Completed Event: Track and Field at TCU Alumni Invitational on March 21, 2025 ,

May 27, 2005 | Track and Field
Action begins with the finals in the men's discus and men's high jump at noon on Friday. OU will have entries in both events -- Kevin Bookout in the discus and Jon McMillian in the high jump. Another round of field event finals will begin at 3 p.m. with finals in the women's pole vault, women's hammer and men's javelin. Junior Jennifer Plank is scheduled to compete in the pole vault.
Preliminary rounds on the track begin at 4 p.m. with the women's 400-meter relay. OU has entries in both the women's and the men's 400-meter relays. The schedule on the track continues through the final of the men's 5,000-meter run, one of only two running finals on Friday. Additional field event finals scheduled for Friday include men's shot put, men's long jump and women's long jump. Bookout also will compete in the men's shot put.
NCAA Track & Field Midwest Regional Central
The action resumes Saturday, again starting with field event finals in the women's discus and women's high jump at noon. Senior Kelsey Moore will compete in the high jump. The men's pole vault and men's hammer finals are scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Sophomore Scott Martin and senior Austin Landreth will compete in the pole vault.
Running finals begin at 5 p.m. with the women's 400-meter relay and continue through the final of the men's 1600-meter relays which is set for 8:15 p.m.
Sooner entries in the running events, in addition to the 400-meter relays, include DaBryan Blanton in the 100; Kerri-Ann Mitchell and Yolanda Goff in the 100; Tony Francis in the 110-meter high hurdles; Aldwyn Sappleton in the 800-meter run and Jessica Eldridge and Catherine Odell in the 1500. All will run in preliminary action on Friday except Eldridge and Odell. With only 11 entries, the women's 1500 will be a final only and it is scheduled for Saturday.
Defending Sooner Champion
Sophomore Jessica Eldridge is the defending Midwest Regional champion in the 1500. She will be one of 11 runners in the final in that event on Saturday at 5:15 p.m.
Meet History
This marks only the third year for the regional format to be used in outdoor track and field. All three Midwest Regional meets have been hosted by Big 12 institutions. Nebraska served as the host the first and Texas A&M hosted the second meet.
The regional format is used to determine qualifiers for the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship in 38 events. Only the men's and women's 10,000-meter run, the decathlon and the heptathlon qualify directly to the national meet based on season best marks.
More on the Regional Format
The Midwest Region, draws qualifiers from schools within the states of Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Wyoming.
The other regional sites and the states that feed to that site include East, Manhattan College, host: Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Virginia, Vermont, West Virginia; the Mideast, Indiana University, host: Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin; and the West, University of Oregon, host: Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
What It Means
Simply put, the regional is your ticket to the NCAA Championships in Sacramento, Calif., from June 8-11.
In individual events, the top five finishers at each of the four regional meets advance to Sacramento. The top three relays also advance automatically.
After the regional qualifiers and the qualifiers from the men's and women's 10,000-meter run, the decathlon and heptathlon are put into the NCAA field, the NCAA Track and Field Committee issues at-large invitations to complete the field. A maximum of 544 men and 544 women are invited to the meet.
To qualify for the at-large pool, an athlete has to (1) have competed in the event at the regional meet; and (2) finished in the top eight at the regional. That list is then rank ordered by season best mark, including any marks recorded at the regional meet, and the field is completed. The events will be filled based on the strength of the field, meaning some events may have more entries than others with the 544 total athlete count in effect.
OU's Entries
Name, event, ranking, season best mark
DaBryan Blanton, 100, first, 10.12
Kevin Bookout, discus, 18th, 173-7
Kevin Bookout, shot put, ninth, 59-2.75
Tony Francis, 110-meter HH, 14th, 14.12
Austin Landreth, pole vault, T-22nd, 16-6.75
Jon McMillian, high jump, T-12th, 7-0.50
Scott Martin, pole vault, T-fifth, 17-10.50
Men's 400-meter relay, 13th, 40.44
Tydree Lewis, triple jump, eighth, 50-4.50
Aldwyn Sappleton, 800, 12th, 1:49.63
Jessica Eldridge, 1500, third, 4:25.73
Yolanda Goff, 100, eighth, 11.58
Kerri-Ann Mitchell, 100, seventh, 11.53
Catherine Odell, 1500, ninth, 4:27.35
Kelsey Moore, high jump, 13th, 5-10
Nicole Moore, triple jump, 24th, 40-2.75
Jennifer Plank, pole vault, T-14th, 12-5.50
Women's 400-meter relay, seventh, 44.99
Past Sooner Regional Champions
Senior Austin Landreth was OU's first NCAA Midwest Regional Champion. He won the pole vault title at the 2003 meet. Jessica Eldridge became the second Sooner to win a regional title when she won the 1500 last year.
National Rankings
After ranking in the top 25 for the first five weeks of the outdoor season, the OU men's track and field team dropped out of the Trackwire Top 25 list in the sixth week and remained unranked as a team in the seventh week of the poll (May 18). The Sooners opened the season tied for 22nd with two other teams, were tied for 22nd with one team in the second week of the poll, then dropped to 23rd in the third week of the poll. OU jumped into a tie for 19th in the fourth poll before falling into a tie for 22nd with UCLA, Mississippi and Baylor in the fifth week of the poll
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 for the seventh week. On the women's side, Texas remained in the top spot for a sixth consecutive week.
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 in the poll 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.
OU junior DaBryan Blanton, who repeated as NCAA Indoor champion at 60 meters on March 12, dropped to fourth place in the 100 on the Dandy Dozen list after being ranked second for three weeks. Blanton opened the season in third place and held that ranking for three consecutive weeks. Blanton won the 100-meter dash at the TCU Invitational April 23. His winning time, 10.12, ranks as the best time in the Big 12 and Midwest Regional and is tied for the third best time in the country.
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 moved to fifth in the pole vault. He was ranked sixth in the pole vault in the Dandy Dozen list on May 11 after ranking fourth the week before and third for the three previous weeks. He opened 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, then finished second in the pole vault at the John Jacobs Invitational April 16. Both marks beat the NCAA Regional standard and his mark at Texas ranks as the sixth best in school history. He added a third regional effort at Baylor on April 23 but did not improve his season best with the mark. He competed at the Mean Green Twilight on April 28, passing until the bar reached 17-0.75 before missing on three attempts at the height.
Martin cleared a season and career best of 17-10.5 to finish fourth in the Big 12 Championships on May 14.
After being ranked in the top 12 in the 800 all season, senior Aldwyn Sappleton dropped out of the poll after missing the Big 12 meet with an injury. He was ranked 11th in the 800 in the fifth and sixth polls after ranking eighth the first two weeks of the poll, ninth in the third poll and 10th in the fourth poll. Sappleton qualified for the NCAA Regional meet in the 800 with his time of 1:49.63 at the John Jacobs Invitational on April 16. He finished ninth in the special 800 at the Drake Relays on April 30. 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.
Next Up
Next on the schedule is the NCAA Championship for those who qualify. The NCAA Championships are scheduled June 8-11 in Sacramento, Calif. The top five finishers in each individual event at the regional meet and the top three relays automatically advance to the NCAA Championship. Athletes who finish in the top eight are eligible to be considered for at-large invitations to the NCAA field if spots remain after all automatic qualifiers are added. The field must include 544 men and 544 women, per NCAA rules.