The Official Blog of OC Athletics
Saturday, April 19, 2008
In April, Oklahoma Christian University saluted the best and brightest from the year in OC Athletics with the second-annual OCPY Athletic Awards. Click the icon below to watch video excerpts from the awards show.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
This week’s podcast features new cross country coach Wayne Strohman and tennis star Jennifer Le, who recently received the Arthur Ashe Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship at a U.S. Open event in New York City. Click the icon below to listen to the podcast.
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Friday, August 03, 2007
The Edmond Sun runs a regular feature on the front page of its sports section that highlights “Athletic Achievers” who excel on and off the field. The Sun has featured Oklahoma Christian often recently, profiling one of OC’s 10 NAIA Scholar Teams per day. Click here to read about this remarkable achievement by OC’s athletic programs.
With the start of the cross country season less than a month away, the Edmond Sun published a front-page article previewing the 2007 schedule in Thursday’s sports section. Click here to read a schedule preview.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Wednesday’s Edmond Sun featured assistant cross country and track coach Mark Thompson. Thompson, who also teaches chemistry and physics at OC, continues to run competitively on the national level. Click here to read the Sun article.
Monday, June 18, 2007
WES McKINZIE, Blog Host
Here is one man’s opinion on the top five stories of the year in OC Athletics ...
1. The undefeated
Though the women’s soccer team has enjoyed quite a bit of success in recent years, nothing compares to what the Lady Eagles did this year. They went undefeated (17-0-2) during the regular season and won the Sooner Athletic Conference championship, OC’s only team title this year. The Lady Eagles rewrote OC’s record books, dominated the all-conference team and advanced to their third national tournament in five years.
2. Elite on the links
I can basically reprise what I wrote about the golf team last year … so I will! The OC golf team spent most of the season ranked No. 1 in the country. Though a tough second day of the NAIA tournament meant a third-place national finish, it speaks volumes about the program’s premier status that placing third was a disappointment. In an unparalleled run of success in OC’s rich athletic history, the golf team has now placed in the nation’s top four for eight straight years.
3. A 30th year to remember
The women’s basketball team celebrated its 30th season in style, winning the 600th game in program history, beating rivals SNU (twice), OCU and LCU, staying in contention for the league title until the final weekend of the regular season, and advancing to its eighth straight national tournament. The Lady Eagles capped off the year with a Sweet 16 appearance, national honors for Rachel Martin and Katie Fariss, and the prestigious distinction as the NAIA’s “Champions of Character” team for 2006-07.
4. Men’s soccer success
It was a great year on the soccer pitch all the way around. The Eagle soccer team turned in one of the best regular seasons in men’s program history, then made a big splash at the national tournament by advancing to the “Elite Eight.” The accomplishment was all the more impressive considering the Eagles came from behind against host school Embry-Riddle (Fla.) to win their Sweet 16 game.
5. From adversity to All-Americans
At indoor nationals, the 4x800-meter relay team lost top runner Jordan Powell to illness the day of the meet, but Curtis Pratt, Cole McAllister, Eric Poole and Josh Wayland stayed focused and earned All-America honors with a sixth-place finish. At outdoor nationals, one of OC’s runners fell during the preliminary race, but the team rallied to qualify for the final. Powell, Pratt, Poole and Wayland placed fifth to bring home All-America honors again.
Honorable mention: OC wins three ITA regional tennis titles; Le honored with Ashe award; Strohman and Thompson join coaching staff; Baseball team and Dobson Field taking shape; Weather wreaks havoc on multiple sports.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
In late April, Oklahoma Christian hosted the inaugural OCPY Awards, which honored the “best and brightest” from the past year in OC Athletics. Click the icon below to watch excerpts from this special event. For the full story, click here.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Assistant cross country coach Mark Thompson competed in the mile at the AT&T USA Indoor Track & Field Championship last month. The meet aired on ESPN2. Click the icon to watch the race.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
In this edition of the Eagle Eye Podcast, Wes McKinzie talks to women’s soccer coach Sean O’Connor from the NAIA national tournament and discusses a busy weekend for OC Athletics. The men’s and women’s soccer teams and cross country teams compete in their respective national tournaments/meets while the Eagle and Lady Eagle basketball teams each play a pair of tough games.
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Thursday, November 02, 2006
Wes McKinzie talks to OC basketball coaches Stephanie Findley and Dan Hays as the Lady Eagles and Eagles prepare to open the season Saturday in their annual Homecoming games. Click here for a written preview of both teams.
This edition of the Eagle Eye Podcast also includes news about the golf team’s latest accomplishments and the upcoming regionals for cross country and soccer.
