Sooners Open NCAA Competition

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Under cloudy skies, frequent rain showers and temperatures in the 60s, the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships are scheduled to open Wednesday afternoon on the campus of Sacramento State University. In the field will be seven Sooner individuals and two relays whose ultimate goal is a national championship.

The men's and women's 400-meter relays are the first to take the track with the first round in those events scheduled for 3:45 p.m. and 4 p.m. (PDT) respectively. At 5:40 p.m., The men's relay includes Marcus Pugh, DaBryan Blanton, Daniel Bridges and Josh Scott with Chason Lane as the alternate. The women's relay foursome is Kerri-Ann Mitchell, Yolanda Goff, Ashley Harris and Larica Urbina.

Blanton begins his quest for a first NCAA outdoor title in the 100 after winning the 2004 and 2005 indoor titles at 60 meters. The first round of the women's 100, featuring Mitchell and Goff, is scheduled for 5:55 p.m. Semifinal rounds in those races will be held later Wednesday with the men's set to go at 7:15 p.m. and the women scheduled for 7:20 p.m. The finals in the 400-meter relays and 100-meter dashes will be on Friday.

The last two Sooner competitors on the first day will be senior Austin Landreth and Kevin Bookout. The qualifying round of the men's pole vault is set for 6:30 p.m. while the qualifying round of the men's shot put is scheduled for 8 p.m. The finals in those events will be on Friday.

The last two Sooners to compete in the NCAA will take to the track on Thursday. Sophomores Jessica Eldridge and Catherine Odell are scheduled to run the 1500 at 8 p.m. (PDT). It marks the first time in school history for a pair of Sooner women to qualify in the 1500. The final in the 1500 is set for Saturday.

OU had five automatic qualifers, based on finishes at the NCAA Midwest Regional. The Sooners added two relays and two individual entries when at-large entries were added earlier this week.

The Sooner Qualifiers
Junior DaBryan Blanton won the 100-meter dash title Saturday night, his second in three years, to lead the OU group. Jessica Eldridge finished second in the 1500 and teammate Catherine Odell was right behind her in third place. Austin Landreth shook off a bit of a slump and finished third in the pole vault to punch his ticket for Sacramento and Kevin Bookout was fourth in the shot put.

OU's at-large entries include the men's 400-meter relay which finished fourth. That quartet included Marcus Pugh, Blanton, Daniel Bridges and Josh Scott with Chason Lane as the alternate. The women's 400-meter relay finished fifth to earn an invitation. That foursome included Kerr-Ann Mitchell, Yolanda Goff, Ashley Harris and Larica Urbina. Goff, who finished sixth in the 100, and Mitchell, who was seventh in the 100, also were added to the field in that event.

OU's Entries
Name, event, ranking, season best mark
DaBryan Blanton, 100, third, 10.12
Kevin Bookout, shot put, 25th, 60-6.75
Austin Landreth, pole vault, T-13th, 17-5
Men's 400-meter relay, 13th, 39.61
Jessica Eldridge, 1500, 13th, 4:20.74
Yolanda Goff, 100, T-27th, 11.58
Kerri-Ann Mitchell, 100, T-24th, 11.53
Catherine Odell, 1500, 24th, 4:23.74
Women's 400-meter relay, 17th, 44.72

A Familiar Venue
This marks the third trip to the Sacramento facility for DaBryan Blanton in three years. He qualified for the 2003 NCAA meet and ran in the U.S. Olympic Trials at this track last July. For Austin Landreth and Kevin Bookout, this track hosted the meet the last time they qualified for the NCAA Outdoor competition.

Noteworthy Year
The total of 13 Sooners who have qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships marks the most individuals to qualify for the outdoor championship since the 2001 season. OU sent 13 to the 2000 and 2001 championships but saw the number drop to four in 2002, seven in 2003 and five last year.

It is the first time in school history for the Sooner women to qualify two runners in the 1500 for the NCAA meet. This marks the first time since 2000 for the women to qualify in the 400-meter relay and the first time since 1997 for the men to make the 400-meter relay field.

The group making the trip to Sacramento also marks the highest number of individual qualifiers since the 2001 season. OU has seven athletes in individual events in the 2005 field. During the 2001 championship, OU athletes were entered in 10 individual events, the most since Jill Lancaster and Rodney Price were named co-head coaches of the Sooner program.

Past Sooner National Champions
The Sooner men have won eight national outdoor titles in individual events and two relay national championships. Tim McMichael was the last Sooner man to win a national title. He won a pole vault NCAA title in 1989. The men's 1600-meter relay was the last relay to win a title. OU won that title in 1984, just two months after winning the NCAA Indoor title in the mile relay. The Sooners were the first team in NCAA history to win both the indoor and outdoor titles in the same academic year.

The Sooner women have won two NCAA titles, both in the 5,000-meter run. Kay Gooch won the 1993 title after Monique Ecker won the 1992 championship.

Sooner All-Americans
Again, DaBryan Blanton leads the way. The Forney, Texas, junior has earned All-America honors in the indoor 60 three times and has won the last two national titles in that event. He also earned All-America honors in 2003 in the outdoor 100. He missed the 2004 meet after suffering an injury at the Big12 meet that eventually forced him to scratch from the field at the regional meet.

Kevin Bookout finished eighth in the shot put in the 2003 NCAA Outdoor to earn All-America honors. He missed the 2004 outdoor track season after shoulder surgery. In fact, it was at the 2003 NCAA Outdoor meet that Bookout recorded his career best in the shot put finals in 2003.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors