The game originally was scheduled for Sept. 4.

“This move gives our program national exposure early in the season,” Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said in a statement released by the athletic department. “It also gives us the opportunity to kick off coach (Tommy) Tuberville’s era in front of a national audience.”

So far, Tech has two games set for a national telecast: the SMU game and the Sept. 18 home game against Texas, which will be a 7 p.m. kickoff on ABC or ESPN.

His best remains just short of what he needs to be a national champion.

The Texas Tech senior from Monterey ran a time of 7.60 seconds Saturday, making him third place and a whisker behind national champion Ronnie Ash for the second year in a row.

“I told him the same thing I told him after the Big 12 meet: You’re going to have another chance at him,’’ Tech coach Wes Kittley said. “I said, ‘Omo, now we’re fixing to start running real track, outside. You’ll have another chance at him, in the Big 12, in regionals and in nationals.’ Omo’s making great progress.’’

Ash tore down the Tyson Track Center straightaway in 7.56 seconds, and South Carolina sophomore Booker Nunley took second in 7.58.

In last year’s NCAA indoor final in College Station, Ash and Osaghae ran 1-2 in 7.63 and 7.64 seconds, respectively. That was also Osaghae’s personal record at the time.

Ash, a junior, competed his first two years for Bethune-Cookman in Daytona Beach, Fla., before transferring to Oklahoma this year. The win Saturday made him a three-time NCAA champion, with the two 60-meter hurdles titles to go along with the 110 hurdles crown he won at last year’s NCAA outdoor meet, which was also in Fayetteville.

Osaghae is now a three-time all-American — the second and third in the 60s along with a seventh place in the 110s at the 2008 NCAA outdoor in Des Moines, Iowa.

“When you break the school record and run the fastest time of your life and you’re third, there’s not much else to say,’’ Kittley said. “He ran a great race. I’m real proud of him.’’

Tech’s pre-meet goal was 25 to 30 points and a top-five finish from the men, but Bryce Lamb’s and Darrell Roddick’s failing to make the finals in the triple jump ended those hopes.

Still, the Raiders got a boost from a rebuilt 1,600-meter relay team that placed fifth in 3:07.53. The group of Bryce Brown, Jamaal Butler, Zach Plinario and LaToy Williams is a completely new lineup from the foursome that finished seventh in last year’s NCAA indoor meet.

After last year, the relay lost senior Rodney Mims and was racked by the recent arrests and indictments of three other former all-America relay team members.

“We came here with four guys last year and then (brought) four different guys this year,’’ Kittley said. “I don’t think anybody in the country can say that. And we ran faster with this group than we ran last year at this meet.’’

Tech’s Caroline Karunde earned all-America recognition — which goes to the top eight in an event — for the second day in a row. The Kenyan distance runner finished seventh in the mile after anchoring the distance medley relay that took fifth the night before while running a school-record time.

Karunde, a transfer from Wayland Baptist, ran 4:40.64 in the mile.

The women’s 1,600-meter relay got eighth. Candace Jackson, Trudeann Clarke, Erica Alexander and Taylor Evans ran a season-best time of 3:34.85.

None of Tech’s other point-scoring hopes in individual events came through on Saturday. Lamb, who won both horizontal jumps two weeks ago at the Big 12 meet and finished fifth in the long jump Friday, scratched on two attempts in the triple jump. His only legal mark — 49 feet, 1 inch — wasn’t good enough to make the finals.

Roddick’s best effort of 51-3 left him 12th and also out of the finals.
Lamb and Roddick both had broken 53 feet this season.

“I was definitely disappointed in our triple jump,’’ Kittley said. “They didn’t handle the pressure like I wanted them to.’’

Freshman pole vaulter Shade Weygandt cleared 13-91/4, which is in her usual range, but that earned her only a tie for 14th in a formidable field. Kittley said all but two of the 15 pole-vault entrants had qualified by clearing the NCAA automatic standard, which is just less than 14 feet.

