Oklahoma and the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championship

Big 12 Track and Field Championship Notes

Laverne Jones will become OU's first female track and field Olympian this summer when she competes for the U.S. Virgin Islands in Athens, Greece. Jones will compete in the 100 -and 200-meter dashes.

OU sprints coach Shanon Atkinson will serve as Jones' coach and will travel to Athens this summer as well.

OU sophomore DaBryan Blanton will be attempting to make the U.S. Olympic Team when he travels to the Olympic Trials in July in Sacramento. Blanton could qualify as an entry in the 100-meter dash or as a member of a relay based on his performances during the Trials.

Two other Sooners, Kevin Bookout and Aldwyn Sappleton, have met Olympic standards. Bookout is redshirting this outdoor track and field season after undergoing shoulder surgery following an injury during basketball. He will not compete in the U.S. Trials. Sappleton will compete in the Jamaican Trials this summer. A decision will be made later this week about his competition in the Big 12 Track and Field meet (he has been out with an injury).

OU freshman Jon McMillian is tied for the fourth best high jump mark in the country this season. He cleared 7-2.5 last Thursday at the UNT Twilight Invite. That mark is the third best in school history and is collegiate career best for McMillian. He also became the first true freshman to clear 7-foot-plus in OU school history. Of the top 11 high jumpers in the country to date, three are freshman and six are sophomores. Three of the top 11 are from Big 12 Conference schools and will be participating in this weekend's conference meet at John Jacobs Field. The men's high jump is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday.

Four of the top 10 women pole vaulters in school history are scheduled to compete in the Big 12 meet this weekend. Senior Leslie Dunlap, who won the Big 12 outdoor title in 2001 as a true freshman, has a career best mark of 13-3.5, the best in school history. Lindsey Bourne is ranked second with a 12-6. Jennifer Plank jumped to third on the list with a 12-3.5 earlier this season and Devon Fox is ranked seventh with a career best mark of 11-6.25. The women's pole vault competition is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday.

Two of the top 10 men pole vaulters in school history are scheduled to compete this weekend. Austin Landreth, the first NCAA Midwest Regional pole vault champion after his victory last May, is ranked seventh. Freshman Scott Martin is tied for ninth. He cleared 17-4.5 two weeks ago to move into the list. The men's pole vault competition is scheduled for 4 p.m. Friday.

Freshman Jessica Eldridge continues to succeed as the outdoor season enters its final weeks. The Broken Arrow freshman became the first true freshman at OU to qualify for the NCAA Cross Country Championships since 1994 when she advanced to that meet last November. She competed in the NCAA Indoor in the 800-meter run in March and has met the NCAA Regional qualifying standard in the outdoor 800 and 1500. She is entered in the 800, 1500 and 5000 at the Big 12 with final decarations due at 10 a.m. Wednesday. The prelims for the 1500 are set for 4:30 p.m. Friday with the 800 prelims scheduled at 6:40 p.m. The 5000 is a final only and it is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Sooner student-athletes rank in the top 10 of the latest Big 12 ranking list in the following events: DaBryan Blanton, second in the 100, first in the 200 and 10th in the 400; Salah Hussein, 10th in the 1500; Darren Hutchins, eighth in the 10,000; Jon McMillian, second in the high jump; Austin Landreth and Scott Martin, tied for fifth in the pole vault; Cory Crosby, third in the long jump and ninth in the triple jump; Robert Smith, fifth in the long jump and seventh in the triple jump; Dan Strong, fifth in the decathlon; Laverne Jones, second in the 100, second in the 200 and third in the 400; Jessica Eldridge, fourth in the 800, ninth in the 1500 and third in the 3000; Catherine Odell, seventh in the 3000; women's 400-meter relay, fifth; women's 1600-meter relay, ninth; Leslie Dunlap, sixth in the pole vault; Jennifer Plank and Lindsey Bourne, tied for ninth in the pole vault; Lucretia Rimmer, sixth in the triple jump; Renea' Burns, eighth in the javelin; Veronica Clayborne, ninth in the heptathlon; and Chaundra Allard, 10th in the heptathlon.

Current Sooner co-head coach Jill Lancaster won the Big Eight title in the outdoor 400-meter intermediate hurdles in 1981. Sooner assistant coach Ed Wade won three Big Eight discus titles (1985, 1986 and 1988) and one Big Eight outdoor shot put title (1988). Wade currently works with the Sooner throwers. Sprints coach Shanon Atkinson ran on OU's 1600-meter relay team that won the outdoor title in 1995. And meet director J.D. Martin won the Big Eight pole vault title while competing for the Sooners in 1960.

Since the Big 12 was created in July of 1996, the Sooners have won six individual men's titles, one men's relay title and three individual women's titles. Roxbert Martin was the first Big 12 men's outdoor champion for OU, winning the 400-meter dash in 1997. Bambi Carson was the first women's Big 12 winner for the Sooners, winning the discus in 2000. She became the first woman to repeat as Big 12 champion, adding the 2001 discus title. OU's all-time best Big 12 outdoor finish for the men is fourth (1998). A sixth place finish is the all-time best for the women and the Sooners have done that twice (in 2000 and 2001).

The outdoor track facility was originally built in the 1950s and was designed by longtime Sooner track and field coach John Jacobs. Jacobs served as OU's track and field coach from 1922 to 1958, then continued to serve as associate head coach until his retirement in 1968. He was named to the Helms Foundation Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1957. A proposal to name the facility after him was originally made in 1957, and in May 1962, the OU Board of Regents officially named the facility John Jacobs Field.

The renovation of the John Jacobs Field has given the facility a new look and turned it into one of the finest facilities in the country for competitors and spectators. Additions to the facility include a permanent scoreboard, permanent lighting and a sound system that connects Jacobs Field and the Mosier Indoor Facility. All of the field event areas have been redesigned, and in some cases moved, to allow meet officials to set up competition to account for weather conditions. Included in the re-design of the field event areas was the addition of walkways that allow spectators to get closer to the action of all field events. A throwing area also was created on the east end of the facility. On the track itself, the oval was re-built to include nine lanes with European curves and the track was covered with an embedded urethane surface. Other additions to the complex include a sports medicine and hydrotherapy area, men's and women's locker rooms, men's and women's coaches locker rooms, a team meeting room, concession areas, and restroom facilities for fans.

This marks the third renovation of John Jacobs Field since it was originally built in the 1950s. In the late 1970s, the oval was re-done to change to metric measurements. Following the 1988 outdoor season, the OU Athletic Department, in partnership with Oklahoma Centennial Sports, the local organizing committee for the 1989 U.S. Olympic Festival, began a $700,000 renovation to the facility. The facility served as the host of the Olympic Festival before hosting the 1990 and 1992 Big Eight Outdoor Track and Field Championships. That was the last conference outdoor track and field meet hosted by OU.

The University will officially re-dedicate John Jacobs Field on Saturday at 11:15 a.m. The ceremony will take place prior to the start of meet events and will feature university administrators, athletic department staff and track and field alumni who are back in town for a reunion.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Oklahoma and the Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championship

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