Completed Event: Track and Field at Battle on the Bayou on April 3, 2026 ,
Final
Track and Field
at Battle on the Bayou
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Track Opens Outdoor Season at Tulsa
March 25, 2006 | Track and Field
NORMAN, Okla. -- The University of Oklahoma men's and women's track and field teams open outdoor competition Saturday, March 25, at the Tulsa Invitational.
The Sooners' confidence is riding high after successful performances throughout the indoor season, especially at the Big 12 Indoor Championships where the women recorded a program best fourth-place finish and scored 61 points.
Many of OU's student-athletes will be competing in events outside their speciality and use the meet as a training session.
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Getting to Know the Sooner Coaching Staff
Martin Smith was announced as Oklahoma's sixth head track & field coach on June 30, 2005, and quickly assembled impressive staff of assistants to usher in the new era of Sooner track & field.
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Who to Watch ... Amy Backel
Freshman heptathlete Amy Backel will compete in four events this weekend at the Tulsa Invitational -- the 100-meter high hurdles, 200-meter dash, high jump and, most notably, javelin throw.
Backel's potential in the javelin throw surpasses the 154-8.00 (47.14 meters) school record owned by Katie Webster (1998).
In fact, Backel's personal best, set July 2005 at the Keystone Summer Games in Camp Hill, Pa., of 144-5.00 (44.02) is better than the NCAA regional qualifying standard and would rank sixth on OU's all-time performance list.
Backel, who competed in only two heptathlons before entering college, has a best score of 4,429 points, also set at the 2005 Keystone Summer Games, which would rank eighth on OU's all-time performance list. Her other performance, which earned 4,327 points, would rank ninth.
Next on the Calendar
The Sooners will compete Saturday, April 1, at the UT-Arlington Invitational.
In the Polls
The first outdoor polls of 2006 will be released Monday, March 27.
Bookout Returns to Team
All-American Kevin Bookout returns to the Sooner track and field team after completing his final season with OU's men's basketball team.
Bookout, who has junior eligibility in track and field after sitting out the 2004 season while recovering from shoulder surgery, will be able to focus complete on the shot and discus for the next two years as he prepares for the Olympic trials.
The Stroud, Okla., native recorded a personal best in the shot put (61-9.50) en route to a seventh-place result at the NCAA Outdoor Championships last season. He placed eighth in 2003.
John Jacobs Field Shaping Up
When OU hosts the 37th annual John Jacobs Invitational, Saturday, April 15 in Norman, it should showcase no fewer than three former Olympians.
Jamaica's Michael Blackwood (400-meter dash) and Danny McFarlane (400-meter hurdles) and Virgin Islands native Laverne Jones (100 and 200) will use the meet to prepare for the world circuit, which traditionally begins the first week of May.
Blackwood is a veteran of two Olympics (Sydney, 2000, and Athens, 2004) as a member of Jamaica's 4x400-meter relay, which won bronze in 2000. Blackwood also placed eighth overall in the 400-meter dash in 2004.
McFarlane also competed in two Games, running the relay with Blackwood in 2000 as well as finishing eighth in the 400. In 2004, he won silver in the 400-meter hurdles. He was also a member of OU's 1997 national champion 4x400-meter relay.
Jones became the first Sooner woman to compete in the Olympics in 2004, running the 100- and 200-meter dashes. She holds OU records in the indoor 60 and 200 and outdoor 100 and 200.
Combined, the trio won 20 All-America certificates.
The field may also contain notable Sooner alumni DaBryan Blanton and Aldwyn Sappleton.
NCAA Indoor Championships Revisited
Sophomore pole vaulter Chip Heuser took fifth place at the NCAA National Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Heuser earned his first All-America honor after clearing a personal best of 17 feet-10.50 inches (5.45 meters) at the Randal Tyson Track.
“After I cleared 5.35, I was pretty confident,” Heuser said. “I missed my first attempt at 5.45 so, on the second, I just gripped it and ripped it. I wasn't really thinking about anything. I just hit my marks.
“I didn't really change anything in my approach all night. You don't want to mess around at the national championships. I just got up on a big pole and jumped some bars.”