“You could sure see it today,” Kittley said. “Very few girls weren’t jumping good, and a few were jumping great. It’s never been that way in the history of our sport. This is the best pole-vault group (at an NCAA meet) ever.”

The Tech men finished with 14 points and the women with seven.
Florida won the men’s team title with 57 points, and Oregon captured the women’s with 61 points.

The second time was Friday, which was perfect timing.

The quartet of Purity Biwott, Trudeann Clarke, Gladys Kipsang and Caroline Karunde closed the first day of the NCAA indoor championships with a fifth-place finish, which earned them all-America status.

Their time of 11 minutes, 9.53 seconds broke the school record they set last month at the New Balance Collegiate Invitational in New York City. They also earned four points.

“Hey, we came in ranked ninth and we got fifth,’’ Tech coach Wes Kittley said. “I’m really, really proud of the girls. We ran a school record. We run a season-best and improve five spots on how we were ranked, so I was real proud of that.’’

Tech’s Bryce Lamb continued his stellar freshman season, finishing fifth in the long jump to earn the men’s team four points. The Red Raiders’ other best hope for points, Omo Osaghae, won his heat in the 60-meter hurdles and advanced to today’s finals.

Tech has Shade Weygandt going today in the women’s pole vault, Kelsey Lloyd in the pentathlon, Lamb and Darrell Roddick in the men’s triple jump and Caroline Karunde in the mile. The Tech men and women also have teams in the 1,600-meter relay.

Lamb was one of three competitors to post a best mark of 25 feet, 91/4 inches. The tie is broken by second-best jump, so LSU’s Zedrick Thomas got fourth, Lamb fifth and Arizona’s Luis Rivera-Morales sixth.

“It feels pretty good,” Lamb said. “Fifth place is not something I’m used to or like, but it’s all-American. Tomorrow I’ll look for a better spot in the triple jump.”

Competing in their home facility, the Tyson Track Center, Arkansas’ Alain Bailey won the event in 26-93/4 and teammate Tarik Batchelor took third at 26-0.

Lamb came in ranked second in the NCAA after he set a personal record by almost 9 inches two weeks ago the Big 12 meet.

“When he jumped that 26-8 (1/2), some people were thinking he was going to come here and kill everybody,’’ Kittley said. “This is a national meet — there’s an unbelievable amount of pressure on you. I’m really proud of him. He kept his composure. He didn’t foul — he had five of six legal jumps. He gained a lot of maturity today. It’s going to help us down the road.’’

Osaghae will try today to win the 60-meter hurdles national championship that narrowly eluded him last year when he finished second. His time of 7.66 seconds was the fourth-best qualifying time to the finals, though he wasn’t pushed.

Oklahoma’s Ronnie Ash, the defending national champion, ran 7.55 — four one-hundredths of a second off the NCAA indoor meet record.

“He’ll have to have probably the best race of his life tomorrow to win,’’ Kittley said of Osaghae. “Ronnie Ash ran fabulous, and two or three others are really good. We’re hoping to put together a good race, and he’ll be fighting for the championship.’’

Two other men Tech had hoped to get points from just missed. Jansen Hyde had the 11th-best time (7.82) in the 60-meter hurdles — the last qualifier got in with a 7.80. And Brian Porter went 17-23/4 in the pole vault to tie for 11th. The top eight earn all-America designation.

Hyde and Porter performed to their pre-meet ranking: Hyde was ranked 10th in the NCAA, and Porter was one of several vaulters whose best mark this season ranked tied for 10th going in.

“They competed well; they were just a hair out,’’ Kittley said. “Nobody came here and just flopped. I was real proud of how we competed.’’

This weekend at the NCAA indoor championships, the Tech men are better positioned to shine. The Red Raiders have athletes ranked in the top seven nationally in five men’s events, giving Tech coach Wes Kittley hope for a top-five finish in the two-day meet at Fayetteville, Ark.

