Sooners Open Outdoor T&F Season

A total of nine runners are headed west and another 34 student-athletes are headed south as the Sooner track and field teams open the 2005 outdoor season.

The group headed west opens competition in the 31st annual Stanford Invitational on Friday. That group is mostly distance runners. The group heading south will leave Friday afternoon for Waco, Texas, and the Baylor/Dr Pepper Invitational. Events in that meet are scheduled for Saturday at the Hart/Patterson Track and Field Complex. Most of the rest of the Sooners are headed to Waco.

The Stanford meet has events scheduled over two days while the Baylor meet is a one-day schedule.

Who's Not Traveling ...
The short sprinters, including two-time NCAA Indoor champion DaBryan Blanton; the pole vaulters, including All-American Scott Martin; and the high jumpers, including NCAA qualifier Jon McMillian, will sit out this weekend's meets. The sprinters are scheduled to open competition at the UTA Invitational while the vaulters/high jumpers will open either next weekend or the following weekend at either the Texas Relays or the Emporia State Invitational.

Another Sooner who will open competition at UTA is All-American Kevin Bookout. He began working out with the track and field team on Monday, March 21, just two days after the Sooner men's basketball team lost in the NCAA Tournament.

A Quick Look at the Meets
More than 4,000 athletes are scheduled to compete in the multiple divisions at Stanford. The prestigious meet is held at Cobb Track and Angell Field and features many of the top high school and collegiate athletes in the country. A limited number of running and field events are scheduled for Friday afternoon. The schedule features open/collegeiate distance races Friday night and Saturday's schedule is a mixture of college and high school events. The teams entered include many of the who's who of collegiate track and field including Stanford, California, Wisconsin, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Notre Dame. Last year's meet produced more than 200 NCAA Division I automatic or regional qualifiers, demonstrating the quality of the field.

While the meet in Waco will be smaller, the quality will be there as well as many teams are doing the same thing as the Sooners, sending entries to multiple meets this weekend. Teams scheduled to have entries in the Baylor/Dr Pepper Invitational include the men and women from Baylor, Drake, Notre Dame, Tarleton State, North Texas, Northwood, Angelo State, Abilene Christian, Paul Quinn, A&M Commerce, Wayland Baptist and TCU. In addition, the Oklahoma State women's team will send entries. Field events open the day in the Waco meet with the first one scheduled for 9 a.m. Running events begin at noon.

The Last Time Out
Junior DaBryan Blanton made the most of the best 30 meters of his career to repeat as NCAA champion in the 60-meter dash on the second day of action at the 2005 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship. The meet was held at the Randal Tyson Track Center on the campus of the University of Arkansas.

Blanton ran a 6.58 in the final, equalling the time he recorded in the prelims, to beat Dusty Stamer of Nebraska to the finish line. Stamer had won the last head-to-head meeting between the two at the Big 12 Championship. The time is one 100th of a second off his career best and OU school record mark of 6.57, a time he posted in the semifinals of the Big 12 Championships last year. The time was a season best for Blanton.

Another Sooner, senior Aldwyn Sappleton, finished eighth in the 800-meter run to earn individual All-America honors in an indoor event for the first time in his career.

Sophomore Scott Martin cleared 18-0.5 on his final attempt at the height to finish fourth in the pole vault in the first day of action. The vault tied for the second best in school history and is a career best for Martin, improving his best by 3.25 inches. Martin became the first Sooner vaulter to earn All-America honors in the indoor meet since 2002 and only the fourth vaulter in school history to clear 18-0 or better.

The OU men finished with 16 points, good for a 12th place finish in the team standings, the Sooners' best team finish since 1997.

Blanton's win was one for the history book. He became only the second Sooner in school history to repeat as a national champion in an individual event. He also is the first in more than 38 years. Bill Calhoun won back-to-back national titles in the indoor 440-yard dash in 1966-67, 17 years before Blanton was born and seven years before Sooner sprints coach Shanon Atkinson was born.

For Sappleton, the finish capped a solid indoor career as a Sooner, one that had produced more than its share of challenges. The senior had earned All-America honors as a member of the indoor 1600-meter relay in 2002 but he had never advanced to the final in an individual indoor event.

Blanton took a huge step toward defending his 60-meter national title with his performance in the prelims. Blanton had a great start and, by his fourth step out of the blocks, had the lead. His winning time was the best recorded in the prelims. The only runner to beat Blanton in a race at 60 meters this season, Dusty Stamer of Nebraska, finished fifth in his heat and was the last qualifier for the final. Freshman Walter Dix of Florida State won the first prelim with a time of 6.60.

Sappleton, who had the best time in the country in the 800 for three weeks, kept his undefeated string in the 800 alive in the prelims. Sappleton ran a 1:49.25 to win his heat. He won the 800 at the Cyclone Classic with a career best and school record time of 1:47.43, won his heat at the Big 12 and won the Big 12 title at 800 meters. His time was the sixth best in the prelims and Sappleton advanced to the final as a prelim winner. It took a quick sprint in the final 50 meters to get Sappleton to the top. Sappleton was sixth when the final lap started. He made his move to the outside and, eventually the win, between the final two curves.

Sophomore Jessica Eldridge, missed advancing to the final in the mile run by .19 seconds. She finished 11th in the preliminaries and the top 10 advanced to the final.

Eldridge was making her fifth appearance in an NCAA Championship since arriving on the OU campus in the fall of 2003. She started in a good position, then fell back to the back of the pack as the runners began to bunch up. The last runner to advance to the final passed Eldridge on the final backstretch and the Sooner sophomore couldn't make up the gap.

OU's final competitor, Jon McMillian, cleared the opening height of 6-10.25 on his second attempt, then failed to clear the second bar, 6-11.75, to finish 13th in the high jump. McMillian, a sophomore, was competing with a sprained ankle on his plant foot which may have had some affect on his performance.

Next Up
OU will travel to the UTA Invitational on Saturday, April 2.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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