Sooners Head to Austin for NCAA T&F Championships

NORMAN, Okla. -- Five Sooner student-athletes and their coaches will be heading south to Austin, Texas, and the NCAA Division I Track and Field Championships this week.

The meet opens Wednesday at Mike A. Myers Stadium on the campus of the University of Texas. This marks the 83rd annual men's meet and the 23rd annual women's meet.

This marks the seventh time that UT has hosted the national outdoor track and field championships but the first to be held at the Mike A. Myers Stadium. The first three, 1957, 1974 and 1980, were men-only NCAA championships. The fourth, in 1981, was a women's-only meet, held under the sponsorship of the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, then the governing body of women's intercollegiate athletics. In 1985 and 1992, UT hosted combined NCAA championships. All meets until this year's had been held at Memorial Stadium.

The Sooner Entries
Senior Laverne Jones will lead the way for the OU entries. The St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands sprinter is entered in the 100-meter dash. Broken Arrow freshman Jessica Eldridge is entered in the 1500. Ardmore senior Renea' Burns will compete in the javelin. On the men's side, Tulsa freshman Scott Martin is entered in the pole vault while Choctaw freshman Jon McMillian will compete in the high jump.

The Schedule of Events
OU's first competitor will be Renea' Burns. The qualifying round of the javelin is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Wednesday with the finals scheduled for 8:15 p.m. Friday. Laverne Jones will hit the track for the prelims of the 100 at 6:40 p.m. Wednesday with the semifinals scheduled for 8:15 p.m. Wednesday. The final is set for 9:10 p.m. Friday.

On Thursday, Scott Martin will open competition in the qualifying round of the pole vault at 2 p.m. The final is set for 6:45 p.m. Saturday. Jon McMillian will begin competition in the qualifying round of the high jump Thursday at 7 p.m. with the final set for 7 p.m. Saturday. Jessica Eldridge will be OU's last competitor to start when she runs the 1500-meter prelims at 7:55 p.m. on Thursday. The final in that event is set for 7:20 p.m.

How They Qualified
Four of the Sooners' five qualifiers advanced based after finishing in the top five at the NCAA Midwest Regional May 28-29. The top five finishers in each individual event from the four regionals advanced to the NCAA Championships.

Jessica Eldridge won the 1500-meter title at the NCAA Midwest Regional while Laverne Jones was second in the 100. Renea' Burns finished third in the javelin and Scott Martin was fourth in the pole vault. Jon McMillian earned an at-large invitation. He was tied for seventh in the country heading into regional competition. He tied for fifth in the regional meet but had more misses and was not involved in the jumpoff for fifth place. He was added to the field based on his performances throughout the season.

How They Are Ranked
Senior Laverne Jones leads the Sooner qualifiers, ranking fifth heading into the NCAA Championships. Jessica Eldridge is ranked 17th in the 1500 and Renea' Burns is ranked 22nd in the javelin. Jon McMillian is tied for ninth in the high jump and Scott Martin is ranked 17th in the pole vault. The final list of competitors will be released on Tuesday after all medical withdrawals and appeals are completed.

NCAA History
For Laverne Jones, this makes her second consecutive year to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships. In 2003, Jones ran in the semifinals of the 100 and the 200. She finished 11th in the 200, earning All-America honors in that event in the process. This marks her fourth trip to an NCAA competition since transferring to OU from Barton County Juco prior to the 2002-2003 academic year. Jones has earned All-America honors in both the indoor 60 and 200 twice and the outdoor 200 once. She finished eighth in the indoor 200 in March of this year and was fourth in the indoor 60.

The rest of the Sooners are making their first career trips to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. However, freshman Jessica Eldridge will be competing in her third NCAA meet this year. She became the first true freshman at OU since 1994 to qualify for the NCAA Cross Country Championships in November, then qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in the mile. She finished 14th in that event.

Trackwire Rankings
While neither of the Sooner teams are ranked in the Trackwire 25, OU individuals are ranked in Trackwire's Dandy Dozen. 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.

Senior Laverne Jones is ranked seventh in the 100 and fourth in the 200 on the women's Dandy Dozen list. Jon McMillian is ranked 10th in the high jump and Scott Martin in ranked 11th in the pole vault.

At the NCAA Midwest Regional
OU freshman Jessica Eldridge had a plan when she stepped on the track to run the 1500-meter final at the regional meet. When she stepped off the track just over four minutes later, she had an NCAA Midwest Regional title.