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Wednesday, October 25, 2006
MICHELLE LAIR, Women’s Cross Country
Well lookie here! The women’s cross country team just got ranked 21st after not receiving any votes at all last week. This is exciting news for the team because we have really worked hard and now someone is noticing. At this last meet in Kansas, almost everyone PR’d for the season. I got my personal PR for life. It was pretty exciting and felt good to run fast and feel good.
Winding down to the end of the season is also exciting. Both the girls and guys can see the opportunity we may have on going to nationals. The girls are closing the gap on OBU and the guys are closing it on Wayland.
The team has two weeks until our Region VI meet, which is the 4th of November, to really practice hard and make sure we are mentally and physically ready for regionals. Hopefully, this way we can run our best times of the season and either end the season on a fast note, or run into nationals as fast as we can.
Monday, September 25, 2006
MICHELLE LAIR, Women’s Cross Country
I would have to say that women’s x-country has done exceptionally well despite having several injuries to deal with. Tara is coming back from injury. Kate is running mostly on the grass in prevention of injury. Heather is recovering from some pretty severe blisters on the back of her feet. Both of us also are attempting to complete our senior years without going crazy. Carolyn is still getting into x-country shape coming off her third year of track. Riata, our little freshman, is still adjusting to the Oklahoma climate and elevation, much different from where she is lived in Montana.
Having a lot of experience on the team this year is probably one of the reasons for our success. We all have run against these challenging courses and teams. The only thing we have to do this year is to improve on each and every one of them in comparison to last year. Having a smaller team this year also has impacted us. We all have to step it up in practice and really focus on our health so we do not get injured because we do need five to score.
At OBU on the 23rd, I ran the fastest 5k in my college history. Riata ran her fastest time and is improving each and every meet. Heather and Kate are running faster than they were last year at this time. Tara and Carolyn continue to improve and come back to their original times of last year as well.
After running in three meets, I feel we really do not have that far to go and we are all really working hard to reach our peak performance as a team. Every meet, the team runs faster times and closes the gap between runners. At this rate, we have a chance of becoming a really close-grouped team that runs fast times and finishes with low scores. I hope we all can run our best times and have a great time in x-country this year.
Monday, June 05, 2006
WES McKINZIE, Blog Host
Here is one man’s opinion on the top five stories of the year in OC Athletics ...
1. Continued golf excellence
The OC golf team spent most of the season ranked No. 1 in the country and knocked off a number of NCAA Division I schools along the way. The only two regular-season tournaments the Eagles lost in the spring were runnerup finishes to UCLA and Baylor. Though a tough back nine on day two of the NAIA tournament meant a third-place national finish, it speaks volumes about the program’s premier status that placing third was a disappointment. In an unparalleled run of success in OC’s rich athletic history, the golf team has now placed in the nation’s top four for seven straight years.
2. Scintillating Senior Night
There have been plenty of memorable nights in the Eagles’ Nest in recent years as the men’s and women’s basketball programs enjoy one of the most successful eras in school history. But February 25 stands out on the WOW! meter. The Lady Eagles had conference champ OCU on the ropes before Alexander Kotta banked in an improbable three-pointer at the buzzer to send the game to OT, where the Stars scraped out the win. The men’s game had no such drama, but it was plenty exciting. The Eagles dominated from the start and won by 37 points, equaling OC’s biggest win ever over OCU. The game probably gave OC the lift it needed to get in position for the national tournament.
3. Tennis makes net gains
One of OC’s top programs in recent years enjoyed a renaissance this season. The men’s tennis team won the Sooner Athletic Conference championship for the first time since its 2003 national championship season while the women’s tennis team placed second in conference and advanced to the national tournament after a one-year absence.
4. Young bloods
Freshmen Tara Collins and Jordan Powell made instant impacts on the cross country and track scenes. Collins led the women’s cross country team to its first conference and region team titles, then became OC’s first female cross country All-American since Peggy Murphy in 1991. In the spring, she twice broke the indoor school record in the 5,000 meters and finished ninth in the event at nationals. Powell placed in the top 10 at both indoor nationals (seventh in the mile) and outdoor nationals (eighth in the 1,500 meters).
5. Class acts
Some might scoff at having an academic note in the year’s top five sports stories. And, granted, another championship or big national splash would have made the list. But the success of the year demonstrates how important the “student” in “student-athlete” is at OC. The men’s and women’s tennis teams and the men’s cross country team all earned recognition as NAIA Scholar Teams. And no school had more NAIA Scholar-Athletes in basketball than OC’s six women and seven total. Overall, a record 30 OC athletes earned scholar-athlete recognition this year.
Honorable mention: New soccer coaches come on board; Heath, Lynn earn SAC coaching honors; Eagles scare OSU in hoop exhibition.