Sooners Start Track & Field Season at Home

January 15, 2016 | Track and Field

By: Akilah Laster

NORMAN - While the weather continues to cool down, the Oklahoma track and field teams are about to heat things up as the 2016 season opens with the 15th J.D. Martin Invitational on Saturday.

As the lone home indoor meet for the Sooners, the teams look to take advantage of opening the season on their turf and establish a competitive tone early.

"It's good because, hopefully, you feel a little bit better about competing in the place you train every day," said head coach Jim VanHootegem. "Also, and hopefully, friends, family and supporters can come out to see the team and get to know our athletes. They may read about them online when they follow the results, but to actually go see them in person and their personalities in competition is different."

Daye Shon Roberson looks to have the same All-American success this indoor season as she did during the 2015 outdoor season.

The meet will open with the women's weight throw and long jump at 10 a.m. (CST) followed by the high jump. Men's field events are slated for an 11:45 a.m. start, beginning with the long jump. The running events start at noon with the women's mile run followed by the men. The day closes with the women's and men's mile relays.

OU will host the men's and women's teams from Coffeyville Community College, Grambling, Incarnate Word, Oklahoma State, and Western Texas College, along with the women from Southern Methodist and Central Oklahoma.

"We're ready to put our student-athletes on the track to compete," VanHootegem said. "We talked about expectations during our first team meeting after returning from break. We certainly understand that it may take a meet or two to get into your rhythm.

"We can train and train and train and train, but, at some point, we have to go to a meet and get that feeling," he continued. "Our team went to see the movie Creed and the movie gives you a sense that there's a difference between training and getting into a ring for an actual fight. The thing is every person needs to show their intention. If the result isn't what they wanted because of a timing type of a thing and not a 'you didn't get after it hard enough,' that's okay."

The Sooners are ready to approach their firrst meet with a lot of focus and intent after seeing the movie Creed. Pictured above are throwers Chamaya Turner (left) and Sarah Tolson.

Now in his third year with the program, VanHootegem expects the teams to be completely focused and ready to improve. Returning multiple Big 12 scorers from the 2015 indoor meet, the teams hope to sweep the home opener for the second consecutive season.

"My first year, I felt we had six coaches versus a 100 athletes," said the head coach. "Now, I feel like we have a dozen more assistant coaches because we have team leaders who have been here for two or three years and understand the nature of which we do things. We've gained a lot of 'staff' by having veteran athletes."

Key returnees for the Sooners are outdoor 400 All-American Daye Shon Roberson, who will lead the women's sprints. Roberson looks to have similar success during indoor competition this year. For the men's sprints, Trae Armstrong will be integral to the success of the group as the most experienced runner.

Horizontal jumper Hayden McClain returns after qualifying for the NCAA West Regional last season.

Many of the distance runners, after a strong cross country season, will continue competition in the opening meet. Cross country All-American Jacob Burcham will compete as will Dylan Blankenbaker and others. Elena Arriaza looks to go full force on the track after a difficult cross country season where she was limited by injury. She will compete along with Bryce Perry, Sarah Scott, Belle Wallace and 10 distance entries for the Sooners.

The throws group is looking to remain the Sooners' most consistent and successful area, returning Chase Sammons, an outdoor All-American and indoor conference scorer, and Charles Nguyen, a four-time conference scorer. Avione Allgood and Julia Reedy, both outdoor All-Americans, return as well. Allgood missed the 2015 outdoor season because of injury. That came after the best indoor season of her career to date, highlighted by her fourth-place finish at the Big 12 in the shot put. Reedy shares the program record in the weight throw with a mark of 63-0.00 recorded last season. Sophomores Jessica Woodard and Chamaya Turner will also open their seasons on Saturday and will be two to watch throughout indoor season.

Hayden McClain and junior transfer Baileh Simms will compete this weekend for the horizontal jumpers. Simms comes from Portland State where she was an All-American in the long jump. McClain was a regional qualifier outdoor last season and is the veteran for the men's squad.

Thomas Cheval is a heptathlete/decathlete to watch this season as he looks to make it to the national scene.

Sooner men pole vaulters, Tanner Williams and Everette Favor, return from injuries and will provide leadership for the vertical jumps group that added several newcomers. Senior Rachel Bolton will also add experience as one of three entries in the pole vault for the OU women.

Combined event athletes, Thomas Cheval, Steven Jazdyk and Makayla Stephens, will compete in multiple individual events at the meet to prepare for upcoming heptathlon and pentathlon competition, respectively.

It will be a long day for the Sooners, but after a long training period, they are ready for the guns to go off.

"Some of them are just flat out excited and some are a little nervous, in large part because training has been going well," VanHootegem said. "They have to stay really process-oriented because at the end of the day you have to come back and ask yourself 'how did I execute' more so than 'how fast did I run?'"

A full recap of the J.D. Martin Invitational will be available on SoonerSports.com after the competition. For live results, visit CFPI Timing.