 on the NCAA descending order list after jumping 7-1.75 (2.18m) in finishing third at the Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championships. Senior Joel Hargett (Conroe, Texas) is 15th with his season-best clearance of 7-1.5 (2.17m) from the Tyson meet. Senior Jake Morse (Arlington, Texas) has two provisional times. He is 17th in the mile with his 4:00.41 from the Tyson Invitational, and stands at No. 23 in the 3,000-meter run with his school-record mark of 7:59.21 from the New Balance Collegiate Invitational (Feb. 9). Redshirt junior Kyle Miller (Katy, Texas) finished less than a second behind Morse at the Tyson race. Miller provisionally qualified and has the 19th-fastest time in the nation (4:00.50). Sophomore Shawn Schmidt (Plano, Texas) met the provisional standard and stands at No. 24 in the nation. The two-time All-Big 12 honoree scored a lifetime-best 5,414 points for eighth-place at the Big 12 meet.. Next weekend, the Longhorns return to Fayetteville for the 2008 NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships. Texas posted its highest team finish with a third-place performance at the 2007 championship. Then-senior Donovan Kilmartin and Manzano won individual championships as Texas neared its all-time program best total for points (35) with a 34-point effort last year. It marked the third time in the last four seasons Texas placed in the top four nationally during the indoor season.
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