Throwers Open Outdoor Season

March 19, 2009

NORMAN, Okla. — The University of Oklahoma Track and Field program opens its 2009 outdoor season this weekend as a group of throwers heads up the Turner Turnpike for the 2009 Tulsa Duals. Led by returning All-American Amy Backel, seven throwers will compete against a number of schools including Big 12 foes Kansas State and Oklahoma State. Action at the event kicks off Friday with the hammer throw contested on the campus of Oklahoma State University in Stillwater.

Buck Sullivan, who set the program record in the hammer throw in 2008 with a toss of 195-6 (59.60), and Mikaela Johansson will be the lone OU competitors in action on Friday. The meet will mark Johansson's first outdoor competition as a Sooner after shattering the program record in the indoor weight throw. A transfer from Southeastern Louisiana, Johansson claimed the 2007 Southland Conference title in the hammer throw and will battle the 2008 Big 12 hammer champion in Kansas State's Loren Groves.

An All-American last year in the javelin, Backel will compete in the shot put Saturday, an event she ranks sixth on the OU all-time performance list. Backel will square off against Oklahoma State's Merritt Dietz who claimed All-Big 12 honors in the event in 2008.

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Saturday will also see the OU debut for four Sooner men. Luke Bryant, a redshirt-freshman transfer from Arizona, will compete in the discus while Mark Costello, Gary Jeffrey and Ben Latham all compete in the javelin. Costello and Latham will both begin their collegiate careers after decorated high school careers in Pennsylvania and Connecticut, respectively. Saturday's action marks Jeffrey's first since suffering severe injuries in a bicycle-automobile collision a year ago in Norman.

The three will face off against Kansas State's Cameron Traxson who claimed a fourth-place finish in the event at the 2008 Big 12 Championships.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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