Eldridge took control of the race from the start, leading the 12-runner field from the opening gun. She led throughout, boosting her lead to as much as five meters until the backstretch of the final lap. She dropped back to third for about 50 meters, then burst past the pack to win the title in 4:24.93.

Using her 10 points plus the points produced by the Sooner women in four other events, OU tied for fourth in the team standings with 34 points. The OU men were 22nd in the team standings.

Eldridge became the first Sooner woman to win an NCAA regional title and the first true freshman in school history to win a regional title.

Senior Laverne Jones came close to a pair of titles, finishing second in the 100 and the 200. Jones recorded an 11.23 in the 100 and a 23.01 in the 200. Neither of the times were eligible for meet or school records since the wind was well over the legal limit. However, she set regional records in both events during the prelims on Friday. She posted the fastest qualifying time in the 100 with an 11.25, breaking the meet record of 11.28 set by Baylor's Lakadron Ivory in last year's meet.

The 11.25 Jones ran in the prelims sets an OU school record in that event. She already had the best all-time mark in the 100 with an 11.28 but it was not eligible for a record because of the wind reading.

In the 200 prelim, Jones finished with the second fastest time but got the meet record because the wind reading was legal during her race. She finished with a 22.90 with a wind reading of 1.5. For sprint times to be eligible for meet and school records, the wind reading must be under 2.0 meters per second (or around nine miles per hour).

Jones also ran the opening leg on OU's 400-meter relay that finished seventh. Joining her on that relay were Kelsey Strecker, Ashley Freeman and Yolanda Goff. During the prelims for that event, the quartet combined for a 44.96, the eighth best time in school history.

Senior Renea' Burns may have had the most amazing meet of any Sooner. Taking advantage of a stiff wind that gusted to 20 to 25 miles per hour, Burns finished third in the javelin with a career best 153-1. That mark is a career best by more than 10 feet and earned Burns a trip to the NCAA Championships. It is the second best mark in school history.

Freshman Scott Martin earned a trip to the NCAA in the pole vault, finishing fourth with a vault of 17-7. Austin Landreth, who won the regional pole vault title last year, did not record a clearance in the competition.

In the triple jump, Lucretia Rimmer finished 12th with a 40-7.50 while Robert Smith fouled on three attempts after injuring a hamstring during warmups. Catherine Odell finished 10th in the women's steeplechase with an 11:14.25 and Blake Culp was 14th in the men's steeplechase with a 9:56.64.

On the first day of the meet, Smith finished eighth in the long jump with a leap of 24-9.25. Senior Cory Crosby, who was injured during the Big 12 Championships, also competed in the long jump but the injury held him back. He finished 16th with a season low of 22-7.

An injury also knocked Sooner sophomore DaBryan Blanton out of the meet. Ranked third in the region in the 100 heading into competition, Blanton scratched from the race just before the prelims. After going through warmups for the event, he was unable to get his injured hamstring to loosen up enough to run. Blanton injured the hamstring winning the 100 at the Big 12 meet and was forced to scratch from the 200 final at that meet. Because he was forced to scratch prior to the start of the race, he will not be eligible to run at the NCAA Championships in Austin.

In other results from the first day of the meet, senior Leslie Dunlap finished 10th in the pole vault, clearing 12-10. Dunlap cleared the first height of the competition (11-10) on her second attempt and the second height (12-4) on her third attempt. She missed her first two attempts at 12-10 then got over the bar on her third attempt. The bar bounced but didn't fall, advancing Dunlap to 13-1.75. She missed all three attempts at that height which was the height it took to finish in the top five and qualify for the NCAA meet. Lindsey Bourne cleared 11-10 and tied for 20th while Jennifer Plank didn't clear the opening height.

Freshman Jon McMillian cleared 7-1 on his final attempt, then missed three tries at 7-2.25, the height that placed a jumper in the top four, again earning a trip to NCAA. Eight jumpers went out at 7-1 but only two advanced to the jumpoff for fifth place and a trip to the NCAA. Those jumpers were selected based on number of misses in the competition.

Salah Hussein finished sixth in his heat and 14th overall in the 1500 prelims with a 3:55.84 and missed advancing to the final by two spots. Josh Scott finished 21st in the men's 200 with a 21.68.

