Both Cole and Miller qualified for the finals of the 200-meter dash with times of 23.75 and 23.69, respectively, in the prelims. While Miller pulled out of the final, Cole crossed the line first to claim gold with a time of 22.92.

Miller and Greaves faced off in the 4×100-meter relay that saw the U.S., anchored by Miller, take gold with a time of 43.64. Greaves, running the second leg, and Jamaica finished second with a time of 43.73.

Greaves finished third in the 100-meter hurdles and grabbed her second medal with a time of 13.51. Tiffany Ofili (12.82) and Kristin Castlin (13.21) of the U.S. took first and second, respectively.

Miller also finished fifth in the 100-meter dash with a time of 11.47 in the finals. Miller was third in the event’s prelims with a time of 11.53. U.S. teammate Tawanna Meadows took second in the event with a time of 11.36 while Jamaica’s Schillonie Calvert claimed the event’s title, running 11.24.

The NACAC Athletic Association’s U23 Championships are held every two years in one of the 32 member nations of the North America, Central America and Caribbean Athletic Association, one of six regional athletics associations affiliated with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

The NACAC Athletic Association’s U23 Championships are held every two years in one of the 32 member nations of the North America, Central America and Caribbean Athletic Association, one of six regional athletics associations affiliated with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

The U.S. women’s 200-meter dash will have an all-Oklahoma flavor as Miller and Cole comprise the two-person team. Miller will also run in the 100-meter dash along with Troy’s Tawanna Meadows. Both Cole and Miller are in the pool of possible candidates for the U.S.’s 4×100-meter relay while Cole is in the 4×400 relay pool as well.

Greaves will run under the Jamaican flag in the women’s 100-meter hurdles, an event that the junior claimed the Big 12 Conference crown and All-America honors in 2008.

Oklahoma action at the event begins Friday as Miller runs the 100. Saturday will see Greaves compete in the 100-meter hurdles. The final day of competition, Sunday, will include Cole and Miller in the 200-meter dash. Relay action runs throughout all three days of competition.

The OU men enter the meet as the defending team champion after topping second place Texas Tech by 10.5 points in 2007 to win its first title in 29 years.

The OU women recorded their best finish in the 2007 conference meet as well with a sixth-place finish. The Sooners enter this year’s meet as the fifth-ranked women’s team in the Big 12 at No. 21.

The OU men enter the conference meet unranked and facing five of the nation’s top-25 teams including the nation’s top-ranked team in Texas A&M.

Shardae Boutte (triple jump), Scottesha Miller (long jump) and Marcus Pugh (100-meter dash) all enter the competition with hopes of defending their 2007 individual event titles.

RESULTS
Live results for the 2008 Big 12 Championships will be provided on CUBuffs.com. A complete recap of Oklahoma action will be posted on SoonerSports.com shortly after the conclusion of action each day.

RANKED TEAMS

Men: No. 1 Texas A&M, No. 10 Baylor, No. 11 Colorado, No. 12 Texas, No. 23 Texas Tech
Women: No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 5 Texas Tech, No. 16 Texas, No. 18 Baylor, No. 20 Oklahoma

TELEVISION

The 2008 Big 12 Outdoor Track & Field Championships will be shown tape-delayed on Fox Southwest (Cox Channel 37) on Friday, May 23 at 12:30 p.m. CT.

Amy Backel, a civil engineering sophomore, and Catherine Odell, an instructional leadership senior, led the way with perfect 4.0 grade point averages.

Other Sooners on the first team included Jamie Alexander (human relations), Brayon Brown (human relations), Jason Coleman (multidisciplinary studies), Kristi Cook (marketing), Frankie Green (human relations), Chip Heuser (zoology) and Rob Sorrell (aviation).

Leslie Cole (sociology) and Carli Wester (undecided major) were named to the second team.

Nominated by each institution’s director of student-athlete support services and the media relations offices, the men’s track & field academic all-league squad consisted of 82 first team members combined with 21 on the second team, while the women had 109 first team recipients and 22 student-athletes on the second team. First team members consist of those who have maintained a 3.20 or better GPA, and the second team are those who have a 3.00 to 3.19 GPA.

