Indoor Track Season in Review

NORMAN, Okla. All-time best Big 12 finishes for the men's and women's teams, seven All-Americans (including a program record six women at the NCAA Championships), six individual event records broken and four conference champions a season's worth of accomplishments for OU's track and field teams.

And there is a lot of track and field left in 2007.

The University of Oklahoma men's and women's track and field teams had exceptional indoor seasons under second-year head coach Martin Smith, though it wasn't necessarily an easy ride to the top. The 2007 indoor season brought a mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly.

2007 Schedule

THE GOOD
The celebratory reasons are listed in the lead of this article, but the greatest achievements were those less heralded.

Nearly every Sooner posted a personal best in their respective events and most did several times. Freshmen competed like sophomores and juniors, and sophomores and juniors competed like seniors an important theme for a team that added 42 new personnel during the offseason.

Couple that youth with the stellar student-athletes who signed during November's early period and those who will sign in July and there's much to be excited about concerning OU's future in track and field.

The Sooners added seven All-Americans indoors, increasing Smith's total coached to a remarkable 191 in the midst of his 28th season in Division I athletics, an average of seven per year.

Chip Heuser repeated as an All-American indoors, earning his third consecutive honor after finishing fourth in the men's pole vault at the NCAA Championships.

Toni Smith stepped back into form nicely after missing last year's outdoor season while rehabbing an injury to place fourth in the women's triple jump at the NCAAs and runner-up honors at the Big 12 Conference meet.

Portia Nash pulled the upset victory in the women's long jump at the Big 12 meet before establishing herself as an All-American two weeks later.

Catherine Odell, Leslie Cole, Kristi Cook and Jessica Eldridge became the first Sooner distance medley relay to earn All-America honors since women competed under the NCAA banner (the last time it happened was at the 1981 AIAW Indoor Championships). The quartet also bested the school record en route to a sixth-place finish.

Marcus Pugh overcame the pressure of losing teammate and event favorite Ronnie Pines to, not only win, but, dominate the 60-meter dash at the Big 12 Championships.

Frankie Wright leapt to a personal best (and third best jump ever by a Sooner) in the long jump to win a Big 12 gold medal.

Jhavonne Pope, Leslie Cole, Jasmine Still and Tijahnni Newton combined to break a 17-year-old school record in the women's 4x400-meter relay at the Alex Wilson Invitational on March 3. The squad convincingly set the mark, too, running over two seconds faster than the previous best set in 1990.

The Sooner men tallied 80.5 points at the Big 12 Indoor en route to a third-place team standing, shattering its previous team best of 67.33 and fifth place in 2005.

The OU women also scored program bests at the Big 12 Indoor, placing fourth with 74.5 points. They tied for fourth with 74 points in 2006.

THE BAD
Untimely injuries cost the men's team a shot at its first conference indoor title since 1960 as two of its best athletes went down on the first day of the Big 12 Championships.

Shardae Boutte, one of the nation's best triple jumpers, suffered a broken nose and concussion after colliding with a competitor who mistakenly veered onto the long jump runway in the middle of his first attempt. It was like dj vu as a similar accident took out Dermillo Wise at the 2006 Big 12 Indoor Championships.

Ronnie Pines, the conference's No. 1-ranked sprinter, pulled his hamstring while leading his preliminary heat of the 60-meter dash. A shoo-in to take the conference title and contend nationally, Pines missed the rest of the indoor season.

Kevin Bookout's bid to earn All-America honors indoors was thwarted after he suffered an injury to his hand during shot put warmups. The two-time outdoor All-American still managed put nearly 60 feet to finish 11th in one of the most competitive fields in recent history.

THE UGLY
Weather reeked havoc on OU's track and field schedule throughout the indoor season, forcing the rescheduling of practices and recruiting visits and the cancellation of travel to a few events. Thanks to tireless efforts of Director of Operations Skip Pickens, however, the season survived being a series of logistical disasters.

The team had to cancel participation at its scheduled season opener in Arkansas on Jan. 12 due to an approaching ice storm that could have stranded them for days.

Several Sooners who were schedule to compete at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York on the first weekend of February had their flights postponed and, eventually, cancelled.

Snowstorms delayed the departure of the team's return flight from Ames, Iowa, after the Big 12 Indoor Championships until the next morning.

Fortunately, OU doesn't stray too far from home during the outdoor season and should expect minimal variations to its weekend itineraries.

WHAT LIES AHEAD
Oklahoma's outdoor season opens Saturday, March 24, at the Tulsa Duels. The meet will be a used as a training session for most of the Sooners compete in anger at the Texas Relays (April 4-7) in Austin.

OU then hosts John Jacobs Invitational (April 13-14), a meet that should be more prestigious than in year's past as the field changes from regional colleges to national powerhouses.

The Sooners travel to the newly renovated University of Arkansas track for the John McDonnell Invitational on April 21.

An assortment of Crimson and Cream spreads across the nation the next weekend as Sooners are scheduled to compete on both coasts and at home for the Penn Relays, Stanford Cardinal Invitational and Sooner Invitational.

A return trip to Arkansas for a nighttime meet is followed a week later by the Big 12 Outdoor Championships (May 11-13) hosted by the University of Nebraska.

Preparation then begins on the national stage with the NCAA Midwest Regional in Des Moines, Iowa, May 25-26 and culminates at the NCAA National Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, Calif., June 6-9.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Related News

Related Videos

Sponsors