Over the last few years, the Tech men’s and women’s teams have taken turns in the spotlight.

“We’re still looking to get a trophy, indoor or outdoor, from one of those teams,’’ Kittley said Thursday. “I think the men have the best chance now to do that.’’

The last few years, the Red Raiders have benefited by individual stars such as Jonathan Johnson and Sally Kipyego and even deep teams — they qualified a school-record 31 athletes to the 2005 NCAA outdoor meet.

But trophies go to the top four teams, and that distinction has always eluded the Red Raiders.

“We’ve really been trying to get there,’’ Kittley said. “We’ve either had a few injuries or had people not perform at the right time. … It’d be a big deal. Coaches say they want to ‘get on the stand,’ (meaning) be top four. You’ve done pretty well out of 300 schools if you can do that.’’

The Red Raider men have a good idea of what it will take. At the last three NCAA indoor meets, the fourth-place men’s teams totaled 28, 33 and 29, points, respectively. The fifth-place teams that just missed a trophy had 25, 26 and 25, respectively.

Star freshman jumper Bryce Lamb and two-time all-America hurdler Omo Osaghae have the potential to get the men’s team into that range by themselves, given that first place earns 10 points and second place earns eight.

Osaghae finished second by one one-hundredth of a second in last year’s NCAA indoor 60-meter hurdles: He ran 7.64 seconds, and Ronnie Ash, then running for Bethune Cookman, won in 7.63.

Ash transferred this year to Oklahoma. He and Osaghae go into this weekend ranked 1-2 again based on their head-to-head duel two weeks ago at the Big 12 meet in Ames, Iowa, when Ash ran 7.59 to Osaghae’s career best 7.63.

At the same meet, Lamb won the long and triple jumps with marks of 26 feet, 81/2 inches and 54-01/2, respectively. The freshman from Chandler, Ariz., is ranked second in both events. He’ll be joined again in the triple jump by teammate Darrell Roddick, whose third-place mark in the Big 12 (53-53/4) is good for sixth going into Fayetteville.

Hurdler Jansen Hyde, ranked 10th in the 60s, and pole vaulter Brian Porter, whose top mark this season is tied for 10th, also could make a difference in the Red Raiders’ quest for a trophy if they can point, which requires a top-eight showing.

“We’re really hopeful that one of them at least will get in there and score,’’ Kittley said. “If Omo and Lamb and Roddick get in there and do what they’ve been doing, they’re going to score some points. If we’re in the high 20s, we’ll have a chance to get a trophy.’’

One proven point producer whom the Raiders won’t have is junior Gil Roberts, last year’s second-place finisher in both the NCAA indoor and U.S. outdoor 400 meters.

Roberts and former teammates Lamont Adams and Tim Foster were indicted Tuesday by a Lubbock County grand jury on aggravated robbery charges stemming from a January incident at a sporting goods store in which they are accused of fleeing with stolen goods.

Roberts has run in two meets since, but was withheld from the Big 12 meet.

“I’ve just been holding him out,’’ Kittley said. “The bottom line, from all the situation going on, I’ve just decided not to run him any more until that is more settled.’’

Foster and Adams are suspended indefinitely and off the team, according to Kittley. Both are former all-Americans on Tech 1,600-meter relays. Even without them, Tech still ranks seventh in the nation in the 1,600 relay with a lineup of Bryce Brown, Zach Plinario, Jamaal Butler and LaToy Williams.

The Tech women have eight athletes entered in the NCAA indoor, but only pole vaulter Shade Weygandt and the 1,600 relay rank inside the top eight in their events.

Hardly overlooked was the fact Brewer’s grandfather, Charlie Brewer, and his father, Robert Brewer, are former Texas Longhorns quarterbacks.

But in coming to Lubbock, Michael Brewer won’t necessarily escape his standard bearers.

