OU Hosts Final Home Indoor Meet

Feb. 21, 2008

The Oklahoma indoor track team returns home to Norman for the 2008 Sooner Indoor Open. The meet marks the Sooners final competition before next weekend's Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships.

The one-day meet kicks off Saturday morning with the women's weight throw at 10:15 a.m. Running events begin at 12:30 p.m. with the women's mile run.

Parking
Parking is available in the eastern most portion of the Duck Pond parking lot. Enter from Brooks Street and head to the far east end of the lot (the end closest to the Duck Pond).

A pedestrian gate on the northeast corner of the John Jacobs Track Facility is open to a sidewalk that crosses over to the entryway of the Mosier Indoor Facility.

Access to Brooks Street is possible from north or southbound Jenkins Avenue (the street that runs on the east side of Oklahoma Memorial Stadium).

Results
Live results for the 2008 Sooner Indoor Open will be available at www.SoonerSports.com. A complete recap of Oklahoma action will be available on SoonerSports.com shortly after the conclusion of action each day.

Ranked Teams
#21 Baylor (M), #4 Oklahoma (M), #20 Oral Roberts (M)

LIVE RESULTS | SCHEDULE | HEAT SHEETS | NOTES

Sooner to Watch
As Marcus Pugh heads into the stretch run of his final collegiate indoor season, the Jenks, Okla., native looks to place his name atop the OU record book in the 60-meter dash. The defending Big 12 champion in the event, Pugh currently sits third (6.64) behind record holder DaBryan Blanton's 6.57, ran in 2004. Pugh, ranked No. 1 in the Big 12 and No. 5 in the nation will square off against Baylor's Courtney Thomas, ranked No. 12 in the Big 12, Saturday.

NCAA QUALIFIERS
With three meets remaining before the NCAA Indoor National Championships, Oklahoma athletes have posted 11 provisional qualifying marks and one automatic qualifying mark. Triple jumper Shardae Boutte has recorded the Sooners lone automatic qualifying mark, twice breaking the barrier with a 16.14 mark in the triple jump at the Razorback Invitational on Jan. 26 and a jump of 16.48 at the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 16. The OU men have recorded nine provisional qualifying marks while Latoya Greaves and Scottesha Miller hold the women's two qualifying marks.

LAST WEEK (Tyson Invitational)
Oklahoma triple jumper Shardae Boutte became the latest Sooner to put his name atop the OU record books in the second and final day of competition at the 2008 Tyson Invitational in the Randal Tyson Track Complex.

Boutte's jump of 54 feet and one inch (16.48 meters) bested the previous OU record of 53-1.50 (16.19) set by Jerome Douglas in 1997. Boutte's jump also marked the second time of the season to eclipse the NCAA automatic qualifying mark at the event that featured some of the nation's top collegiate athletes at the site of the NCAA Indoor National Championship.

The triple jump mark became the fifth OU program record to fall during the 2008 indoor season. Coming into the weekend Rob Sorrell, Sheldon Leith, Mikaela Johansson and the men's distance medley relay had all claimed program records.

In other OU action, Marcus Pugh recorded an NCAA provisional mark of 21.12 in the 200-meter dash prelims, good for fourth. Pugh did not compete in the event's final.

Sophomore Jacob Boone came in third in the men's 800-meter championship finals with a time of 1:52.63, good for eighth all-time at OU.

Kevin Snyder finished second in the open high jump with a top mark of 6-10.75 (2.10).

Tydree Lewis finished fifth in the triple jump, but more importantly recorded an NCAA provisional mark of 52-7.25 (16.03).

Latoya Greaves finished fifth in the consolation finals of the women's 60-meter hurdles with an NCAA provisional qualifying time and personal best of 8.27. The time ranks second at OU behind Alisha Peel's 8.19 in 2001.

Sheldon Leith took second in the men's 60-meter hurdles consolation finals with a time of 7.84.

The women's distance medley relay team just missed an NCAA provisional qualifying mark by one-hundreth of a second with a fifth-place time of 11:30.01.

Toni Smith, who has exhausted her indoor eligibility and was competing unattached, finished second in the women's open triple jump with a mark of 42-0.50 (12.81).

OU alums Michael Blackwood and Aldwyn Sappleton finished 1-2 in the open 800-meter run with times of 1:49.72 and 1:49.74, respectively.

COMING UP NEXT
Next week the Sooners head to Lincoln, Neb., Feb. 29-March 1, for the 2008 Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships. The 2008 event, hosted by the University of Nebraska in the Bob Devaney Sports Complex, is the conference's 12th edition of the championship.