Re-Writing The Book
Senior Laverne Jones has certainly left her mark on the Sooner track and field program. She owns the school record in the outdoor 100 , set during the NCAA Midwest Regional, and the 200, set during the Big 12 Championships. She also is the regional record holder in both of those events. She also owns the school record in the indoor 60 and 200. She has earned All-America honors five times in her two-year Sooner career -- twice in the indoor 60, twice in the indoor 200 and once in the outdoor 200. She became the first Sooner woman since 1982 to earn All-America honors in two individual events when she did that at the 2003 NCAA Indoor meet. She became the first woman in school history to do that in back-to-back meets when she repeated in 2004 at the NCAA Indoor.

She also will become the first Sooner woman to compete in the Olympic Games when she runs for the U.S. Virgin Islands in Athens this summer.

Saving the Best For ...
Senior Renea' Burns made her regional performance one to remember. She recorded six legal throws and had PR efforts on three of the six throws. Her final throw of the competition traveled 153-1 for a new personal best and the second best throw in school history. It also earned her a third place finish at the regional meet and a ticket to her first NCAA competition. Burns started her collegiate career at the University of Central Oklahoma, then transferred to OU when the UCO track and field program was dropped.

Eldridge Is Excellent
There can be few arguments about where the year Jessica Eldridge has had ranks in Sooner track and field history. With her victory in the 1500 at the NCAA Midwest Regional, she became the first true freshman at OU to win a regional title. She also advanced to the NCAA Outdoor meet with that win. When she competes in Austin later this week, it will mark the first time since 1990 that a Sooner true freshman has competed in the NCAA Cross Country Championships, the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships and the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The last Sooner to make those three meets in her first year of competition was Kay Gooch, an eight-time All-American and one of the most decorated distance runners in school history.

Consistency Counts
Freshman Scott Martin has proven to be automatic when he has competed this spring. The Tulsa freshman finished second in the Big 12 Championships and was fourth at the NCAA Regional meet. He entered the regional meet with a regional qualifying mark in each of his six competitions this spring. He already ranks eighth on the all-time career list with his career best vault of 17-7.

Reaching Higher
While freshman Jon McMillian had to wait for an at-large invitation to the NCAA meet, that doesn't diminish what he has accomplished in his first season as a Sooner. The Choctaw high jumper finished third in the Big 12 in the high jump, then was involved in an eight-way tie for fifth at the regional meet. He has a career-best mark of 7-2.50 which ranks third all-time in school history.

Eldridge Named Big 12 Outstanding Freshman Performer
Jessica Eldridge became the second Sooner track and field athlete in as many years to be named the Big 12's outstanding freshman outdoor track and field performer of the year three days after the meet. Eldridge became the first Sooner woman to earn the award. She follows Sooner sprinter DaBryan Blanton, who earned the award in May 2003.

While the award is for the entire outdoor season, Eldridge's performance at the Big 12 Championship helped earn her the votes by conference coaches. The Broken Arrow freshman won the 800-meter run with a time of 2:07.62, then came back 45 minutes later to finish fifth in the 5000-meter run with a 16:46.08. It marked her first collegiate race at that distance and she broke the NCAA Regional qualifying standard by 10 seconds.

Eldridge had the fastest qualifying time in the 800 in the prelims with a 2:06.86 and that time ranked second in the Big 12 in the 800 and second in the Midwest Region. It also ranked 16th nationally in the 800.

She recorded NCAA Regional qualifying marks in the 800, 1500 and 5000 and is one of only two student-athletes to post qualifying times in those three events as of May 4.

Her success outdoors continues an amazing year for the OU freshman. She 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 Championships in the 800-meter run in March.

She currently holds the third best 800-meter junior time in the USA with a 2:06.33, an indoor time she recorded on Feb. 7.

Blanton became the first male to receive the Freshman of the Year award for the Sooners when he picked up the award in May 2003.

Next Up
Laverne Jones will return to Norman to continue training for the Olympic Games. She will compete for the U.S. Virgin Islands and her Sooner sprint coach, Shanon Atkinson, will serve as her coach in Athens. Three Sooners, Aldwyn Sappleton, Dwayne Duhaney and Nicola Maye, are slated to compete in the Jamaican Trials this month while DaBryan Blanton has a trip to the U.S. Olympic Trials later this summer. Jessica Eldridge and Yolanda Goff are scheduled to compete in the U.S. Junior Nationals June 25-27.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooners Head to Austin for NCAA T&F Championships

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