To qualify student-athletes must maintain a 3.00 GPA or higher either cumulative or the two previous semesters and must have participated in 60 percent of his/her team’s scheduled contests. Freshmen and transfers are not eligible in their first year of academic residence. Senior student-athletes who have participated for a minimum of two years and meet all the criteria except percent of participation are also eligible.

This weekend the Sooners head to Boulder, Colo, for the 2008 Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships beginning Friday, May 16. The Oklahoma men will look to defend their 2007 title while the women look to improve on their program-best sixth-place finish last year.

The USTFCCCA Division I indoor track and field rankings are compiled solely from NCAA descending order lists.

The Oklahoma women are led by seniors Jessica Eldridge and Toni Smith as both rank No. 4 in their respective events, Eldridge in the 1,500-meter run and Smith in the triple jump. Eldridge recorded a time of 4:19.06 at last weekend’s Stanford Invitational while Smith leapt 43 feet and five inches (13.23 meters) at the Texas Relays. Smith also contributes to Oklahoma’s team ranking twice as the nation’s 19th-ranked long jumper (19-11.50/6.08).

The women’s 4×400-meter relay is seventh nationally in the event with a time of 3:37.22. Latoya Greaves (100-meter hurdles) and Amy Backel (javelin) are both ranked eighth nationally in their respective events. Both Greaves and Backel’s marks are OU program records with Greaves running 13.19 at the Texas Relays and Backel throwing 166-8 (50.80) at the Bobby Lane Invitational on March 29.

Scottesha Miller is 21st in the 100-meter dash (11.58), Leslie Cole is 27th in the 400-meter dash (54.35) and Catherine Odell is 28th in the 1,500-meter run (4:26.87) to round out the OU women contributing to the team ranking.

On the men’s side Boutte is the nation’s top-ranked athlete in the triple jump with a mark of 52-10.75 (16.12) at last weekend’s Texas Relays. Teammate and fellow triple jumper Tydree Lewis is not far behind at No. 3 with a top jump of 52-6.50 (16.01).

Marcus Pugh and Chip Heuser round out the Oklahoma men in the top 10 of their respective events. Pugh comes in at No. 7 in the 100-meter dash (10.31) while Heuser is No. 10 in the pole vault (17-0.75/5.20). Pugh is also ranked 20th in the 200-meter dash (21.09) and is a member of the men’s 4×100-meter relay that is 17th with a time of 40.44.

Two 1,500-meter run competitors, Rob Sorrell and Jacob Boone, are 23rd and 24th with times of 3:47.34 and 3:47.43, respectively, at last weekend’s Stanford Invitational.

Zach Dawson is 34th in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 52.19 while Buck Sullivan rounds out Oklahoma’s ranking contributors in 47th position in the men’s hammer throw with a top throw of 195-6 (59.60).

Oklahoma’s next action comes at home on Saturday with the 39th Annual John Jacobs Invitational. Saturday’s action at the John Jacobs Track & Field Complex is slated to begin at 10 a.m.. Admission for the event is free.

The Duels mark the first outdoor competition of the 2008 season for OU athletes. Both men’s and women’s teams are coming off record outdoor seasons in 2007 in which the men claimed the program’s first-ever Big 12 Conference crown and the women finished a program-best sixth in the conference championship.

The meet will also mark the 2008 debut of three-time All-American Jessica Eldridge and 2007 All-American Catherine Odell as both had exhausted their indoor eligibility prior to the 2008 season and enter their final outdoor season of competition. The two will team with fellow senior and All-American Kristi Cook and junior Amanda Mayfield as members of the 4×400 relay. The four will run individually in the 400-meter dash. Eldridge and Odell will also compete in the 800-meter run.

Sophomore Amy Backel redshirted during this year’s indoor season as she made the transition from a combined events to a full-time thrower and will see her first action Friday in the javelin and shot put.

On the men’s side, three combined event athletes will work on their throws while two full-time throwers join the action.

