Sooners Ready for NCAA West Prelims

May 27, 2015 | Track and Field

By: Athletics Communications

AUSTIN -- They say familiarity breeds contempt. For the 32 members of the University of Oklahoma track and field team who arrived in Austin early this week to prepare for the 2015 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field West Preliminary Round, the hope is that the third trip to Austin this season will be the ticket to the NCAA Championship. Hard to say but these Sooners are feeling right at home, even in Austin.

For the third and final time this outdoor season, the Sooners brought a squad to compete at Texas' Mike A. Meyers Stadium, looking for top-12 finishes that equal a trip to Eugene, Ore., June 10-13, and the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship. After participating in the Texas Relays and the Longhorn Invitational earlier this season, OU hopes to be a leg ahead of the opponents throughout the three-day competition.

“We should be at a level where there's not that anxiety with the facility and the mechanics of it,” said head coach Jim VanHootegem. “The Texas Relays was obviously a very large meet so our athletes are familiar with the procedures. We need to rely on the athletes to be pretty independent at this point in the season.”

The Sooners will open day one of the prelims on Thursday with 19 entries competing in 11 events.

Chase Sammons, a double qualifier in the shot put and discus, will open the meet for the Sooners at noon.Sammons heads into competition ranked 15th in the discus. While he is focused on advancing, Sammons may also be looking forward to his preferred event, the shot put where his 63-8.25 mark ranks sixth.

“Chase has been a tremendous competitor all year, but he probably likes the shot put more than the discus,” said VanHootegem of Sammons, who won the discus at Texas Relays and the shot put at the Longhorn Invitational. “But for Chase it all comes down to when he's in a competition, he's going to do his best. Chase is definitely a good person to get things started for us.”

Sammons competes in shot put on Friday at 6 p.m.

Julia Reedy and Sarah Tolson will compete in the hammer at 2 p.m. to open things up for the OU women. Reedy's 209-9.25 ranks as the seventh best mark in the competition.

Running events begin at 5:30 p.m. for the Sooners with Belle Wallace racing in the first round of the 1500-meter run. Allen Eke, Jacob Burcham, and Alex Deir will compete in the 1500 for the men at 6 p.m. The sprints take the spotlight with the prelims in the 100 for the men and women. Erin Jones and Leya Buchanan run in the 6:30 p.m. prelim followed by Trae Armstrong and Bennie Wesley in the 6:55 p.m. event.

The Big 12 runner-up, Daye Shon Roberson, will compete in the 400 at 7:20 p.m. on Thursday along with Pipi. Roberson comes in ranked fifth with her career best time of 51.58, the mark she recorded in the Big 12 prelims. Roberson and Pipi also will compete in the 400- and 1600-meter relays on Saturday. Jones and Buchanan complete the 4x100 squad while Daunicia Demerson and Payton Baker wrap up the 4x400 quartet.

The focus will shift to the middle distance events at 8:35 p.m. when Zac Randall and Jacob Goldberg compete in the 800-meter run prelims.

Carl Williams will compete at 6 p.m. in the high jump. He and Wallace are among the eight Sooner freshmen who will be campaigning for a top-12 spot this weekend. Other freshmen competing for OU this weekend are Jess Woodard (discus), Buchanan (100, 4x100), Wesley (100), Ama Pipi (400, 4x100, 4x400), Makayla Stephens (high jump), and Jacob Goldberg (800). With a respectable number of young talent competing, the coaches are happy with the direction the program is headed.

“From a competition point of view, they really aren't freshman anymore. They have been through an entire season and gotten a variety of experiences,” said VanHootegem. “We're not calling them freshman, but certainly we're glad that we have young people in our program to step up and compete at this level.

“I think this team can be a good barometer for where your program is from a mental point of view,” he added. “I think that's where you can start to build a national level program -- having people who early on have that desire to compete in these rounds.”

The first day concludes with the 10,000-meter run at 9 p.m. for women and 9:40 p.m. for the men. Elena Arriaza's time of 34:23.93 ranks 35th among the women entries, while Abbabiya Simbassa (29:28.10) and Eric Graf (29:46.74) head into competition 33rd and 44^th, respectively.

The Big 12 champion in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Brandon Doughty, will take to the track on Friday at 8:40 p.m. Dylan Blakenbaker, who finished third in the Big 12, also will compete in the steeplechase. Armstrong, another double qualifier, will run the 200 prelims on Friday at 8:25 p.m.

The field events are filled with Sooners on Friday. Austin Perry will join Sammons in the shot put on Friday. Three Sooners will compete in the discus at noon on Friday – Alexandra Morgan, Jess Woodard and Kate Foster – and Charles Nguyen will be in the hammer throw at 2 p.m. Stephens will compete at 6 p.m. in the high jump.

The schedule Saturday features several field events including the Big 12 champion Garrett Snow, Tyler Renton and T.J. Noonan in the javelin at noon; Elizabeth Herrs, who enters the meet ranked first in the javelin, at 5 p.m.; Hayden McClain in the triple jump at 6 p.m., and Woodard, another double qualifier, in the shot put at 6 p.m. The women's 400- and 1,600-meter relays are on the slate for Saturday evening – the 400 relay at 6 p.m. and the 1,600 relay at 9:25 p.m.

Also on the Friday and Saturday schedules are the quarterfinal rounds of running events that started the meet in the first round for the Sooners. They include the 100-, 200-, 400-, 800- and 1,500-meter events. Top-12 finishers earn trips to the NCAA Championship in Eugene June 10-13.

“This meet can't be treated as a destination meet,” said the second-year head coach. “Last year, Ashley Kowalewski — who is now a student-coach -- came in the prelim meet ranked 37^th. She finished in the top 12 in the javelin and found herself at the NCAA two weeks later.

“When you come to this meet, it's not just the destination of prelims. It's the idea that you're put in this situation that you have your best chance to make it to Oregon (for NCAA nationals),” VanHootegem continued. “It's like in the NCAA basketball tournament, the most exciting rounds are in the regional play.”

The last time the Sooners stepped into Meyers stadium was in early May. They walked away with seven top-three finishes, including wins in the men's shot put and javelin, and 10 PRs on the day. The stakes are higher this time, but when all is said and done the Sooners are preparing to head west.

West prelim results are availablle at branchsports.com. Daily recaps of OU events will be available at SoonerSports.com. Live webcasts are available each day at TexasSports.com. It begins at 4:15 p.m. (CDT) on Thursday and noon (CDT) on Friday and Saturday.