Oregon's Tommy Skipper won the national title with a best of 18-6.50 (5.65).
Heuser became just the fourth Sooner All-American in the indoor pole vault event, joining Tim McMichael (1989), Michael Westlund (2001 and 2002) and Scott Martin (2005). His mark ranks sixth on OU's all-time performance list.
“When he cleared his first attempt at 5.35 (17-6.50), he was in the driver's seat,” OU assistant coach Mark Napier said. “I told him before the meet he had to clear 5.45 to be in the top five and that's what it came down to.
“He's come a long way in the past year. For someone who was told he would never vault again after breaking his wrist last year, and overcoming the physical and mental challenges that come along with that, fifth place was a big step for him.”
The result concludes a successful indoor season for the Louisville, Ky., native, who finished runner-up at the Big 12 Indoor Championships.
OU's women's distance medley relay finished just out of a scoring position in ninth. The team of Catherine Odell, Tijhanni Newton, Kristi Cook and Jessica Eldridge ran the combined 4,000-meter distance in 11:28.90.
Neither of Oklahoma's sprinters were fast enough to make it to the final rounds.
Ronnie Pines placed 13th overall in the men's 60-meter dash prelims, clocking in at 6.74. Yolanda Goff took 16th in the women's 60, running 7.37.
However, both were quicker than at the Big 12 Indoor Championships, when they placed sixth and fourth, respectively.
Big 12 Leftovers
The OU women's track and field team recorded its best ever score, 61 points, and finish, tied for fourth, at the Big 12 Indoor Championships. The OU women placed 11th in 2005 with 21.5 points.
The OU women won two events at the Big 12 Indoor for the first time in history with the help of Jessica Eldridge, who won the mile run on Saturday after anchoring the distance medley relay win on Friday. The Sooner women had previously won only three event titles total at the meet (Staneisha Bell, 60-meter dash, 2000; Janel Hayes, long jump, 2001; and Leslie Dunlap, pole vault, 2002).
The women's DMR win was OU's first conference relay title since the DMR won the Big Eight Indoor Championship in 1994. The OU DMR had also won indoor conference titles in 1981, 1991 and 1992.
Eldridge's 12.5 points was the third best effort by a Sooner woman in the 10-year history of the Big 12 Indoor. Laverne Jones scored 16 from runner-up finishes in the 60- and 200-meter dashes in 2004 and 14 from a runner-up in the 60 and third in the 200 in 2003.
In 2006, seven men's and seven women's entries have surpassed the provisional qualifying standard. Only five Sooners were eligible to compete for the 2005 NCAA Indoor Championships.
The OU men, who returned only 21 points from the 2005 Big 12 Indoor team, scored 40 en route to a 10th-place overall finish.
The 2005 men scored 67.33 points from 35 entries, including two relays (1.92 points per entry). The 2006 men scored its 40 points from just 14 entries (2.86 per entry).
Nine of OU's 10 men who participated scored points in 2006. Last year, 12 of 25 Sooner men scored points.
The 2005 women scored 21.5 points from 32 entries (0.67 per entry). The 2006 women scored 61 from 17 entries (3.59 per entry).
Eight of OU's 12 women scored points in 2006. Three of the four who did not were true freshmen. In 2005, 10 of 20 athletes, including two relays, scored points. Without the relays, only four OU women would have scored points.
Four women who did not score in an individual event in 2005 Odell, Rimmer, Newton and Goff combined for 21 points in individual events in 2006. Odell and Newton also ran legs on the winning DMR.
Tijahnni Newton improved the most individually between 2005 and 2006. Last year, Newton was 18th overall in the women's 400-meter dash after running a 1:01.47 in her preliminary heat. This year, she finished second in her heat with a personal best 55.08 run and placed sixth overall.
By event, the women's horizontal jumps improved the most over last year's group. In 2005, zero points were scored from a combined six athletes in the women's long and triple jumps. In 2006, OU's three athletes in the horizontal jumps combined for 21 points, including Toni Smith's second-place leap in the triple and Portia Nash's third in the long jump.
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Jessica Eldridge had one of the most outstanding performances in OU women's track and field history at the Big 12 Indoor Championships.