In 1999, Charlie Brewer, a Lubbock High legend, was named the quarterback on the A-J All-City All-Century football team and to the South Plains’ Top 100 Athletes of all-time list.

“I’ve seen all of his old photos and his old playbooks and his ring,’’ Michael Brewer said. “He loves Lubbock, thinks it’s a great town. He’s really fired up that I’m going to be at Texas Tech.’’

Still just a junior in high school, Michael Brewer already has a lot in common with his grandfather: Just as Charlie Brewer quarterbacked Lubbock High to a 13-0 state championship season in 1951 — the first of back-to-back titles for the Westerners — Michael quarterbacked Class 4A Lake Travis to a 16-0 state championship season last year.

Brewer, who said he is 6-foot-1 and 180 pounds, posted attention-getting statistics last season for the Cavaliers. He threw for 4,450 yards on 256-of-367 passing, and his touchdowns-to-interceptions ratio was 43-7.

That won him 10 scholarship offers, the others coming from Texas, Baylor, Kansas, Arizona State, Clemson, Tulsa, Rice, East Carolina and Auburn. But Brewer’s first offer came from Tech in week six of last season.

“I was interested right off the bat,’’ he said.

He promptly visited campus the week of the Tech-Texas A&M game. After the Red Raiders’ coaching change, Brewer visited again for a junior day.

“When I visited, it was everything I expected and more,’’ he said. “I kind of fell in love with Lubbock and Texas Tech, and I’m real excited to be a Red Raider.’’

Brewer plans to graduate high school in December and enroll at Tech in January.

After Tech fired former coach Mike Leach, Brewer said new head coach Tommy Tuberville and offensive coordinator Neal Brown came to watch him throw and confirmed his scholarship offer remained in place. He didn’t need much time to warm up to the new coaches.

Brewer said among the pluses to joining Tech is that Brown’s offense is similar to what he’s been running at Lake Travis.

“I’ve briefly seen just a little bit of film on some of the stuff they’re going to be running,’’ he said. “It’s a really fast-paced, no-huddle, hurry-up offense. Running the ball. Throwing the ball all around the field. Rolling out. Running the quarterback — not a lot, but just enough.’’

Brewer also seems well-suited for Brown’s offense in the latter regard. He carried the ball 114 times for 615 yards and 23 touchdowns last season.

“I’m a pass-first and then run-second guy,’’ he said. “But if necessary, I can run the ball.’’

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While many Tech fans were angered by the December firing of Mike Leach, others are warming up to his replacement. Speaking Tuesday to a crowd of about 700, Tommy Tuberville got hearty applause when he vowed to win multiple championships for the Red Raiders.

“I think it speaks volumes that the place was sold out,” Seim said of Tuberville’s “Lubbock Welcome” sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, Tech Alumni Association and the Red Raider Club. “I think people are kind of over the transition that we went through back in December and early January and have accepted and recognized the fact that we’ve got in coach Tuberville a coach that is in the elite status of college coaches in America.

“I told my wife, I’m going to actually go to the spring game, and I’ve never done that.”

Tuberville told the luncheon crowd at the Memorial Civic Center that he didn’t come to Lubbock to win six or seven games a season.

“We know how to win championships,” he said. “You can just imagine here the excitement when we do win … because we’re going to win a championship. We’re going to win maybe two, maybe three, maybe four. It just depends on what the good Lord wants us to have.”

Tuberville devoted much of his talk to what the community could do for the football program and vice versa.

“Whatever happens over in that stadium on Saturday will benefit you, the businesses of this town, the people of this community,” he said. “It will bring people here. Millions of dollars will be brought into this community because of the success.”

Tuberville, who was part of three national championship teams in eight years as a University of Miami assistant, said that school received enrollment boosts of 15 to 18 percent after each title. He said, then, that Tech football would do its part to help achieve Chancellor Kent Hance’s long-term goal of 40,000 enrollment.

