Cheval and McClain Earn Big 12 Titles

Saturday, February 27

Ames, Iowa

11:00 AM

University of Oklahoma

Big 12 Indoor Championships

February 27, 2016 | Track and Field

By: Akilah Laster

AMES, Iowa - Winning can be all the sweeter when it comes after some adversity. Just ask Oklahoma's Thomas Cheval and Hayden McClain.

A win by any amount is still a win, and Cheval, a junior, earned the heptathlon title five points ahead of the field at the Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday in Ames, Iowa. After he trailed Iowa State's Taylor Sanderson by 19 points going into the final three events, the OU record-holder zoned in.

Cheval recorded his third career best of the weekend in the pole vault with a 14-10.75 effort to place fifth. It proved to be the difference-maker. It was the only event Cheval finished ahead of Sanderson (eighth in pole vault) on Saturday.

Cheval placed fourth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.31) and seventh in the 1,000-meter run (2:52.85). By comparison, Sanderson finish third in both those events.

Thomas Cheval's PR performance in the heptathlon pole vault proved to be crucial as he won the Big 12 title by five points.

Although the Sooner leader came into the meet as the top-ranked Big 12 entry, he would have to prove he belonged there to Sanderson, the 2015 runner-up. Last season, Sanderson bested Cheval by 15 points.

Steven Jazdyk became a two-time conference scorer with a fifth-place finish on Saturday and moved to fifth all-time at OU. He finished eighth in 2015.

"In some sense, Thomas only had a good day in two of seven events, but that's a testament to his character in that a bad event came and he got ready and plugged away at the next event," said head coach Jim VanHootegem. "There's something when you can take a bad day and turn it into something good. Again it's a thing of character and I give him a lot of credit for that because he never stopped fighting."

Heptathlon Marks and Points ^{_{(in order of events; mark, points)}}
Event	Thomas Cheval	Steven Jazdyk	Taylor Sanderson
60m	7.10, 847	6.94, 904	7.07, 858
Long Jump	23-4.00, 840	21-2.75, 691	23-0.75, 821
Shot Put	42-1.25, 657	41-3.25, 642	42-1.25, 657
High Jump	6-4.75, 758	5-9.75, 602	6-6.00, 785
60mH	8.31, 905	8.39, 886	8.25, 920
Pole Vault	14-10.75, 772	15-2.75, 886	13-7.00, 656
1,000m	2:52.85, 736	3:06.97, 598	2:45.49, 813
Total Points	5,515	5,125	5,510

In the case of McClain, it was also just a matter of time. The junior earned his first Big 12 title in the triple jump after finishing in second in 2013 and '14. McClain entered the weekend ranked 13th on the NCAA qualifying chart and second in conference, but changed the storyline on Saturday.

His winning mark of 52-6.75 came on his second attempt and was nearly a foot farther than TCU's Scotty Newton, the runner-up.

"He did a great job," VanHootegem said. "It was a textbook example of what he's capable of. He managed to get a big jump early and no one came close to threatening it. He is just consistently getting better and that's what leads to great performances."

OU Field Events Results- Day 2 ^{_{(in order of events)}}
Event	Athlete	Mark	Place(*-scored, point)
Triple Jump (M)	Josh Foster	44-2.50	11th
	Hayden McClain	52-6.75	1st*, 10
	Marcus Mitchell	46-10.75	7th*, 2
	Greg Vann	45-8.50	9th
Shot Put (W)	Avione Allgood	52-2.00 (PR)	6th*, 3
	Chamaya Turner	49-10.00	8th*, 1
	Jess Woodard	55-7.00 (PR)	3rd*, 6
Triple Jump (W)	Baileh Simms	37-2.50	15th
	Makayla Stephens	40-0.50	8th*, 1
	Nay Strickland	39-5.00 (PR)	10th
Shot Put (M)	Chase Sammons	60-11.25	4th*, 5
High Jump (M)	Shonderius Howard	6-6.25	11th
	Garrison LeRock	6-6.25	12th
	Carl Williams	6-10.25	5th*, 4

Freshman Marcus Mitchell (46-10.75) also scored in the triple jump with a seventh-place effort in his conference debut.

Saturday' highlights included multiple trips to the stage as the Sooners earned numerous top-eight finishes. The men tallied 82 points en route to a fifth-place conference finish. The women finished eighth overall collecting 57.5 points.

OU's competitors in the field events combined for 32 points Saturday to continue their efforts from Friday. OU's shot put quartet recorded impressive performances that amounted to 15 points.

