OU Travels to Tyson Invitational

The University of Oklahoma men's and women's track and field teams open Friday in the Razorback-Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark. Events began Friday morning. The final event on Friday is the men's 1600-meter relay and it is scheduled for 10 p.m. On Saturday, the OU men's distance medley relay will run in the invitational event at 1:15 p.m.

The Tyson Invitational is part of the Golden Spikes Tour. More than 1500 athletes are expected for the Friday portion of the meet and an additional 150 will join the competition on Saturday. Three top 10 women's teams and nine teams from the women's top 25 are entered in the meet. On the men's side, more than 50 teams, including top-ranked Arkansas, are entered. On Saturday, those collegiate athletes invited to participate will have the opportunity to compete against many of the world's finest athletes.

In action Friday, OU has women entered in 21 individual events as well as the 1600-meter relay. The Sooner men are entered in 18 individual events plus the 1600-meter relay.

Sooner athletes who were not invited to compete on Friday or Saturday will compete in the Oklahoma Christian Invitational Saturday at the Mosier Indoor Facility.

Trackwire Rankings
After impressive performances last weekend in South Bend, Ind., the OU women have joined the Sooner men in the top 25 of the Trackwire power ranking this week. The Sooner women also rank in the top 25 in the United States Track Coaches Association Team Power Ranking this week.

The OU women, unranked through the first four weeks of the Trackwire top 25, are tied for 21st in the fifth ranking list of the season. The Trackwire 25 projects a hypothetical score for the NCAA meet, factoring in injury reports and other variables supported by information gathered from coaches and NCAA-qualifying competitions across the country. This projection is generated by scoring the Dandy Dozen, a power ranking of the top 12 athletes and relay squads in each NCAA event.

Senior LaVerne Jones continues to be ranked among the top five in the 60 meter dash in Trackwire's Dandy Dozen. She is fourth this week. Sooner freshman Jessica Eldridge, who has NCAA provisional marks in the mile and the 800, is ranked fifth in the mile. Eldridge posted a school record and NCAA provisional mark in the 800 last weekend at the Meyo Invitational in South Bend with a 2:06.33. She also anchored OU's distance medley relay which shattered a Sooner school record that had stood for 23 years. The time the relay ran on Friday, 11:30.53, also beat the NCAA provisional mark.

The Dandy Dozen is selected using quantitative values that measure performances in past major competitions (such as conference championships, national championships and Olympic competition), durability and freedom from injuries, demonstrated ability to compete well in multiple rounds of competition, ability in other events, head-to-head competition with other top athletes, and personal or seasonal bests.

The OU women are ranked 19th in the USTCA Team Power Rankings. The Team Power Ranking is a unique system of ranking teams on the basis of quality of athletic performance, team depth, and dual meet scoring potential. The system rates teams in the same fashion as decathlete or heptathlete. Points are assigned for two athletes in each event contested in a dual meet and points are assigned on the basis of quality of performance. The top person in each event has his/her points doubled to adjust for the value of the number one performer on each team in a dual meet. The points for all events are then totaled for the ranking score.

The Sooner men dropped into a tie for 22nd in the fifth week of the Trackwire 25. OU was tied for 19th in last week's top 25. OU has been ranked in each of the five rankings issued this season. The Sooner men opened the season tied for 14th, dropped to 15th the second week and were tied for 21st the third week.

Sooner sophomore DaBryan Blanton continues to rank as the top 60-meter runner in the country in the Trackwire Dandy Dozen and the USTCA Power Ranking.

Big 12 Rankings
In the fourth weekly ranking of athletes in the Big 12, several Sooners were among the top 10. Sophomore DaBryan Blanton continues to lead the conference in the 60-meter dash and he ranks fifth in the 200. Freshman Jessica Eldridge leads the 800 and is second in the 1000 and mile. Junior Austin Landreth is tied for third in the pole vault. Senior LaVerne Jones is ranked third in the women's 60 and she's fifth in the 400. Aldwyn Sappleton is fourth in the league in the 800 and ninth in the 600.

Other top 10 Sooners on the men's side include Dwayne Duhaney, T-8th, 400; Salah Hussein, sixth, 1000; Jason Coleman, 10th, 1000; Silverus Kimeli, eighth, mile; Joe McNair, ninth, 3000; men's distance medley relay, second; Jonathan McMillian, T-7th, high jump; Cory Crosby, T-4th, long jump; and Robert Smith, seventh, long jump. On the women's side, OU is represented by Yolanda Goff, eighth, 60; Kristi Cook, ninth, 600; Nicola Maye, fifth, 1000; Catherine Odell, sixth, 1000; LaDonna Moore, 10th, 60 hurdles; distance medley relay, first; Kelsey Moore, T-9th, high jump; Leslie Dunlap, T-sixth, pole vault; and LaDonna Moore, eighth, triple jump.

Last Week at the Meyo Invitational
It was a weekend that the record book took a beating as the women's distance medley relay broke a 23-year-old school record on Friday and freshman Jessica Eldridge, after running the anchor leg of the relay, set a record in the 800 on Saturday.

Catherine Odell, Kristi Cook, Nicola Maye and Eldridge combined to run 11:30.53 to finish fifth in the distance medley relay. The time beat the NCAA provisional standard for the event by six seconds.

Less than 18 hours after running the anchor leg on a record-setting distance medley relay, Eldridge put her name in the school record book with a 2:06.33 in the 800-meter run. Eldridge finished third in the 800 with the fifth fastest time in the country this season. A provisional qualifying mark, her time missed the automatic NCAA qualifying time by just .68 seconds.

Odell ran the mile for the first time this season and finished with a 4:58.44, good for 10th place overall. That mark ranks ninth on the all-time Sooner list. Cook, ran a 2:17.13 in the 800, finishing 18th in a field of 38 runners.

At the 2004 J.D. Martin Invitational
Sophomore DaBryan Blanton won the 60-meter dash with a 6.68 and was one of five Sooners who set a meet record in the fourth annual J.D. Martin on Jan. 31. Blanton's time also beat the NCAA provisional standard but he already has an automatic mark to his credit. It was his fourth win in the 60 in four races this season (two prelims and two finals).

LaVerne Jones (400), Silverus Kimeli (mile), Salah Hussein (1000 meter) and Nicola Maye (1000) put their name next to meet record for the Sooners as well.

The race was Jones' first 400 meters in her OU career. Her time of 55.09 is the fourth best in school history. For Hussein, the time in the 1000 (2:28.35) ranks fourth in school history. Maye's time in the women's 1000 (2:55.06) is the eighth best on the all-time honor roll.

Other Sooner winners were LaDonna Moore, who won the triple jump; Dwayne Duhaney, who won the 400; Dax Thomas, who won the 600; Jimmy Buchanan, who won the 3000; Jonathan McMillian, who won the high jump; Scott Martin, who won the pole vault; and Cory Crosby, who won the long jump.

Next Up
The Sooners will host the final home meet of the 2004 season, the Sooner Indoor, on Feb. 21, before traveling to the Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championships in Lincoln, Neb., on Feb. 27-28.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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