In return, Tuberville said the team needed to see Red Raider banners in the community and bumper stickers on cars.

“You will be amazed how that helps when we bring recruits to this community, to see the excitement not just in the football program, not just in the field house, not just around campus, but in the community,” he said. “You will prosper from this.”

Seim said he thinks the business community is excited by Tuberville’s presence.

“I think the entire university is going to benefit greatly,” he said, “and as the university benefits the entire area will benefit.”

Steve Uryasz, head of the Red Raider Club, said the RRC has received hundreds of requests for Tuberville to speak across the state, too many for him to do them all. Uryasz said he’s looking to see where coordinators and assistants could be used to help out in speaking engagements.

In cases such as Tuesday, he said the Red Raider Club is making an effort to combine requests into one bigger event when it makes sense.

“He’s done a really good job of pulling everybody together,” Tech athletic director Gerald Myers said. “I think people like what he has to say about his plan, about what he’s going to do with the team. I think people appreciate his being accessible to go out and visit and talk to different groups, civic clubs, alumni. I think he’s been received really well.”

On other topics:

• Tuberville said he spent about three hours recently talking with former Red Raiders coach Spike Dykes, whom he described as a long-time friend. Though the purpose was not to pick up dinner-speaking tips, Tuberville tickled the crowd a few times, a quality for which Dykes was renowned.

Joking about the unseasonably cold, wet winter he’s experienced in Lubbock, Tuberville cracked, “At least the wind never blows here.”

He said Tech athletic chief of staff Craig Wells “told me, next week (the weather) is going to start getting beautiful. That was three weeks ago.”

• Tech is in the process of adding display and trophy cases to the team’s football building.

“We already had that funded – and built – before he came,” Myers said. “But they’re just now putting them in. It’s going to be nice to showcase the football history. It’s like he said: It’s all about recruiting.”

• Tuberville urged fans to show up on April 17 for the spring game, an event that Leach often downplayed as no more important to him than any other practice. Tech plans to charge $5 for adults to attend this year.

• Tuberville wants to rev up the players’ pre-game arrival at the stadium. In recent years, Tech invited fans to greet players as they made the short walk from the Football Training Facility to Jones AT&T Stadium, though the idea didn’t really take off.

Tuberville envisions the players being dropped off a quarter-mile out and passing through the tailgaters or Raider Alley area west of the stadium.

“I’m not here to change a lot of things,” he said. “I’m here to make it better. I’m here to help you. I’m here to help Texas Tech, and I’m here to win a championship.”

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Ellison coach Buddy McBryde said Hocutt is 6-foot, 258 pounds and has been timed at 4.6 seconds for the 40-yard sprint.

“He’s very big, very athletic, an extremely strong player,’’ McBryde said.

Hocutt played inside linebacker in a 4-4 defense and fullback in a wing-T offense. Ellison coaches started him on both sides of the ball, though not at the same time.

McBryde said Hocutt played most of last season at linebacker, averaging six solo tackles per game, but moved to fullback for the last three games. In those three games, McBryde said Hocutt rushed for about 70 yards against Belton, about 110 yards against Killeen Shoemaker and 180 yards against College Station A&M Consolidated.

McBryde said Hocutt was brought up to the varsity for the last six or seven games of his freshman year. As a sophomore, he was named defensive newcomer of the year in the district. Those two seasons, he was a teammate of Daniel Cobb, who signed with Tech last February and redshirted in 2009.

Next season, Ellison coaches plan to use Hocutt at fullback.

The Eagles finished 4-6 last season.

McBryde said Texas, Oklahoma State and TCU also had shown interest in Hocutt, but Tech was the first program to offer him a scholarship.

“What he liked about them that impressed them was they faxed us the offer and that kind of was a surprise to him, and wanted him to call,’’ McBryde said. “But then they mailed another one with a hand-written address. That seemed to impress him. As soon as he got it (Monday), last night he committed.’’

