Published: April 28, 2008 04:36 pm            

Tracking some gold

Elliott's team to compete in regional event Saturday

Ada — First-year Ada High track coach Nathan Elliott will have more company than usual at Saturday’s Class 5A regional meet in Durant.

After taking only eight or nine athletes to most of the Cougars’ meets this spring, Elliott will have 17 with him Saturday, including a number of freshmen who competed at meets in Norman and Ardmore the past two weeks.

“I’m taking the (freshmen) I thought could compete at the regional level and the ones who wanted to go,” Elliott said. “I kind of gave some of them the option.

“I took the freshmen to our last two meets at OU and Ardmore,” he added. “I had only been taking eight or nine kids before that, because different kids have had other things going on, and they couldnt’ go for one reason or another.”

Elliott’s prized freshman this spring has been Travis Cowan, a mainstay on the sprint and mile relays and already established as one of Class 5A’s best hurdlers. Cowan has joined another youngster, sophomore Eddie Brown, to complement Ada’s core of upperclassmen — Chaz Daniels and Michael Roberts, who have both been state champs during their careers, and the team’s third senior, distance specialist Matt Beasley — and give their coach reason for confidence heading into the regional.

“The kids have really, really worked their tails off,” Elliott said. “They’ve done a great job getting ready. They’ve done everything I’ve asked them to do.

“I think we have a chance to put ourselves in position to do really well at state,” he said. “We’re going to work through the regional like it’s a (regular) track meet, then we’ll try to peak the week of state.”

Cowan and Brown have teamed with Roberts and Daniels (the defending 5A champion in the 100 Meters) to form the best mile relay team in their class this spring. The Cougar quartet is unbeaten so far in 2008, and Elliott said they have already outrun the teams who figure to give them their most serious competition in Oklahoma City next month.

“With Michael, Chaz, Eddie Brown and Travis Cowan, we haven’t lost a mile relay at any meet we’ve been to,” Elliott said. “Us, Tulsa East Central and Lawton Mac have the top three mile relay teams in 5A, and we’ve beaten them every time.”

Daniels and Roberts have been two of the leaders on the Ada track squad since former coach Mart Leming (who left last summer to become an assistant football coach and the head track coach at Sulphur High School) revived the program in 2006. Both have been among the best in their class the past two years, with Daniels winning the 100 Meters at the state meet last year and Roberts anchoring the Cougars’ state champion mile relay squad in 2006.

“We’re going to hang our hats on our seniors,” Elliott said. “Michael and Chaz have been to the state meet. Chaz is the the returning champ in the 100 Meters, and Michael has been on a state championship mile relay team.

“Chaz is one of the top sprinters in 5A...he’s only lost the 100 one time this spring, and that was just by a couple of tenths of a second at OU,” he added. “He ran a 10.4 at Duncan and a 10.5 at Ardmore, and both times he ran the 200 this spring, he won. Michael has the best time in 5A this year in the 400.”

Daniels will compete Saturday in the 100 and 200 Meters and the sprint and mile relay, and Roberts will be among the favorites in the 400 Meters and will run on both relays.

Elliott said Beasley, who ran a personal best of 2:04 (the fourth best time in the state this spring) in the 800 meters at the OU meet two weekends ago, has teamed with Daniels and Roberts to provide the kind of leadership his relatively young squad needed to become a contender for a 5A title.

“The leaders of our team have all been there, and the younger kids do what Chaz and Mike and Matt do,” Elliott explained. “They’re not just athletes — they do a good job of working hard in practice, and the younger kids copy that.

“Matt has really come on this year,” he said. “Eddie Brown, Travis Cowan and Matt Beasley have been the most improved on our team since the start of the year.”

And, although Cowan and Brown have already established themselves among the best athletes in 5A this season, Elliott said both provide a surprise or two at the regional and state meets.

“Travis went down on a hurdle at Ardmore, but every other meet we’ve gont to, he’s been top four,” Elliott said. “Even though Travis and Eddie have been among the best hurdlers in 5A, they’re both young. I think they could stand out and regional and surprise some people at state.

“At most track meets we go to, everybody knows who Chaz Daniels and Michael Roberts are, but everybody comes up and asks ‘Who are your two hurdlers?’.”

In addition Cowan, Brown and his three seniors, Elliott said he could also glean some points from a pair of juniors — Garrett Hatton, who will compete in the 200 Meters and the long jump, and Jarrell Booker, whose specialities are the long jump and high jump.

“Those are guys who could slip in somewhere that people might not be expecting,” Elliott noted.

The top three finishers in each event at each of the four Class 5A regional meets around the state Saturday will qualify for the state meeting, along with the best fourth-place finisher from all of the four regionals combined. Elliott said he has enough potential state qualifiers on his squad to give him a legitimate shot at a team gold medal at the state meet if things run true to form.

“We haven’t finished worse than fifth at any meet and I haven’t taken more than 12 guys any meet this year — and without freshman, it’s usually just been eight or nine,” he explained. “I just want to qualify as many kids as we can — that would be a successful meet for us, then we’ll go to the state meet and see what happens there. Once you get to the state meet, nobody has a full squad, so you can take six or eight guys and win it.”

        

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