Sooners to Host J.D. Martin Invitational

NORMAN- For the second time in three weeks, the University of Oklahoma track and field teams will be hosting a meet as they host the J.D. Martin Invitational at Mosier Indoor Friday and Saturday.

This is the 16^th year that OU has held this event in honor of the former OU student-athlete and coach. Begun in 2001, one of the early meets had to be cancelled after an ice/snow storm hit Norman the day before the meet.

For fourth-year head coach Jim VanHootegem , J.D. Martin's presence in the program is important, both for the program and personally.

“Coming in as the head coach at Oklahoma, J.D. has been really wonderful as a friend and a mentor. It means a lot to have the meet bear his name. We certainly try to remind our team every once in a while of who J.D. Martin is as we have new people join the team. He serves as our coordinator of officials so our athletes see him when we have our home competitions. And certainly you can't miss him on the walls of our facility.”

The two-day event will get underway on Friday at noon with the heptathlon and pentathlon. Friday's events will include the entire pentathlon and all but three of the heptathlon events. The heptathlon will resume on Saturday at 9 a.m.

“We have two returning multiple-time conference scorers in Makayla Stephens and Steven Jazdyk,” explains VanHootegem. “My first excitement for the meet is getting to see them compete. At the meet in Nebraska, Makayla was doing all of these different events trying to help score points for the team. Now she gets to do really her event, the pentathlon. I always like to remind people it is an event. It's not five events, but is a combined event into one event. These people get rare opportunities to compete in their event. And this will also be the first time they'll get to do it at home.”

In addition to the returning competitors, senior CeCe Jackson will make her Sooner debut in the pentathlon this weekend. This will be the first and final opportunity for Stephens, Jazdyk and Jackson to compete in this specialized event until the Big 12 Indoor Championship Feb. 24-25.

“I think it hones the focus a little bit in that they only have so many opportunities to do it. I think that is more exciting than pressure,” provides VanHootegem.

For the rest of the team, events will start Saturday at 10 a.m. with the women's weight throw. The running events are scheduled to begin at noon with the mile run. The last field event will be the men's triple jump, scheduled for 3:55 p.m., and the last running event will be the men's mile relay, set to start at 4:25 p.m.

There will be a total of seven women's teams and five men's teams, including Oklahoma, competing in the Invitational. UT-Arlington, North Texas, Abilene Christian, and Incarnate Word will have both men's and women's team entries, with SMU and UCO in just the women's events.

“As far as home competitions go, this is, in terms of the events, a much stronger meet than the Sooner Opener,” says VanHootegem. “Everyone was pretty much on the same page at the Sooner Opener, whereas in this meet we are probably a little different in that we've had two competitions. We might have people competing in the meet but not in their signature events. For others, this might be a weekend that it's best that they take the weekend off.

“From there, [the focus] will be continuing to see how people are doing in terms of consistency and more people taking the step forward. Also, it presents opportunities for people who maybe haven't stepped forward yet to have another opportunity to earn their way onto the travel squad as well as those who hope to be one of the people fighting their way onto our Big 12 entries.”

Like his combined event entries, success for the Sooners in head coach's eyes will mean that all competitors have the necessary focus in the meet and that they can continue to develop the habit to utilize as the season progresses.

“The easy answer is if everybody is really focused on what they're doing. The good part is at this point you start to get into the rhythm of the season. That's what you want to have. You also don't want to slip into the complacency of that rhythm. We want to make sure that people are still being very focused and setting themselves up for a very important month of Feb.”

The Sooners look to sweep the team titles for the third year in a row. Oklahoma won 23 events in last year's meet and 15 events the year prior.

Live results from the meet will be available at PTI Timing. A full recap will be available after the meet at Soonersports.com. Be sure to follow Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (OU_Track) for meet updates.