Sooners Travel to Lincoln for Big 12 Track and Field Championships

The University of Oklahoma men's and women's track and field teams left Wednesday for Lincoln, Neb., and the eighth annual Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championships. Action in the meet is set to begin Friday at the Bob Devaney Sports Center on the campus of the University of Nebraska.

More on the Meet
All 12 conference schools participate in track and field and will be in Lincoln this weekend. Events on Friday will begin with the women's 60 hurdles for the pentathlon at 9:30 a.m. The men's 60 meter dash in the heptathlon will start at 10:15 a.m. The remaining four events of the pentathlon are scheduled for Friday while the heptathlon competitors will have three more events Friday and will conclude the competition on Saturday.

Field events will begin at 2:45 p.m. Friday and all field events will be finals. Running event prelims start at 2 p.m. Friday. Running event finals set for Friday include the men's and women's 5000 and the men's and women's distance medley relay.

Action resumes at 9:30 a.m. Saturday with the conclusion of the heptathlon. Field events will begin at 1:30 p.m. and running event finals will start at 3 p.m. The final event, the men's 1600-meter relay, is set for 6:45 p.m.

Trackwire Rankings
The Sooner men continue to be ranked in the Trackwire 25 for the seventh consecutive week, coming in tied for 23rd. The Sooner women, unranked the Trackwire 25, rank 14th in the United States Track Coaches Association Team Power Ranking this week.

The Sooner men are tied with Tennessee, Mississippi, Houston, Kansas, Colorado and Washington. OU has been in the Trackwire 25 in each of the seven weeks this season, opening the year tied for 14th, Since then the Sooners have been listed 15th, tied for 21st, tied for 19th, tied for 22nd and tied for 24th over the last five weeks.

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.

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

The Sooner women currently rank 14th in the USTCA Team Power Rankings, down from 12th a week ago. 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.

Senior LaVerne Jones is ranked fifth in the 60 and eighth in the 200 in Trackwire's Dandy Dozen. Jones posted an NCAA automatic qualifying mark in the 200 Feb. 13 in the Tyson Invitational. She ran a 23.47 to finish fourth. Jones also has an NCAA provisional mark in the 60. Sooner freshman Jessica Eldridge, who has NCAA provisional marks in the mile and the 800, is ranked 10th in the mile. Eldridge lowered her NCAA provisional mark in the mile to 4:45.10 in a fourth place finish at the Tyson on Feb. 13.

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 ranking in the Team Power Ranking is based on time alone.

Big 12 Rankings
In the sixth 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. Senior LaVerne Jones is tied for first in the conference in the 200, is ranked third in the 60 and is tied for sixth in the 400. Freshman Jessica Eldridge is second in the 800 and the mile and is fourth in the 1000. Junior Austin Landreth is tied for third in the pole vault. The men's distance medley relay leads the conference and the women's DMR is second.

Other Sooners listed in the top 10 include Aldwyn Sappleton, eighth, 800; Salah Hussein, sixth, 1000; Silverus Kimeli, eighth, 3000; Jonathan McMillian, T-10th, high jump; Scott Martin, T-6th, pole vault; Cory Crosby, T-5th, long jump; Robert Smith, seventh, triple jump; Yolanda Goff, eighth, 60; Nicola Maye, sixth, 800, and seventh, 1000; Catherine Odell, eighth, 1000; Kelsey Moore, T-10th, high jump; Leslie Dunlap, T-6th, pole vault; Devon Fox, T-8th, pole vault; LaDonna Moore, ninth, triple jump; and Veronica Clayborne, eighth, pentathlon.

National Rankings
In the NCAA event ranking list released February 24, DaBryan Blanton is fourth in the 60-meter dash, one of four runners to record an automatic qualifying mark in that event to date this season.

LaVerne Jones is tied for eighth in the women's 200, one of eight runners with an automatic qualifyng mark in that event. She is seventh in the 60, the first provisional qualifying mark on the list. Sooner freshman Jessica Eldridge is 10th in the 800, the fifth runner to post an NCAA provisional mark, and is 20th in the mile.

The women's distance medley relay is ranked 21st on the list. Of the 20 ahead of the Sooners, only seven teams have posted automatic times.

The NCAA Championships are scheduled for March 12-13 in Fayetteville, Ark.

Big 12 History
Nebraska is the defending men's team champion and Texas is the defending women's team champion. In fact, in the seven year history of the conference, only Texas and Nebraska have won conference team titles in indoor track and field. The Sooner men finished 11th in 2003 and OU's best finish on the men's side was sixth in 1997, the first year of the conference. The 2003 men's title race was the closest of all time with Nebraska edging Texas by .50 points.

Texas won the 2003 women's title by 25 points over Nebraska. The Sooners finished ninth in 2003. OU's best finish ever in the women's team standings was seventh. OU tied for seventh in 1998 and finished seventh in 2001.

Aldwyn Sappleton and Leslie Dunlap are the only current Sooners to have won a conference individual title. Sappleton won the 600-yard run title in 2002 and Dunlap won the women's pole vault title that same year. The Sooner men have produced six champions, relay and individual, including Sappleton. The Sooner women have produced three individual titles, including Dunlap's.

OU sophomore DaBryan Blanton is the reigning 100-meter outdoor Big 12 champion. He won the title on his way to earning Big 12 Male Freshman of the Year honors last spring.

In the seven years of the Big 12 Conference, the indoor championships have been held in three sites. Lincoln has served as the host site five times, including the 2004 meet. This marks the fourth consecutive year for the Huskers to serve as the host school. Iowa State has hosted two meets and Kansas State has hosted the meet once.

Last Week at the Sooner Indoor
n the final tuneup before the start of conference and regional action in track and field, four meet records and one facility record were broken Saturday at the Sooner Indoor. Season bests were recorded by Sooners in 15 events and one, Salah Hussein, won the 800-meter run at the Mosier Indoor Facility in front of more than 750 fans.

Hussein posted a 1:54.03 in the 800 to win the event by nearly two seconds. The mark was a season best for the OU freshman.
OU junior Cicely Williams established a personal best in the prelims of the 60 hurdles with an 8.97. She lowered that PR to 8.84 to finish fourth in the final.

The Sooners held out a number of their athletes and others, including DaBryan Blanton, Aldwyn Sappleton and LaVerne Jones, ran only on the relays. Blanton and Sappleton combined with Dax Thomas and Jason Stanley to post a season best for the Sooners in the mile relay with a 3:17.81.

Next Up The Sooners will travel to various NCAA Indoor qualifying meets next weekend. The actual dates and sites of competition for OU will be determined after this weekend's action.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooners Travel to Lincoln for Big 12 Track and Field Championships

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