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Track and Field
at Battle on the Bayou
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Sooners Take on the Big 12
February 28, 2008 | Track and Field
Feb. 28, 2008
NORMAN, Okla. -- The Oklahoma indoor track team heads north to Lincoln, Neb., for the 2008 Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships. The event, hosted by the University of Nebraska, will consist of two days of competition on Friday and Saturday.
The No. 6 Oklahoma men's team is one of seven Big 12 men's teams ranked in the top-25 nationally. The Sooners will face stiff competition from No. 7 Texas, No. 11 Texas A&M and No. 16 Texas Tech.
OU returns to the Big 12 Indoor Championships after record finishes in the event in 2007 which saw the men finish third and the women fourth.
Marcus Pugh is Oklahoma's lone defending indoor conference champion. Pugh claimed the 2007 60-meter dash title and is the conference's top-ranked athlete in the event heading into this year's championships.
The action begins Friday at 9:30 a.m. with the 60-meter hurdles portion of the women's pentathlon. Saturday's action begins at 9:30 a.m. with the men's heptathlon 60-meter hurdles.
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RESULTS
Live results for the 2008 Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships will be available at Big12Sports.com. A complete recap of Oklahoma action along with results will be posted on SoonerSports.com shortly after the conclusion of action each day.
RANKED TEAMS
No. 18/26 Baylor (M/W), No. 10 Kansas (W), No. 25 Missouri (M), No. 22 Nebraska (M), No. 6 Oklahoma (M), No. 7/12 Texas (M/W), No. 11/6 Texas A&M (M/W), No. 16 Texas Tech (M).
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SOONER TO WATCH
The defending champion in the men's 60-meter dash, senior Marcus Pugh enters his final Big 12 Indoor Championships in a tie for first in the event with Texas A&M's Gerald Phiri with a top time of 6.64. Pugh is also ranked fourth in the 200-meter dash with a time of 21.12, just behind top-ranked Chris Dykes of A&M's 20.97. Pugh has his sites set on DaBryan Blanton's time of 6.57 in 2004, the Oklahoma school record, as he attempts to claim back-to-back titles.
NCAA QUALIFIERS
With two meets remaining before the NCAA Indoor National Championships, Oklahoma athletes have posted 12 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 10 provisional qualifying marks while Latoya Greaves and Scottesha Miller hold the women's two qualifying marks.
LAST WEEK (Sooner Indoor Open)
Four Sooners highlighted last Saturday's competition at the 2008 Sooner Indoor Open held inside the Mosier Indoor Facility. Leslie Cole, Chip Heuser, Scottesha Miller and Kevin Snyder all claimed individual event titles one week before the Big 12 Championships.
Snyder continued his recent hot streak by finishing first in the high jump. Snyder bested Southwest Christian's Terraence Long and Langston's William Moses with a top jump of 6 feet and 10.25 inches (2.09 meters). It marked the second consecutive week for Snyder to break the 6-10 barrier, jumping 6-10.75 (2.10) at last week's Tyson Invitational.
Miller picked up her second event title of the season, taking the women's 60-meter dash with a time of 7.47. Both of Miller's wins have come in the event, competing at home in the Mosier Indoor Facility. Miller ran away with the event's crown in the J.D. Martin Invitational with an identical time of 7.47.
Cole posted a time of 24.71 in the 200-meter dash to earn the event's title while pole vault Heuser picked up his first win of the year with a season-best vault of 17-1.00 (6.21). Freshman Sam Kranz finished third in the event with a mark of 16-1.25 (4.91).
Toni Smith, whose indoor eligibility is exhausted and was competing unattached, swept the long jump and triple jump titles with jumps of 19-6.00 (5.94) and 42-3.25 (12.88), respectively. Latoya Heath finished second in the triple jump (40-7.75/12.39) while Miller finished third in the long jump with a mark of 19-0.50 (5.80).
D'Andre Fisher ran a personal best of 8.08 to take second in the men's 60-meter hurdles.
Freshman Dominique Johnson posted a personal record of 22-5.25 (6.84) to take second in the men's long jump.
Zach Dawson was second in the men's 600-yard run with a time of 1:11.11.
The woman's 600-yard run saw OU runners finish in three of the top four spots. Tijahnni Newton lead the way with a second-place time of 1:23.99. Amanda Mayfield (1:24.37) and Kristi Cook (1:24.52) finished third and fourth, respectively.
Mikaela Johansson took third in the weight throw with a throw of 53-11.25 (16.44).
Katherine Johnson finished third in the high jump with a jump of 5-5.00 (1.65). Kyle Eckman finished third in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:55.39.
COMING UP NEXT WEEK
Next week a small group of Sooners head to the site of the NCAA Indoor Track & Field National Championships on Friday, March 7, for the NCAA Last Chance Qualifier hosted by the University of Arkansas.
The Sooners will have one last chance to post NCAA provisional and automatic qualifying marks for the National Championships to be held one week later at the Tyson Indoor Track Center.
So far this season Oklahoma athletes have posted 12 provisional qualifying marks and one automatic qualifying mark, led by senior jumper Shardae Boutte's mark in the triple jump.
TOP MATCHUPS INVOLVING SOONERS
The Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships will feature a number of athletes in the top echelon of the national rankings facing off, including showdowns involving Sooners.
The men's 60-meter dash will feature a showdown between Marcus Pugh and Texas A&M's Gerald Phiri, tied for the top billing in the Big 12 and fifth nationally. Four other Big 12 athletes dot the top-20 nationally in the event.
