Women Second, Men Fourth in Historical Big 12

Sunday, May 15

Fort Worth, Texas

11:00 AM

University of Oklahoma

Big 12 Outdoor Championships

Women Second, Men Fourth in Historical Big 12

May 15, 2016 | Track and Field

By: Akilah Laster

FORT WORTH, Texas -?History was on the line and the Oklahoma track and field women's teams ran right through it.

In a closely-contested team race in both the men and women divisions, the Sooner women finished as Big 12 runners-up, their highest team finish in conference history. OU scored 137.5 points, the most in program history.

"We don't always do this because we're one team but we pulled the women's team aside and had a separate team meeting with the women and told them this was possible," said head coach Jim VanHootegem. "We did plant that seed and tell them that ?this team has a chance to be the best women's team in the history of University of Oklahoma. It was really fantastic to go out there and see them do that and more."

Sunday's effort was led by a record-setting performance by Avione Allgood, who clinched her second Big 12 javelin title -- she won in 2013 -- and established a conference and career record 192-11.00. That mark moves her to second all-time at OU.

Avione Allgood became a two-time Big 12 champion in the javelin after setting a conference record on Sunday.,

Teammate Liz Herrs placed third in the javelin, recording a 183-2.00. The All-America duo combined for 16 points on the day.

"Avione gave a really gutsy performance," VanHootegem said. "It was going back and forth because she not only had her teammate Liz [Herrs], but also the Texas Tech competitor [to think about]. It was an amazing effort and the sort of thing that someone does when they care about their teammates and care about their school."

The women's 4x400-relay won OU's first Big 12 Conference title in the event behind the efforts of Ama Pipi, Mia Mukes, Daunicia Demerson and Payton Baker,?who closed the day with a 3:35.35. It was the first conference title in school history in the event since 1990.

After heading into the day leading in team standings in both divisions, the Sooners were unable to maintain their leads. Still, the Sooners posted 29 scoring performances, including several PRs to highlight a strong weekend.

The Sooner women finished behind Texas (167.7) and the OU men (103) ended the weekend in fourth behind Texas (134), Kansas (116) and Texas Tech (112).

"We need a few more bullets and we weren't quite healthy enough, but people stepped up," the third-year head coach said. " I think that was a very good track meet for us and saw strong performances from the men as well, like a Marcus Mitchell, Carl Williams and on and on. It was really great to see."

Notable performances highlighted the final day of the conference meet across a variety of events for the Sooners.

Jess Woodard (177-10.00) opened the day for OU with a third-place PR performance in the discus along with Jenny Carmichael, who finished ninth but recorded a career-best 158-6.00. Kate Foster (166-10.00) also scored for the Sooners on a seventh-place effort.

Brittany Tretbar ran a PR in the 5K to finish the day for the distances.

Brittany Tretbar recorded a PR in the 5K with a time of 16:41.19 to finish fifth and score additional points for the Sooner women.

While the sprints did not produce PRs on the final day, stellar finishes kept them competitive in the team standings.

Daye Shon Roberson, Ama Pipi and Leya Buchanan produced multiple scoring performances throughout the day, the first coming in their second-place 4x100-meter race (44.54) along with Bianca Brazil. Roberson (23.09) and Pipi (23.88) finished second and seventh in the 200 while Buchanan (11.63) and Pipi (11.75) finished fifth and sixth in the 100. Roberson (51.91) added a third-place in the 400.

Olivia Haggerty (13.53) and CeCe Jackson (14.00) finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 100-meter hurdles.

On the men's side, valiant and memorable efforts were displayed throughout the day.

In one of the tightest races of the day, Dylan Blankenbaker (8:41.24) fell short of the steeplechase title by .03 seconds. The junior dove head first through the finish line next to Texas Tech's Benard Keter (8:41.21) but fell just shy of first place.

Jacob Burcham also was a runner-up in the 1500 and ran a 3:43.55. He improved significantly from a year ago when he finished seventh with a time of 4:08.65.

Chase Sammons added another conference scoring performance in the discus with a third-place finish recording a 181-2.00.

Dylan Blankenbaker finished as the runner-up in the 3K steeplechase, missing the title by .03 seconds.

Freshmen Marcus Mitchell recorded two PRs in the triple jump competition to finish fifth (50-0.00) and join OU's all-time list with the 10th-best mark.

While the season ended for some today, much of the team still has more to accomplish. Those who have qualified will head to Lawrence, Kan., for the NCAA West preliminaries on May 26-28 to qualify for the national championship in Eugene, Ore., on June 8-11.

"I hope they had fun and want to keep this going," the head coach said. "Our women have found out that we can make the national meet a team meet. We want to go to the national championships as a team and want to have as many people shooting for top-12 at the next meet so we can take more to Eugene."