Oral commitments are non-binding.

Hocutt is the second recruit to pledge to the Red Raiders for the February 2011 class. The other pledge is from Lakeland, Fla., wide receiver Javares McRoy, whose brother, Ben McRoy, signed with the Red Raiders last month.

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He wasn’t far off.

When the two-day meet concluded Saturday in Ames, Iowa, the Tech women had piled up 115 points and finished second, just as they did in last year’s Big 12 indoor and outdoor meets.

But this was even better.

“All my years coaching here, this was the best effort we’ve ever had,’’ Tech’s 10th-year coach said. “The most points I think we’ve ever scored. We just didn’t get any help from any of the other teams to bust up A&M in the sprints.’’

That happens a lot. The A&M women, who won the NCAA outdoor national title in June, prevailed again with 130 points. The Aggies exerted their sprints dominance with a 1-2-3-4 finish in the 200 meters, good for 29 points. The Lady Raiders gave the Aggies a go of it, though, by racking up 62 points in middle-distance and distance races.

Caroline and Winrose Karunde, Purity Biwott, Lillian Badaru and Gladys Kipsang keyed Tech’s effort in the 800, 3,000 and 5,000 meters, the mile run and the distance medley relay. Tech won the latter, Caroline Karunde and Biwott finished 1-2 in the mile, and Biwott won the 800.

They carried off a strategy mapped out in advance of each running two or three races.

“Our distance girls from the 800 up were tremendous,’’ Kittley said. “They worked so hard, and doubled and tripled (in events).’’

On the men’s side, Saturday was another record-setting day for Tech freshman Bryce Lamb and senior Omo Osaghae. Lamb won the triple jump with a last-round mark of 54 feet, 1/2 inch, breaking a 10-year-old Big 12 indoor meet record.

Osaghae lost a dual with Oklahoma star Ronnie Ash, a race in which both broke the meet record and ran the two fastest times in the nation this year.

On Friday, Lamb broke the meet record while winning the long jump.

“I’ve never seen a performance like he’s had in the last two days,’’ Kittley said.

Friday night, Lamb had already clinched the long jump going into his final attempt, when he went 26-81/2 for a new personal best by nearly 9 inches. On Saturday, he was sitting in fifth and had fouled four straight jumps before he made his last one a good one.

Lamb, from Chandler, Ariz., came to Tech as one of nation’s most accomplished recruits in the jumps. But he quickly turned the potential into something tangible by winning two events.

“It means a lot, but it was expected,’’ Lamb said late Friday. “I know I came in with a lot of high expectations, just from my coaches and even myself. Coming in, I knew it was a possibility, so I felt like I had to perform.’’

Senior Darrell Roddick, who said last week Lamb’s presence has pushed him to be better, took third in a stacked field of triple jumpers with a mark of 52-10. Going into the weekend, nine of the nation’s top 25 triple jumpers were from the Big 12, including Texas A&M athletes ranking 1-2-3.

“I was real proud of those guys,’’ Kittley said. “We had great performances in that area.’’

The Tech men took fifth, scoring 741/2 points. That was without star quartermiler Gil Roberts, who warmed up Saturday but was withheld from competition because of a nagging leg problem. With the NCAA indoor meet coming up in two weeks, Kittley said coaches didn’t want to risk his health.

The team’s newest star quartermiler, former South Plains College national champion LaToy Williams, won the 600-yard run.

In a stellar 60-meter hurdles final, OU’s Ash ran 7.59 seconds to Osaghae’s career best 7.63. No one in NCAA Division I had clocked faster than 7.68 before Saturday.

“Honestly, I’ve got to say that was the best race I’ve been in,’’ said Osaghae, a senior from Monterey who was last year’s NCAA indoor runnerup. “I knew he would be ready to go for the finals, and I was, too. I guess he got the better part of it for this weekend.’’

Ash and Osaghae have gone head to head three times with Ash prevailing in all three.

