Sooner Men Ranked 22nd in National T&F Poll

NORMAN, Okla. The OU men's track and field team were ranked 22nd in the second week of the Trackwire Top 25 list. The Sooners are tied for 22nd with North Carolina. OU opened the season tied for 22nd with North Carolina and Baylor in the first week of the poll April 5.

Arkansas, after winning the 2005 NCAA Indoor title and opening the outdoor season as the top ranked men's team, remained as the top ranked team in the second week. On the women's side, Texas jumped to the top spot, sending Tennessee, the opening week's top ranked team and the 2005 NCAA Indoor champion on the women's side, to third place. South Carolina is ranked second.

The poll projects a hypothetical score for the NCAA meet, factoring in injury reports and NCAA qualifying competitions from across the country. The projection is generated by the Dandy Dozen, a power ranking of the top 12 athletes and relay squads in each NCAA event.

OU finished the 2005 indoor season ranked 12th after opening the season unranked. The poll proved to be an accurate prediction of NCAA finish as the Sooner men finished 12th in the 2005 NCAA Indoor, OU's best team finish since 1997.

The Sooners are one of five Big 12 men's teams ranked in the top 25. Other ranked teams include Texas (tied for ninth); Nebraska (T-16th), Texas Tech (T-20th), and Baylor (T-24th).

OU junior DaBryan Blanton, who repeated as NCAA Indoor champion at 60 meters on March 12, is ranked third on the Dandy Dozen list in the 100. Blanton, who finished second in the 100-meter invitational at the Texas Relays last Saturday, opened the season ranked third.

The factors used to build the Dandy Dozen include 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.

Sophomore Scott Martin is ranked third in the pole vault in the second Dandy Dozen list after opening the season in fourth place. Martin, who finished second at the Big 12 Championships and was fourth at the NCAA Indoor with a career best 18-0.5, finished second at the Texas Relays in section A of the men's pole vault with a 17-8.50 on Saturday. The mark beat the NCAA Regional standard and ranks as the sixth best in school history.

Senior Aldwyn Sappleton is ranked eighth in the 800 for the second week in a row. Sappleton will run his first 800 of the outdoor season Saturday at the 36th annual John Jacobs Invitational. The race on Saturday, scheduled for 6:10 p.m., will feature four NCAA All-Americans, including Sappleton. All have run a 1:47.00 or better in their careers. The NCAA Regional mark is 1:50.70.

Sappleton opened the 2005 outdoor season at the Stanford Invitational, finishing fifth in the 400 in a near career best time, then ran the anchor leg of OU's 3200-meter and distance medley relays at last week's Texas Relays. His anchor leg in the 3200-meter relay helped the OU men break a 10-year old school record and the DMR time was the ninth best in school history. Sappleton finished eighth in the indoor 800 at the 2005 NCAA Championships, earning All-America honors in an indoor individual event for the first time in his Sooner career. He also won the 2005 Big 12 Indoor title in the 800 in a meet record time.

Heading into the fourth weekend of action in the outdoor season, the Sooners have eight NCAA Regional qualifiers -- Kerri-Ann Mitchell in the 100, Jessica Eldridge in the 5000, Jennifer Plank in the pole vault, Kelsey Moore in the high jump, Martin in the pole vault, Jon McMillian in the high jump, Kevin Bookout in the shot put and Tydree Lewis in the triple jump. OU athletes will have the opportunity to compete at home in the 2005 NCAA Midwest Regional meet, to be hosted by the Sooners May 27-28 at the John Jacobs Complex.

OU will host its only home meet of the regular season on Saturday, April 16, when the John Jacobs Invitational returns to Norman. The collegiate portion of the meet wasn't held in 2004 because of ongoing construction at the facility while the high school portion was held at Moore. Field events are scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday with running events set to begin at 4 p.m. following the annual Red-White football game across the street at the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

The meet will feature the nationally ranked men's and women's teams from Nebraska, the nationally ranked men's team from Baylor as well as the Baylor women and perennial junior college power, Barton County. Barton has won the last seven NJCAA men's outdoor titles and the last five women's NJCAA national outdoor titles. Other teams participating include Texas Christian, Texas-Arlington, North Texas, Oral Roberts and Tulsa.

The field also features seven Olympians including former Sooners Michael Blackwood, who competed in 2000 and 2004 for Jamaica, and Laverne Jones, who competed in 2004 for the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The high school portion of the meet will start at 8:30 a.m. Friday with the afternoon session scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. The high school field includes the boys and girls teams from Altus, Tulsa's Booker T. Washington, Broken Arrow, Capitol Hill, Catoosa, Chickasha, Collinsville, Coweta, Edmond Memorial, Lawton MacArthur, Lawton Eisenhower, Guthrie, Idabel, Jenks, Norman, Norman North, Owasso, Sallisaw, Seeworth Academy, Shawnee, Stillwater, Tulsa East Central, Tulsa Union, and US Grant, as well as the boys' teams from Duncan, Empire, Glenpool, Midwest City, Muskogee, Tulsa Memorial and the girls' teams from Moore and Yukon.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooner Men Ranked 22nd in National T&F Poll

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