Sooners Head South to Arlington

March 27, 2008

NORMAN, Okla. -- After a small contingent of Oklahoma athletes opened the 2008 outdoor track & field season last weekend at the Tulsa Duels, a group of 31 Sooners will head south to Arlington, Texas this weekend for the 2008 Bobby Lane Invitational. All of the Invitational's events will be held Saturday at Maverick Stadium on the campus of the University of Texas-Arlington with the exception of the hammer throw which will be held Friday at Southern Methodist University.

Both Oklahoma men's and women's teams appear in the nation's inital outdoor top-25 rankings with the men at 11th and the women 22nd. Both teams are also coming off record outdoor seasons in 2007 in which the men claimed the program's first-ever Big 12 Conference crown and the women finished a program-best sixth in the conference championship.

OU athletes will compete in 11 field events and 12 running events, highlighted by the 200-meter dash which will feature 20 of the 31 Sooners. Oklahoma will also run two teams each in the men's and women's 4x100-meter relays and a single women's team in the 4x400-meter relay.

Defending Big 12 100-meter champion Marcus Pugh will make his outdoor season debut in the event Saturday along with running the 200-meter dash and the third leg of the 4x100-meter relay.

Pugh teams with Jacobi Mitchell as the two returners from last year's 4x100 team that received All-America honors after a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. The same scenario exists on the women's side as two All-Americans from last year's fifth-place 4x100 relay return in Leslie Cole and Scottesha Miller.

Chip Heuser (pole vault) is the final returning All-American competing this weekend in the event in which the honor was earned. Toni Smith, who earned All-American status in the triple jump, will run in the 200-meter dash and on a 4x100-meter relay. Jessica Eldridge earned All-America honors in 2007 in the 1,500-meter run but is not scheduled to compete this weekend.

Friday's hammer throw begins at 2 p.m. Saturday's action begins at 9 a.m. with the women's pole vault and runs throughout the day with the last event scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.

A complete recap of OU action along with results will be available on SoonerSports.com following the conclusion of Saturday's action.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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