Sooners Host J.D. Martin This Weekend

NORMAN, Okla. -- After competing in back-to-back weekends and taking a weekend off from competition, the Sooner track and field teams are back in action this weekend. The majority of the team will compete in the J.D. Martin Invitational Saturday at the Mosier Indoor Facility on the OU campus.

Two Sooners are entered in the J.D. Martin Combined which begins on Friday and six OU runners left Thursday for the Notre Dame Invitational.

The first event Friday in the combined competition begins at 10 a.m. On Saturday, the final three events of the men's heptathlon are scheduled to start at 8:30 a.m. Action in the invitational begins with field events at 10 a.m. Running events are scheduled to start at 12:30 p.m.

This will be the fifth annual J.D. Martin Invitational which was begun to recognize the contributions made to track and field by the longtime former Sooner head coach.

In the J.D. Martin
Joining host Oklahoma in the field are the men's and women's teams from Tulsa, Oral Roberts and Barton County CC as well as the women's team from Oklahoma State.

Teams sending athletes for the combined events include OU, Oklahoma Christian, Southern Nazarene, Oklahoma Baptist, Barton County CC, Oral Roberts, North Texas, Hutchinson CC and Nebraska-York. There will be a women's pentathlon, a men's pentathlon and a men's heptathlon in the combined competition. The two pentathlons will finish on Friday. The first four events of the heptathlon will be on Friday with the final three events scheduled for Saturday.

Getting to Mosier
There is parking available in the eastern most portion of the Duck Pond parking lot. Enter from Brooks and head to the far east end of the lot (the end closest to the Duck Pond). A pedestrian gate on the northeast corner of the John Jacobs Track Facility is open to a sidewalk that crosses over to the entryway of the Mosier Indoor Facility. Because of classes on the Norman campus, only cars of spectators/competitors parked in the east end of the lot will not be ticketed.

Access to Brooks Street is possible from north or south bound Jenkins Avenue (the street that runs on the east side of Oklahoma Memorial Stadium).

At the Notre Dame Invitational
Sooner distance coach Rodney Rothoff and six runners left Thursday morning for South Bend, Ind., and the Notre Dame Invitational. Jackie Dubois and Aja Clark are scheduled to run the women's 5000 at 7 p.m. Friday while the men's distance medley relay, made up of Brayon Brown, Jason Coleman, Salah Hussein and Aldwyn Sappleton, will compete at 8 p.m. Friday.

At the 2004 J.D. Martin
OU's 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. Blanton's time also beat the NCAA provisional standard but he already had an automatic mark to his credit. It was his fourth win in the 60 in four races (two prelims and two finals).

Laverne Jones (400), Silverus Kimeli (mile), Salah Hussein (1000 meter) and Nicola Maye (1000) put their names next to meet records for the Sooners in the meet as well.

Texas-Arlington got a pair of meet records, one in the mile by Kajsa Haglund and the 3000 by Lisa Haglund.

Erin Anderson of Arkansas got an NCAA provisional mark in the pole vault, winning the women's event with a 13-1.50.

The Last Time Out
Defending NCAA 60-meter champion DaBryan Blanton took his first step back to the 2005 meet, posting an NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the event at the 2005 Oklahoma Track Classic. Blanton just missed the provisional standard with the best qualifying time in the prelims with a 6.73. He ran a 6.66 in the final to win the title, just missing the NCAA automatic mark of 6.62, during action at the Mosier Indoor Facility.

Blanton ran on the men's 1600-meter relay at the season-opening meet in Arkansas on Jan. 14 but did not enter any invidual events.

Blanton's win was one of 14 recorded by the Sooners in the home opener. The junior came back two hours later to help the OU men's mile relay win the the title with a 3:21.51. He teamed with a pair of Sooner freshmen, Marcus Pugh and Brayon Brown, and junior Josh Scott. Pugh finished just behind Blanton in the 60 with a 6.74, just missing the NCAA provisional mark of 6.72.

The Texas-Arlington men edged the Sooners, 109-108, and North Texas was third with 67 points in the team standings. North Texas won the women's meet, followed by Texas-Arlington with 129.50, Oklahoma with 112 and Southern Methodist with 47.

The Sooners finished one-two-three in the men's 60 dash (Blanton, Pugh and Daniel Bridges) and the men's 1,000-meter run (Tyler Schmiedeberg, Blake Culp and Stephen Taylor). OU was one-two in the women's 60-meter dash (Kerri Ann Mitchell and Yolanda Goff) and the men's 600-yard run (Aldwyn Sappleton and Brown) but under NCAA scoring rules only two entries per team count toward the team scores.

OU's other winners included Mitchell, who took the title in the 60 and ran the second leg of OU's winning mile relay. She was joined on that winning relay by Goff, T.J. Newton and Stephanie Graves. Schmiedeberg doubled in the mile and the 1,000-meter run. Jackie Dubois won the women's mile and Terrika Warren was the winner of the 400-meter dash. Sappleton took the title in the 600 and the Sooner women, including Catherine Odell, Newton, Clementine McCutchen and Aja Clark, won the distance medley relay. The Sooner men also won the distance medley relay. Making up that quartet were Salah Hussein, Andrew Crabbe, Taylor and Culp.

The Sooners picked up three winners in the field events. Senior Kris Glenn took the men's high jump, clearing 6-5. Lucretia Rimmer won the women's triple jump and freshman Tydree Lewis followed with a win in the men's triple jump.

Next Up
The Sooners will split up next weekend, sending athletes to the Iowa State Invitational in Ames on Friday and Saturday and to the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark., also on Friday and Saturday. OU will return to Norman to host the Sooner Indoor on Saturday, Feb. 19. That will be the final home indoor meet of the season and the final competition before the Big 12 Championships Feb. 25-26 in Lincoln, Neb.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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