Pugh ranked 11th nationally in the 200-meter dash will take on three athletes ranked ahead of him in the national rankings, led by A&M's Chris Dykes at No. 4.
The 60-meter hurdles will see No. 5 Sheldon Leith and No. 7 Shawon Harris of Texas Tech square off. OU's distance medley relay, ranked 11th in nation, will take on the nation's top-ranked relay in Texas.
The men's triple jump features five of the nation's top 12 jumpers with OU's Shardae Boutte (No. 1) and Tydree Lewis (No. 8) leading the way.
LAST YEAR AT THE BIG 12 CHAMPIONSHIPS
The University of Oklahoma men's and women's track and field teams posted record finishes at the 2007 Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Oklahoma's men were third overall with 80.5 points, the best since the formation of the conference in 1996-97. The OU women finished fourth overall with 74.5 points.
On the men's side, Texas and Nebraska tied for the team title with 93 points each. Texas A&M women ran away with the women's title, beating Texas 141-104.
Marcus Pugh won his first Big 12 title with a 6.68 run in the finals of the 60-meter dash. Pugh also took sixth in the 200, running in 21.16.
Kevin Bookout also won his first Big 12 gold medal after winning the men's shot put with a 61-11.75 (18.89) toss.
The OU men's 4x400-meter relay of Brayon Brown, Zach Dawson, Jacobi Mitchell and Frankie Wright preserved the team's third-place finish as Wright passed on the backstretch of the final leg to finish sixth overall at 3:08.93.
Kristi Cook finished runner-up in the women's 800, timing a 2:08.96.
Toni Smith leapt 43-3.00 (13.18) in the women's triple jump to place second.
Tijahnni Newton ran the second fastest time in the women's 400 final, recording a personal best 54.35.
Jessica Eldridge was third in the women's mile run at 4:42.87.
Sooners finished third and seventh in the men's triple jump as Tydree Lewis jumped 51-5.00 (15.67) and Frankie Green jumped 48-4.75 (14.75).
OU's women's 4x400-meter relay of Shquanda Meylor, Leslie Cole, Jhavonne Pope and Tijahnni Newton was fourth overall at 3:39.59.
Yolanda Goff was fifth in the women's 60-meter dash at 7.41. Goff was sixth in the women's 200 after running a personal best 23.83.
Logan Jones (1:50.83) and Brayon Brown (1:51.04) ran fifth and sixth in the men's 800.
Zach Dawson was fifth in the men's 600-yard run, clocking 1:10.18.
Kevin Snyder was fifth in the men's high jump, posting a personal best clearance of 6-11.75 (2.13).
Katherine Johnson tied for sixth in the women's high jump at 5-8.00 (1.73).
Rob Sorrell was sixth in the men's mile at 4:09.18.
Ashley Storm was sixth in the women's 1,000-meter run at 2:53.64.
Jasmine Still was seventh in the women's 600-yard run at 1:22.36.
Mitch Henry scored 5,246 points to finish eight in the heptathlon.
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 at the Tyson Invitational.
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.
In this weekend's competition Leith will face off against Texas Tech's Shawon Harris as the only Big 12 athletes ranked in the top-20 nationally. Harris is ranked seventh with a time of 7.77.
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 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.
BOUTTE BIG 12 ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Oklahoma's Shardae Boutte was named the Co-Big 12 Men's Track and Field Athlete of the Week by the conference office on Jan. 29.
Boutte shared the honor with James Galvan of Iowa State after claiming the triple jump title in the Arkansas Invitational. Boutte's jump of 52 feet and 11.5 inches (16.14 meters) earned him an automatic qualification in the 2008 NCAA Indoor National Championships.
Boutte had previously received the honor during the 2007 outdoor season after bounding 52 feet, 1.75 inches (15.89 meters), then a personal best, in the triple jump at the Arkansas Twilight.
Galvan shared the honor with Boutte after breaking the Iowa State program record in the 800-meter run with a time of one minute and 48.36 seconds, the fastest in the nation. Sally Kipyego of Texas Tech recieved the women's honor after posting the nation's fastest collegiate time in the 10,000 meters, 9:05.45, at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games.
SEVENTY-NINE TOP-THREE MARKS
Through the 2008 indoor track & field season, 34 University of Oklahoma individual athletes and two relays have accounted for 79 top-three finishes including 25 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 and Mikaela Johansson top the list with four top-three finishes.
Marcus Pugh and Tony Clement both have four top-three finishes with Pugh claiming two titles to Clement's one. Mitch Henry and Kevin Snyder both have three top-three finishes along with one and two individual titles, respectively. Chip Heuser and Jay McIntyre round out OU's title list.
On the women's side Johansson and Scottesha Miller lead with two individual titles apiece. Miller is tied with three other Sooners with three top-three finishes each.
FAYETTEVILLE IS FAMILIAR
The Randal Tyson Track Center is becoming an awfully familiar location for the Oklahoma indoor track & field team. OU opened 2008 on Jan. 11 with the Arkansas Invitational and returned two weeks later for the Razorback Invitational.
The Tyson Invitational on Feb. 15-16 marked the third of the year and Oklahoma will return in one week for the NCAA Last Chance Qualifier on March 7.
Fayetteville is also the host of the NCAA Indoor National Championships one week later, March 14-15.
On top of the indoor season, OU will travel to Fayetteville twice during the outdoor season for the John McDonnell Invitational (April 18-19) and the Arkansas Twilight (May 2).
Saturday, June 13
Friday, June 12
Thursday, June 11
Wednesday, June 10