The event is slated to kick off Friday morning at 9:30 a.m. with the 60-meter hurdles of the women's pentathlon. Men's heptathlon kicks off 20 minutes later with the 60-meter dash.

Running events begin at 2 p.m. with the women's 60-meter hurdles prelims while field events take off at 2:45 p.m. with the men's weight throw.

Saturday's action begins at 9:30 a.m. with the 60-meter hurdles portion of the men's heptathlon. The women's triple jump kicks off the field events at 1:30 p.m. while the final in the 60-meter hurdles is the first running event at 3 p.m.

Live scoring will be provided on Huskers.com and a complete Oklahoma recap will be available after each day of competition on SoonerSports.com.

In the 2007 Big 12 Championships the Oklahoma men finished third while the women took fourth. Both finishes equaled the highest finishes for OU in the history of the conference.

LAST YEAR AT THE SOONER INDOOR OPEN
Several Sooners had their best performances of the season leading up to the Big 12 Championships. Other replicated, or bettered, feats that occurred inside the Mosier Indoor Track & Field Center in 2006.

Nearly one year to the date, Toni Smith broke her own school record
in the women's indoor triple jump en route to victory at the Sooner Open. Smith jumped 43-1.00 (13.13) to break the record she set last year at 42-8.00 (13.00).

Ronnie Pines repeated his personal best in the 60-meter dash with a 6.60 run, equaling his own facility record and setting a meet record, en route to first place in the finals. The run automatically qualified Pines for the NCAA National Championships for the second straight season. OU's Marcus Pugh was second at 6.73.

Texas Tech's Marlon Odom and OU's Sheldon Leith entered the meet in the 60-meter hurdles ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively, in the conference.

Leith ran 7.79 to lead after the preliminary rounds. However, Odom got the better result in the finals, taking the event victory in 7.81 to Leith's 7.83.

Oklahoma's Yolanda Goff ran a provisional qualifying time of 7.31 to lead after the prelims of the women's 60-meter dash. Goff backed up that time with a 7.39 in the finals to earn the event title .

The men's 600-yard run was a battle between native Jamaicans and former Sooners Michael Blackwood and Aldwyn Sappleton. Blackwood earned the race win over Sappleton by .30 seconds with a meet record 1:09.42 run.

Kevin Snyder cleared a personal best in the high jump with a leap of 6-11.00 (2.11). Snyder was second to Langston sophomore William Moses on number of jumps.

Katherine Johnson won the women's high jump with a season best clearance of 5-8.75 (1.75).

OU alum Jerome Douglas (51-3.50) won the men's triple jump over OU's Tydree Lewis (51-0.75).

Jessica Brown posted a personal best pole vault of 12-2.50 (3.72) in her second-place effort.

Kevin Bookout won the men's shot put with a throw of 59-9.00 (18.21), over seven feet farther than runner-up Heath Smith (52-8.25) of North Texas.

OU senior Logan Jones won the men's 800-meter run in 1:52.99.

Catherine Odell (2:15.82) ran second in the women's 800.

RECORDS FALLING
The 2008 indoor season has been a successful one so far for the University of Oklahoma track and field team. One look at the OU record books proves the point.

Five new records have been posted in the 2008 indoor season, four on the men's side and one on the women's.

The men's distance medley relay team started the trend at the Razorback Invitational when it finished second to host Arkansas, but posted a time of 9:42.35. The quartet of Tony Clement, Zach Dawson, Brayon Brown and Rob Sorrell bested the previous mark of 9:42.88 set in 2007 by Brown, Sorrell, Logan Jones and Frankie Wright.

One week later at the J.D. Martin Invitational, one of the most recent additions to the Sooner family, mid-year transfer Mikaela Johansson finished third in the weight throw with a top mark of 54-9.25 (16.69). Johansson's throw bested Katie Webster's previous record of 52-8.00 (16.05), set in 2000.

New York City was the site of the most impressive weekend as far as Oklahoma record books are concerned. Sheldon Leith and Rob Sorrell both placed their names atop the list in their respective events.

Leith kick-started the weekend on the first day of competition in the 60-meter hurdles. After finishing third in the prelims, Leith claimed the title with a blazing finish of 7.73 in the finals, setting a school record, a mark he had previously held at 7.79 with former Sooner Jason Stanley (2000).

Sorrell made the next claim to fame in the Sooner record book in the mile run at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational. Sorrell's run of 4:03.66 topped Salah Hussein's previous mark of 4:04.64 in 2004.

Shardae Boutte was the fifth Sooner to claim an OU record, posting the nation's longest triple jump and Oklahoma's top mark in history with a jump of 16.48.

