Jones, Renton Take Pentathlon Titles

NORMAN – Senior Erin Jones, a sprinter, and junior Tyler Renton, who throws the javelin, came away as the overall individual winners in the second annual University of Oklahoma track and field pentathlon.

After nearly 13 weeks of training, the teams took a break from practice to compete in a unique team pentathlon Tuesday before leaving for the holiday. Unlike the traditional pentathlon, this one featured a 30-yard dash, a standing long jump, a standing triple jump, an over-the-head backward shot put and a forward, between-the-legs throw.

Freshman Payton Stumbaugh finished second for the women followed by sophomore DayeShon Roberson. Stumbaugh was a highly recruited multi-event competitor while Roberson is a sprinter. For the men, junior weight thrower Austin Perry finished second and sophomore triple jumper Hayden McClain was third.

“Long-time Arizona track and field coach Bob Myers started this kind of competition,” Sooner head coach Jim VanHootegem said. “LSU picked it up and it has been added by a lot of other programs. It's standardized in terms of events and we coaches share the results.

“We like to use it to compare people this year to where they were last year or compare where they are after our fall training to where they were when we started,” VanHootegem continued.

“For the coaches, we look at it like our first meet. After this much time practicing, it's good to get an idea of where we are as a team. We can observe who likes to compete, who gets excited about the competition. Finally, we see who our true competitors are and who are the competitors who are out here supporting their teammates.”

The sprinters took the event group title for the women followed by the throwers and the jumper/combined event group. With the top two finishers, the throws group took the men's event group title followed by the jumps-combined event group and the sprinters.

The two teams were put into five groups, mixing all the event groups together. Events were scored like a typical multi-event competition. Individuals were awarded points for their performance in each event. For the event group competition, four athletes counted on each of the five events.

The Sooners open the regular season on January 17 when they host the annual J.D. Martin Invitational. It will be the only home meet of the indoor season.