BY DON WILLIAMS l AVALANCHE-JOURNAL

Texas Tech coach Wes Kittley jokes that he misses his 20 points a meet that he could always count on from Sally Kipyego.

For 2 1/2 years, the nine-time national champion distance runner — though only 5-foot-3 and 102 pounds — towered over the Tech women’s program. But when Kipyego’s eligibility expired at the end of the indoor season in March, the Lady Raiders didn’t go down the drain.

In recent weeks, they finished second in the Big 12 Conference and NCAA Midwest Regional meets, in each case to No. 1-ranked Texas A&M.

“Sally was almost a guaranteed 20 points for us,’’ Tech senior Asia Diaz said this week, referring to the 10 points for first that Kipyego regularly provided from two distance events. “Now that we didn’t have that, everybody needed to do their part. If you can get one point here, two points there, we needed that. Everybody needed to do it, and we did.’’

The Tech women have eight athletes in Fayetteville, Ark., for the NCAA outdoor track and field championships today through Saturday. The last three months, they’ve done well at reaching their potential, and Kittley said the team has become more well-rounded.

The expectations aren’t so high this week, though. The NCAA outdoor meet is all about strength at the top. In most events, there are more than two dozen individuals entered, and only the eight finalists earn points.

Only three Tech women are ranked top-10, and five are ranked outside the top 13 in their events.

“In all honesty, we’re probably a better conference team and regional team than we are in national,’’ Kittley said. “It’s a little bit more about individuals here. We felt at the conference and the regionals, we were going to get up as high as we could. We doubled a few kids and tried to do everything in our power to win at those two levels.’’

It almost worked. The Tech women piled up 111 points at the conference meet May 15-17 in Lubbock. Texas A&M won with 126 1/2, and the A&M women are favorites to win the national championship. The gap was bigger at the Midwest Regional in Norman, Okla. — A&M scored 96 points, Tech 61 — but the Lady Raiders still placed second out of 34 teams.

The Tech women tied for tenth in the 2007 outdoor nationals with 23 points and placed fifth in 2008 with 32 points.

Kittley said he’ll be happy with a top-20 showing this week, and really pleased with a top 15. Veteran throwers D’Andra Carter and Patience Knight should point, but the Lady Raiders need others to exceed expectations.
Diaz, for example, goes in 18th in the 800 meters, which has a preliminary, semifinals and finals.

“I’m just going to go to the first round and try to make it to the second,’’ she said. “After that, I have to basically PR (set a personal record), but I’m pretty confident. During regionals, I ran 2:06 two days in a row, and I hadn’t done anything like that before, so I’m excited. I still think I’m going to do well.’’

By running her best at the right time, the senior from Garland Naaman Forest made it out of regional for the first time.

“I’m just really glad that I reached the goal,’’ she said. “Everybody wants to say, ‘I went to nationals before I finished running.’ For me to do it my last year is awesome.’’

Whereas Diaz goes in with nothing to lose, there’s more pressure on hammer thrower Ozie Okolie, who is making her third straight trip to outdoor nationals. The junior from Alief Elsik has been a strong contributor for the Lady Raiders throughout her career, with high national rankings to prove it.
But she didn’t make it past the preliminaries in 2007 at Sacramento or in 2008 at Des Moines, Iowa. The pattern continued this year during the indoor season; she went to nationals ranked sixth but finished 14th.

“Nationals is a whole different arena,’’ Okolie said. “You have people that you’ve never competed against. You have the best of the best there. I really haven’t done too good at nationals. So hopefully (this) week will be a different story for me.’’

Okolie was a shot putter, discus thrower and hurdler in high school, so her first year in college was her first time to throw the hammer. Though she had immediate success, coaches have been working to refine her technique.

Okolie goes into this national meet ranked ninth, hoping she can throw as well on the big stage as she usually does during the regular season.

“I want to end the season feeling as if I accomplished something,’’ she said. “I don’t necessarily have to throw the best of my life, but I do want to throw well.’’

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