Sooners Take Step Up in Competition

NORMAN ? Coming off a season-opening meet that went very well, the University of Oklahoma men's and women's track and field teams are headed to the Texas A&M Quadrangular, the next step in the 2015 schedule. According to Head Coach Jim VanHootegem, it is quite a step.

“Imagine you have a team that is headed into its second contest of the season and you are traveling to Duke in men's basketball, UConn in women's basketball or Alabama in football,” the second year Sooner coach explained. “That's what we are looking at on Saturday in terms of track and field.”

Host Texas A&M enters the meet with the Aggie women ranked first in the country and the A&M men ranked second in the initial 2015 dual meet rankings published by Track and Field News. In the preseason rankings released by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, the A&M women are ranked second in the nation and the men are ranked fourth.

Joining OU and Texas A&M in the scored meet are Texas Tech and Arizona State. The Red Raiders will bring a ninth-ranked men's team and a 17^th-ranked women's team in the USTFCCCA polls.

The Aggie men are undefeated in dual meets (8-0) at Gilliam Indoor since it opened in 2009 while the A&M women are 5-3.

Action begins in the meet at noon with the men's weight throw. The final event, in what VanHootegem calls a “fan friendly” meet, is scheduled for 2:35 p.m.

“Every event on the NCAA schedule will be part of the competition in this meet and we will be finished in under three hours. It also will be a scored meet which the fans enjoy,” VanHootegem continued. “A&M has a great tradition in track and field, multiple conference and national titles, and a very educated crowd. This should be a great experience for our very young teams.”

VanHootegem knows about the A&M excellence as he was an assistant coach for Texas A&M from 2004-2013 and was part of seven national titles during that time.

The excellence goes beyond A&M as national champions and All-Americans will be competing for Texas Tech and Arizona State as well.

"Imagine you have a team that is headed into its second contest of the season and you are traveling to Duke in men's basketball, UConn in women's basketball or Alabama in football. That's what we are looking at on Saturday in terms of track and field."
Coach Jim VanHootegem

“We were very pleased with what we saw last weekend in terms of competition. It wasn't perfect so I am looking forward to seeing what improvements our teams have made this week in practice,” VanHootegem added. “We are stepping up the challenges in terms of competition plus you have to add in the fact that we are traveling to compete in the home facility of one of the best programs in the country. That, too, will be an additional test for our student-athletes.

“I want to see what our student-athletes are doing to handle the technical and tactical parts of the competitive experience, how they are preparing to compete. We are looking at things like the pre-meet routines and the sheer competitiveness of a meet. Track and field is unique because you want to cheer your teammates on, and we saw a lot of that last weekend, then you have to go out and compete against a teammate. I want to see how our teams handle that, especially the younger members of our squads,” he continued.

“That's why we go to these meets ? you have to be ready when your name is called and we need to see how they are going to respond. We are building a program that starts with competitiveness in practice. If you compete hard against each other in practice, it sets a high standard and pushes everyone across the board. It builds a great atmosphere as we work together to get better.”

Unlike some duals where student-athletes may experiment with different events, the Sooners have entered competitors in the events they will typically compete in. VanHootegem plans to keep a close watch on the distance races as it will be the first time on the track for most of the top runners from the Sooners' cross country teams from last fall.

“This will be our first chance to see how those top distance runners who competed in the NCAA Regional in mid-November are going to transition to the track,” VanHootegem said. “I think it is going to be very interesting to watch them run in College Station. We are going to keep people in their traditional events as we try to build depth and skill in every event.”

Coverage of the meet will be available online via the SEC Network + or through the Watch EPSN app. To follow the results, visit Flash Results. A complete recap of OU results will be available on SoonerSports.com.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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