LEITH ENJOYING BREAKOUT SEASON
With his 60-meter hurdles win at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational on Feb. 8, senior hurdler Sheldon Leith recorded his fourth win of the season in the event.

Currently ranked fifth in the nation, Leith is the top hurdler in the Big 12 Conference, with an NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 7.73, an Oklahoma school record.

On Saturday, Leith will be one of five competitors ranked in the Big 12's top 25 running in the 60-meter hurdles. No. 9 Jeremy Jackson of Baylor and No. 12 D'Andre Fisher, No. 21 Jay McIntyre and No. 25 Mitch Henry, all of Oklahoma, will run in one of three heats Saturday with hopes of posting an NCAA provisional qualifying mark.

CLEMENT CATCHES ON
For someone who didn't begin running distance until the spring of his senior year of high school, Tony Clement is certainly catching on to the sport on the Division I level.

The former high school football player and junior college transfer from Hagerstown (Md.) Community College, Clement has quickly ascended to the top of the Big 12 rankings in the middle distances.

Currently ranked No. 1 in the conference in the 1,000-meter run and No. 3 in the 800-meter run, Clement's times rank No. 2 and No. 4 in the Oklahoma all-time record books. Clement was also a part of the distance medley relay team that broke the OU school record and is currently ranked second in the Big 12.

The season looks to be extended for the promising junior as Clement has NCAA provisional qualifying marks in both the 800 and the distance medley relay.

OU REMAINS IN TOP 10
The Oklahoma men's indoor track and field team remained in the top 10, at No. 6, in the latest national rankings released Wednesday by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

Oklahoma began the year at No. 17 in the polls, which are compiled strictly from the NCAA descending order lists and are released each Wednesday, and climbed to No. 3 on Jan. 30th. Since the release of the preseason poll, OU has not been ranked any lower than seventh in the nation.

Arizona State is currently the nation's top-ranked team followed by the defending outdoor national champion, Florida State, at No. 2 and last week's top-ranked team, Tennessee, at No. 3.

BOUTTE NATION'S BEST IN TRIPLE JUMP
The 2008 season has been plentiful for senior horizontal jumper Shardae Boutte. Boutte enters this weekend as the nation's best triple jumper. Entering the weekend, Boutte has also claimed four individual event titles in either the long jump or triple jump.

The 2007 Big 12 outdoor champion in the triple jump, Boutte opened the year with a strong start in the long jump at the Arkansas Invitational, besting his previous personal record by more than eight inches, jumping 24 feet and 11.75 inches (7.61 meters).

The Razorback Invitational was the site of Boutte's next win as he claimed the triple jump title with an NCAA automatic qualifying jump of 52-11.50 (16.14), a mark more than 10 inches longer than teammate Tydree Lewis' second-place finish.

In front of a home crowd as the Mosier Indoor Facility, Boutte took it one step farther, sweeping the triple and long jumps at the J.D. Martin Invitational. It marked the second consecutive year that Boutte won the triple jump in the J.D. Martin Invitational.

Boutte's jump of 24 feet and 2.25 inches (7.37 meters) was good for first in the long jump while his top triple jump of 51-10.50 (15.81) bested OU's Tydree Lewis, who finished second with a jump of 51-1.00 (15.57), by more than nine inches. It was the second straight meet for Boutte and Lewis to finish 1-2 to in the event after doing so at the Razorback Invitational.

A return to the Tyson Track Complex in Fayetteville, Ark., for the 2008 Tyson Invitational boosted Boutte to the top of the OU record books.

A top jump of 54-1.00 (16.48) sent Boutte to top of the nation's performance list and solidified his intentions to capture the NCAA crown in the event.

SIXTY-FOUR TOP-THREE MARKS
Through the 2008 indoor track & field season, 32 University of Oklahoma individual athletes and two relays have accounted for 64 top-three finishes including 21 first-place finishes.

Shardae Boutte and Sheldon Leith lead all Sooners with five top-three finishes, including four first-place finishes each. On the women's side, Latoya Greaves is tops with four top-three finishes, coming in first once.

Marcus Pugh and Tony Clement both have four top-three finishes with Pugh claiming two titles to Clement's one. Mitch Henry has three top-three finishes along with one individual title. Kevin Snyder and Jay McIntyre round out OU's title list.

On the women's side Mikaela Johansson is second behind Greaves with three top-three finishes, including two titles, a team high. Six female student-athletes are tied with two top-three finishes each. Ashley Hagensick, Jalesa Walker, Scottesha Miller and Jessica Brown all lay claim to one individual title apiece.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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