The USAO men’s and women’s track and field season is coming to a close and the team has had a successful season, especially at the John Jacobs Invitational held at the University of Oklahoma (OU) on April 10.
At the John Jacobs Invitational, the team set six new personal records (PRs) and broke several school records. These include:
- Kyra (Smiley) Willett: Javelin 26.20 meters
- Crispin Mbii: Javelin 45.39 meters
- Andreis (AJ) Meyer: 300 meter steeplechase 10:10:55
- Mason Potter: Discus 40.51 meters
- Carter McCain: Pole vault 4.15 meters
- Chayce LeShawn Papp: Hammer throw 18.19 meters
This was not the only successful meet for the team, at earlier meets there were several PRs set and school records broken. USAO Track and Field Head Coach Brian Worthington is proud of his team.
“They’ve all worked very hard and it’s been a long season even with a couple meets cancelled. I take my hat off to them, they did very very well. They’re truly tremendous in competition and in practice and I’m very proud of them, to be honest,” Worthington said.
He further emphasized that there is never a moment where he is not proud of his team, he believes every athlete he coaches performs well.
As the season comes to a close, the team heads to Texas to compete in the Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) Championship held at Nelson University. All athletes are motivated to perform to the best of their abilities, as this is one of the last chance meets before the NAIA National Championships.
One such athlete is sophomore Carter McCain.
“So far, transferring here, being a new student, there’s a lot of motivation for me to succeed and just set a standard for myself and for my team,” McCain said. “You can tell from everyone else’s records that we’re all pretty motivated this year to set a new standard for the USAO track team.”
McCain believes many of his teammates have a chance to win their events at conference this weekend. One of the motivating factors for the team is the qualifying times for nationals, as they are shorter times than previous years’ standards.
Senior Tyrike Cunningham is also looking forward to conference this weekend. Cunningham has been a part of the track and field team for the entire duration of his USAO career, and this year also serves as an Assistant Coach to Worthington.
“This is our second year at the SAC Championships of all time since the program started. It’s a big deal,” Cunningham said.
He further explained that he believes the team can make it to nationals in the 4×100 meter relay and 4×400 meter relay events.
“This is our second to last chance. We have one more meet after this and that’s it for the season,” Cunningham said.
