Completed Event: Track and Field at TCU Alumni Invitational on March 21, 2025 ,
Final
Track and Field
at TCU Alumni Invitational
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Shump, Alums Head to USA Meet
February 26, 2009 | Track and Field
Feb. 26, 2009
NORMAN, Okla. — Oklahoma freshman Karen Shump and a group of five former Sooners will be in action this weekend at the 2009 USA Indoor Track and Field Championships. The meet held February 28-March 1 at the Reggie Lewis Track & Athletic Center in Boston is the concluding event of USA Track and Field's Indoor Visa Championship Series. The USA Indoor Track & Field Championships is the world's oldest indoor track championship, with the first meet being held in 1888 in New York City.
Competing in the shot put, Shump owns the fourth-longest throw in the United States as she redshirts her first year at Oklahoma. The Media, Pa., native threw the implement a distance of 57-1.50 (17.41) at the Sooner Invitational on Feb. 7 as an unattached athlete. The throw is the second-longest by a collegiate athlete behind Arizona State's Sarah Stevens with a throw of 57-7.75 (17.57). With Stevens not competing in the USA Championships, Shump enters the meet as the top-rated collegiate athlete.
Five Oklahoma alums will join Shump in Boston as DaBryan Blanton (60-meter dash), Tydree Lewis (triple jump), Portia Nash (long jump and triple jump), Toni Smith (long jump and triple jump) and Frankie Wright (400-meter dash) take on the nation's best.
| USA Championships Website |
Lewis, who competed for Oklahoma last year, enters the men's triple jump as the event's No. 2 seed behind Brandon Roulhac of the Shore Athletic Club. The Oklahoma record holder in the indoor triple jump, Lewis' qualifying jump of 53-3.75 (16.25) came on Feb. 14 at the Tyson Invitational. The jump sits at No. 5 in the United States with current Sooners Shardae Boutte (No. 3) and Will Claye (No. 4) also in the top five.
Like Lewis, Smith also graduated from OU within the past year and will compete in both the long and triple jump with another alum in Nash. Smith holds the Oklahoma program record in the event and enters the meet as the No. 2 competitor in the event with a qualifying jump of 44-6.00 (13.56). Nash did hold the OU program record in the long jump until it was broken this year by Scottesha Miller and enters the women's long jump as the No. 6 long jumper.
Blanton, the 2007 champion in the 60-meter dash at the USA Championships, enters the meet as the No. 6 seed in the event with a time of 6.59 and is the OU record holder in the event.
Wright, an NCAA All-American in 2007, rounds out the group of Oklahoma competitors in the 400-meter dash where he is currently seeded seventh with a time of 46.98. The event's top seed, Jamaal Torrence, enters with a time of 46.47 in what should be a very tight race.
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