Jess Woodard entered competition on the bubble for a national bid and used that as motivation to record two PRs in the shot put. She will likely move back into the top 16 on the NCAA chart. Woodard entered the weekend 18th nationally and finished third in the conference meet with a 55-7.00 mark.

Woodard was one of three Sooner entries in the women's division of the shot put, along with Avione Allgood, who finished sixth, and Chamaya Turner, who came in eighth. They totaled 10 points to add to the women's team score.

Chase Sammons closed the shot put for the group recording a 60-11.25 to finish fourth.

"There was a lot of enthusiasm in the women's shot put," the third year head coach said. "It was great seeing Chamaya get in there and score. And it was obviously, a fantastic day by Jess. I saw when she calmly threw her first PR and I knew she was ready to pop the big one. Hopefully, that puts her in the national meet as well."

Jess Woodard recorded two PRs (55-7.00 was her best) on Saturday in the shot put to potentially secure an NCAA bid.

In her triple jump debut, Makayla Stephens finished eighth after earning a 40-0.50. That mark put her at ninth on OU's all-time top-10 list. Freshman Nay Strickland also recorded a PR in the event on a 39-5.00 effort.

"For her to compete the way she did in a competition she'd never competed in before shows that she's thinking like an athlete," VanHootegem said. "I told her I believed that she could do it."

The Sooners also posted several strong running performances throughout the day.

The OU women's 1600-meter relay foursome of Ama Pipi, Daye Shon Roberson, Daunicia Demerson and Payton Baker finished second overall and moved to the same position on OU's all-time list with a best time of 3:36.45.

Pipi, Roberson and Demerson also picked up individual medals on Saturday. Roberson (23.18) and Pipi (24.00) finished fourth and seventh in the 200, respectively. Demerson recorded a PR in the 600-yard race with a time of 1:22.85 to finish fifth.

Roberson had a rough start Saturday after stumbling in the beginning of the 400-meter final and was unable to finish. She went into the conference meet ranked second.

Kelsey McKee posted a PR in the 1,000-meter to finish fourth and add five points to the women's score.

Running Event Results ^{_{(in order of events)}}
Event	Athlete	Mark	Place (*-scored, points)
60m (M)	Trae Armstrong	6.72	3rd*, 6
Mile (W)	Belle Wallace	4:55.40	8th*, 1
Mile (M)	Allen Eke	4:11.97	2nd*, 8
	Jacob Burcham	4:12.22	3rd*, 6
600y (W)	Daunicia Demerson	1:22.85	5th*, 4
400m (W)	Daye Shon Roberson	DNF
1,000m (W)	Kelsy McKee	2:51.65 (PR)	5th*, 4
800m (M)	Jacob Goldberg	1:51.51 (PR)	3rd*, 6
200m (W)	Daye Shon Roberson	23.18	4th*, 5
	Ama Pipi	24.00	7th*, 2
3,000m (W)	Elena Arriaza	9:45.46	14th
	Abbey Mace	10:31.87	40th
	Hailey Redwine	10:07.10 (PR)	34th
	Sarah Scott	10:10.79	35th
	Brittany Tretbar	9:45.05 (PR)	12th
3,000m (M)	Eric Alldritt	8:55.65	32nd
	Dylan Blankenbaker	DNF
	Alonzo Chavez	8:43.47	27th
	Will Hogston	8:28.57	18th
	Liam Meirow	8:24.46 (PR)	17th
	Dan Schubert	8:31.16	21st
4x400 (W)	Pipi, Roberson, Demerson, Baker	3:36.45 (PR)	2nd*, 8
4x400 (M)	Vann, Yount, Armstrong, Goldberg	DQ	(lane violation)

On the men's side, Jacob Goldberg matched his PR on Friday in the 800-meter to finish fifth and tally four points for the OU men.

However, it was Trae Armstrong's performance that really left the OU coaches impressed after he finished third in the 60-meter. The junior, who celebrated his birthday on Friday by advancing to the 60 final, kept his composure after the false-start gun went off on three consecutive occasions, two for actual false starts and the other for an equipment malfunction.

"It was neat to see Trae get third after some false starts and malfunctions with the gun," said VanHootegem. "For him to keep his composure was great, not that it was a surprise."

While the majority of the teams will begin work for the outdoor season that starts in late March, several Sooners await confirmation for NCAA bids. The qualification deadline is Sunday and OU will could know as early as Monday, Feb. 29 who will be ticketed for nationals.

For more information on OU track and field follow the teams on Twitter @OU_Track, like them on Facebook at OUTrackandXC, and check out SoonerSports.com.