The junior from Broken Arrow, Okla., anchored the women's distance medley relay on Friday to a five-second victory over Baylor, which entered the meet ranked No. 1 in the conference.
Saturday, Eldridge ran smart and strong in her victory in the women's mile run.
“I wanted to be smart and have confidence in myself in the race,” Eldridge said. “The conference championship was a goal I set and accomplished. I never underestimate my competition, and I think it was a good field.”
The Sooner scored 12.5 points -- 10 for the mile win and a 2.5 share for the DMR victory. She tied for sixth among individual scorers at the meet.
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Run Ronnie Run
Ronnie Pines made a quick impact among the Sooners' sprint corps.
The junior college transfer owned the fastest collegiate time in the nation for 20 days after he ran 6.60 the 60-meter dash on Feb. 4 at the J.D. Martin Invitational in Norman.
His mark was beaten only by Baylor's Jacob Norman, who ran 6.58 during the preliminary rounds of the Big 12 Indoor.
Pines' run broke his own meet record and two-time national champion DaBryan Blanton's facility record.
Pines placed sixth at the Big 12 meet and 13th at the NCAAs.
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Chip on his Shoulder
After breaking his wrist and missing the entire 2005 season, sophomore pole vaulter Chip Heuser broke through at the NCAAs, placing fifth and becoming just the fourth Sooner to earn All-America honors in the indoor event.
On the heels of a runner-up finish at the Big 12 Indoor, Heuser, the 2004 USA Junior National champion, cleared a personal best of 17-10.50 (5.45 meters) at the NCAA meet.
He also jumped 17-8.50 (5.40 meters) en route to winning the event at the J.D. Martin Invitational and placed second at the Big 12 Indoor Championships with a jump of 17-7.00 (5.36).
The Louisville, Ky., native holds the Kentucky state high school and national Catholic high school indoor and outdoor records. The 2003 Kentucky High School Athlete of the Year also led his high school, St. Xavier, to three straight state track & field titles.
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Odell Coming of Age
If you need one sure thing, count of Catherine Odell, who has become the example of stablility and consistency.
Last season, the Enid, Okla., native had no signs of a sophomore slump as she became the Sooners' most improved distance runner and qualified for the national outdoor championships in the 1500-meter run.
After redshirting during the cross country season while getting used to new head coach Martin Smith's training program, Odell was on fire to begin 2006, putting the pressure on six-time national qualifier Jessica Eldridge during the first two meets of the season.
She surprised the field when she ran the fastest time during the prelims of the 1,000-meter run, just a short time before running the opening leg of the conference championship-winning distance medley relay.
Odell placed third in the finals of the 1,000 which was quite an improvement after finishing 12th in 2005.
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Cooking Up Success
Among the surprises to come out of the indoor season was junior Kristi Cook's performances in the 800-meter run.
After placing sixth at the Razorback Invitational, Cook put herself on the watch list of possible Big 12 scorers.
She did not disappoint as she placed seventh, running the four-lap race in 2:13.65. She also ran the third leg of the Big 12-winning distance medley relay.
Cook was also the 800-meter leg of OU's distance medley relay at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational on Feb. 3. With its 11:14.63 run, the relay broke the school record by over 15 seconds and ran under the NCAA provisional qualifying standard for the first time in program history.
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Newton's Laws of Motion
Tijahnni Newton battled injuries as a senior at Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and homesickness as a freshman at OU.
In 2006, however, Newton seems to be regaining her stride as she has improved dramatically in a year's time and recovering the form that made her one of SoCal's hottest prospects.
The sophomore finished sixth in the 400 at the Big 12 Championships, running 55.50 in the finals this season after placing 18th in 1:01.47.
In fact, her season best in 2005 was a meager 58.08. Her slowest this season: 56.66, run on a flat oval.
Newton has also spurred the women's distance medley relay to new levels, running the 400-meter second leg. The DMR of Catherine Odell, Newton, Kristi Cook and Jessica Eldridge broke the previous school record set in 2004 by over 15 seconds.
The only member of the 2006 DMR not on the 2004 version? You guessed it...Tijhanni Newton.
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