Relay Advances to Saturday Final

AUSTIN, Texas – Day three of the 88^th annual Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays for the University of Oklahoma track and field team was one full of success offset by some disappointments. In the end, it was a women's relay and a discus thrower who took the Sooner spotlight.

The women's 4x400-meter relay, made up by Ama Pipi, Daye Shon Roberson, Daunicia Demerson and Payton Baker, recorded the second fastest time of the day. That time, 3:38.78, moved the Sooners into the 4:05 p.m. final on Saturday.

In the afternoon, the focus shifted to the field events and Chase Sammons took the stage, competing in the B division of the discus. The Edmond, Okla., junior who is competing for the Sooners for the first time this season, recorded a throw of 179-2.00 to win the event. That mark ranks as the eighth best in school history and was about 15 feet better than his season-opening effort a week ago.

Sammons fouled on his first throw, recorded two legal throws, then fouled on his fourth throw. He got his winning throw on his fifth attempt, a throw that was nearly seven feet better than second place. And all of that was accomplished despite the wind conditions.

“Last week was not indicative of what Chase is capable of doing,” assistant coach Brian Blutreich said. “He just had a bad day … it happens. I was very pleased with how he competed today. The weather conditions were less than ideal with the wind direction. We talked about the fact that it wasn't going to be a great day to throw for distance. You need to just go out and beat people. That is exactly what he did.”

The performances of the women's 4 x 400-meter relay and in the discus made the head coach happy.

“I was pleased with the 4x4 … they had a very commanding performance in the prelims and set themselves up nicely for the final,” Jim VanHootegem praised. “I think they're happy with their performance that pretty much matches our best time for indoors. That was a very, very competitive situation. For us to be able to get out in front like that and run was key. We had three Texas runners on that relay (Baker, Demerson, and Roberson) and I'm sure it's nice for them to be able to come back to the Texas Relays and perform like this.

“Chase did a good job in the discus. The wind conditions were a little suspect. In discus, people usually want to throw against the wind and not with the wind. He threw with the wind today, but he had to deal with the competition. Sometimes when the conditions aren't perfect, you're not looking for a PR. You're looking to be competitive and execute -- that's what Chase did. That's nice to get a win there.”

That was a very, very competitive situation. For us to be able to get out in front like that and run was key.
Jim VanHootegem, head coach

Another strong performance came from freshman Hannah Cunliffe. Just two weeks out of her performance at the 2015 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, Cunliffe made a smooth transition to the increased length of the outdoor sprints. She ran an 11.74 to finish second in her heat, the 12^th of 13, and the time was the eighth best posted in the preliminaries.

The rest of the Sooners who competed Friday had mixed results. The women's 4x100-meter was disqualified for a handoff outside the exchange zone and the men's 4x100-meter was dealing with two new team members and the impact that has on handoffs. The Sooners finished with a 41.48.

“It was a little bit of a mixed bag -- both of the relays on the 4x1 side are still developing,” assistant coach Kevin Tyler said. “The women absolutely had the potential to make the final. We need to adjust the marks to resolve the issue that caused the DQ. We had some folks missing on the men's relay and we need them to be competitive. We have more work to do with the exchanges for the men as well.

“The women's 4x4 was excellent as they ran their conference time. They're going into the final ranked number two, so I'm really happy with that. Daye Shon ran an awesome leg, unofficially a 52.90, which is her fastest split ever. Ama, our opening runner, was a little bit tired with the lead off of the 4x4 because she'd already run two 100s. She still did a good job. We're in good shape for tomorrow. We're less than a second behind the leading team, so we'll be competing to win that race,” Tyler explained.

“Hannah just finished off NCAA indoors a couple of weeks ago. She made the final in the 100 and that's a good accomplishment. The time wasn't fantastic, but she really hasn't trained this week because she was sick. It's a good accomplishment as she just need to keep moving forward.”

Garrison LeRock finished ninth in the high jump with a 6-7 and freshman teammate Shonderius Howard tied for 11^th, also with a 6-7. Trae Armstrong and Bennie Wesley finished 26^th and 27^th in the 100-meter dash with 10.71 and 10.72 respectively. Leya Buchanan was 23^rd with an 11.90 and Erin Jones tied for 24^thwith an 11.91 in the 100-meter dash.

The Sooners closed out the third day of the meet with a fifth-place finish in the men's distance medley relay. Allen Eke, Jacob Goldber, Malcom Wankel and Zac Randall combined to run a 9:44.54.

On the final day of the meet, the Sooners will have three women in the discus – Kate Foster and Jess Woodard in the B division at 10 a.m. and Alex Morgan in the A division at 1:30 p.m. Carl Williams will compete in the A division of the high jump at 2:45 p.m. while Avione Allgood and Woodard are entered in the A division of the shot put that is scheduled for 4 p.m. Add in Cunliffe's 100-meter final at 2:55 p.m. and the 4x400-meter relay final at 4:05 p.m. and the Sooners have a busy final day.

“I was very pleased with the combined events earlier in the meet,” VanHootegem added. “It was a nice showing by the men's 4x800 even though we weren't thrilled at how it ended, getting beat at the line by Texas. It's a good rivalry and we want to come out on a better end of it than what we did. Still, I'm pleased with the effort of the guys. This morning was still disappointing. It's not an easy thing to come out and run sprint prelims early in the morning. That's not when sprinters run typically. The best people know how to do that under any conditions and so we need to do a better job. It's been a good performance overall.”

Live results are available throughout the meet at Texas Relays. Additional information is available at the Texas Relays website. The Longhorn Network will have live action Saturday from 1-5 p.m. A recap of OU's results will be available on SoonerSports.com at the end of the competition day.

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Players Mentioned

Avione Allgood

Trae Armstrong

Payton Baker

Leya Buchanan

Daunicia Demerson

Allen Eke

Erin Jones

Garrison LeRock

Ama Pipi

Zac Randall

Daye Shon Roberson

Chase Sammons

Bennie Wesley

Carl Williams

Jess Woodard

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