Multi-event athletes Jamie Alexander and Mitch Henry will join full-time thrower Chase Bridgforth in the javelin while Matt O’Connor, a third multi-event athlete joins Alexander and Henry in the shot put.

The hammer throw will return to Oklahoma as junior-college transfer Buck Sullivan competes in the event Friday afternoon, marking the first OU athlete to compete in the event since school-record holder Nils Oliveto in 1999.

Six Sooners, four men and two women, will compete in five different events in hopes of becoming Oklahoma’s latest national champion.

Shardae Boutte (triple jump) is Oklahoma’s only automatic qualifier with the nation’s top mark of the season of 54 feet and one inch (16.48 meters), an OU program record.

Boutte will be joined by five provisional qualifiers including teammate Tydree Lewis in the triple jump.

Marcus Pugh (60-meter dash) and Sheldon Leith (60-meter hurdles) round out the Oklahoma men’s contingent.

The Sooner women are represented by Latoya Greaves in the 60-meter hurdles and Leslie Cole in the 400-meter dash.

Action begins Friday at 9:45 a.m. with the 60-meter dash portion of the men’s heptathlon. Leith will be Oklahoma’s first competitor in the men’s 60-meter hurdles at 5:05 p.m. on Friday. Saturday’s action begins at 11 a.m. with the men’s heptathlon 60-meter hurdles.

Results

Live results for the 2008 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships will be available at Hogwired.com and LadyBacks.com. A complete recap of Oklahoma action will be posted on SoonerSports.com shortly after the conclusion of action each day.

Leith and Latoya Greaves both finished in the top three of the 60-meter hurdles in their respective divisions. Leith posted a time of 7.73 to finish second while Greaves finished third with a time of 8.31.

Tony Clement finished second in the men’s 1,000-meter race with a season-high time of 2:24.08. Jacob Boone finished seventh in the same race with a time of 2:27.36.

Freshmen Kelly Waters and Jessica Engel finished sixth and seventh in the 1,000-meter race with times of 2:56.23 and 2:56.41, respectively.

Tijahnni Newton posted a season-high time of 55.65 in the 400-meter dash en route to a 20th-place finish.

A group of distance runners and sprinters will be in the Big Apple for the 2008 New Balance Collegiate Invitational, Friday and Saturday, while jumpers, vaulters and multi-event athletes compose the majority of an Oklahoma group competing in the Adidas Classic on Saturday.

The No. 7 Oklahoma men will face stiff competition in the New Balance Invitational’s short sprints including the 60-meter dash. Jacobi Mitchell and Marcus Pugh, who is ranked No. 12 nationally in the event, will face defending NCAA 100-meter champion Walter Dix of Florida State along with several other NCAA sprints finalists.

Sheldon Leith, ranked ninth nationally in the 60-meter hurdles, will compete in that event along with the 200-meter dash with Mitchell and Pugh.

Latoya Greaves is ranked No. 9 nationally in the women’s 60-meter hurdles and will compete in just that event at the NB Invitational. Greaves will have a chance to climb in the event’s rankings as three competitors are ranked higher.

In all, 22 OU student-athletes will compete in 21 events.

In the Adidas Classic, Oklahoma jumper Shardae Boutte will attempt to continue his season winning streak. In every competiton that Boutte has entered this season, the senior horizontal jumper has come away with a win in either the triple jump or long jump, winning both in last week’s J.D. Martin Invitational. Boutte, who is ranked 2nd nationally in the triple jump and 15th in the long, will only compete in just the long jump this weekend.

The New Balance Collegiate Invitational begins Friday at 11:45 EST with the women’s 3,000-meter collegiate race. Oklahoma’s first action comes 50 minutes later as Kristi Cook, Amanda Mayfield and Jasmine Still take to track for the women’s 500-meter dash. Saturday’s action kicks off at 9 a.m. with the women’s 5,000-meter run.

The Adidas Classic begins Saturday at 9 a.m. CST with the long jump and the women’s 60-meter hurdles prelims.