View slideshow - NCAA Midwest Track and Field Regionals

Family, friends and fans packed the stands of the John Jacobs Track and Field Complex last weekend for the NCAA Track and Field Midwest Regional.

Facility records were slashed and regional records were erased as competitors tried to punch their ticket to the NCAA Championships in Fayetteville, Ark.

As the home team, OU had an impressive showing. The Sooners did not finish atop the team standings, but several athletes wearing the crimson and cream made will move on to the championships.

Friday

The first Sooner standout to qualify for the next round was Mickaela Johansson with a third place finish in the women’s hammer throw.

Another OU athlete to put on a show Friday was Ti’Anca Mock, who secured her spot at the championships with a second place finish in the long jump at 21 and 1/3 feet.

The only other competitor with a better finish was Blessing Okagbare of the University of Texas-El Paso. Okagbare took home a bronze medal from the Olympics last summer for her home country of Nigeria.

Mock now looks to prepare for the NCAA Championships and said she would like to be an NCAA champion if she could. She said the only way to really prepare for this type of event is simply practicing and being ready to go out and just jump.

Saturday

The finals of most track events and the men’s triple jump took place Saturday night.

Sooner fans had been waiting for the men’s triple jump because it featured one of the best collegiate jumpers in the nation, OU freshman Will Claye.

Claye enrolled at OU just this spring at the age of 17, and has already built a presence as one of the best triple jumpers in the nation.

Saturday’s event proved just how good the freshman is.

The triple jump was divided into three preliminary flights with Claye qualifying in the third group. Out of the preliminaries, Claye was the overall leader breaking the facility record and earning the privilege of jumping last in the finals.

Claye’s most staunch competition came from Texas A&M. The Aggies had four jumpers in the final group of ten.

Claye’s original distance from preliminaries was still the farthest, 54 feet and 8 3/4 inches, after the first round of jumpers so the Sooner took a pass on his first jump in the finals.

It looked as if Claye was going to easily walk away with the win, but his victory was put in jeopardy when Texas A&M’s Julian Reid took the lead during his third attempt with a jump of 55 feet.

Claye said the great crowd at home was a vital asset as he moved into the final attempt. The freshman had one last chance to jump back into the record books.

“I knew that Julian was beating me so I knew I just had to put something out there,” Claye said.

Claye took off for his final jump and landed close to Reid’s previous mark. Anticipation grew as the fans waited for the distance, and a roar erupted from the stands when it was announced Claye had reclaimed the facility record and the win with a leap of 55 feet 2 inches.

“I didn’t want to lose and I just pushed myself to the limit,” Claye said.

His win was the most contested event of the day, but he was not the only Sooner with a future at the NCAA championships.

Luke Bryant took second in the discus behind a throw of 186 feet 1 inch on his second attempt.

Mookie Salaam qualified in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.40 seconds. He ran a season best of 10.30 seconds in the preliminaries.

The women’s 4-by-100 relay also qualified for a trip to Arkansas with a time of 42.68 seconds. This relay included OU athletes, Ti’Anca Mock, Sherine Wells, Leslie Cole and Scottesha Miller.

The qualifying Sooners will take the momentum from this weekend and put it toward an NCAA Championships beginning June 10.