Ash is the defending NCAA champion in the 60- and 110-meter hurdles, but he did it last year for Bethune-Cookman. The junior from North Carolina transferred to OU for this year.

“I was really excited, because I heard that after he ran outdoors last year he was going to go pro,’’ Osaghae said. “I like going against good competition. I couldn’t be more excited, because I get to see him more often than I would before.’’

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Boy, was Roddick right on the first count. Was he ever.

As the Big 12 indoor championships started Friday, Lamb won the long jump by going 26 feet, 81/2 inches at Iowa State’s Lied Recreation Center. The mark is a school record, Big 12 indoor meet record and third best in the world this year.

Lamb already had clinched the title with a mark of 25-11, so he was able to let it all hang out going into his last jump. He wound up beating his all-time best by almost 9 inches.

“I’ve been around (26 feet-plus) before, but everybody always has those great fouls,” he said. “Even tonight, I had a great foul. I knew I was ready, but I hadn’t been able to put one together all year. I ended up putting one together. I’m still not believing it.”

Lamb, from Chandler, Ariz., entered the meet ranked fifth in the NCAA in the triple jump and sixth in the long jump.

The Red Raiders hope it’s just the first of many headline-making meets for Lamb, who came to Tech as the one of the most highly touted recruits in the nation in the jumps. But he quickly turned potential into something tangible with his first Big 12 title.

“It means a lot, but it was expected,” he said. “I know I came in with a lot of high expectations, just from my coaches and even myself. Coming in, I knew it was a possibility, so I felt like I had to perform.”

On the first day of the Big 12 meet, he wasn’t the only Tech freshman making waves.

Shade Weygandt, the former three-time state champion from Mansfield, won the women’s pole vault, clearing a personal record 14 feet, 21/2 inches to beat one of her rivals and everyone else.

“I am so excited,’’ she said. “I got two personal bests — 14 feet, one-half inch and then 14-21/2. I personal bested twice today. I really couldn’t be happier with this performance.’’

Weygandt’s first-place finish, a second by Ozie Okolie in the weight throw and thirds from Amanda Alley in the pole vault and Kelsey Lloyd in the pentathlon gave an early boost to the Tech women. They were runners-up to Texas A&M in both the Big 12 indoor and outdoor meets last year.

Later Friday, Tech got a win from the distance medley relay team of Gladys Kipsang, Taylor Evans, Purity Biwott and Caroline Karunde. The women finished the night with 481/2 points, good for the first-day lead. Finals in most events are Saturday.

Weygandt’s previous career best was 14-0 at the Great Southwest Classic last summer in Albuquerque.

She finally conquered Nebraska junior Natalie Willer, who had beaten her head-to-head in their only two previous meetings before Weygandt got to Tech.

Both cleared 14-01/2, and Willer was ahead on fewer misses, so Weygandt had to clear the next bar or finish second.

Alley, a Tech senior from Crosbyton, cleared 12-83/4 to tie for third. She placed second in both the Big 12 indoor and outdoor last year.

Tech coach Wes Kittley has said since Weygandt signed that he expected her to compete right away for all-America status — in other words, finish in the top eight at the NCAA championships. Her first such meet will be March 12-13 at Fayetteville, Ark.

“I just have to go there with the right attitude and right mind set, knowing that anything is possible,’’ said Weygandt, whose performance Friday ranks fourth in NCAA Division I this season.

Okolie got Tech eight points in the weight throw with a best effort of 61-101/4.

The Tech men also got points from Brian Porter in the pole vault and Roddick in the long jump. Porter cleared 16-51/2 to tie for fifth place and Roddick marked 24-71/4 for sixth.

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Heart pounding, mind racing, unable to breathe, he scratches on the attempt.

“I don’t even have it on my record — it’s just a foul,’’ he said. “But if you see the video, you see me, I get up and I’m holding my chest. I can feel my heart beating real fast. I can’t breathe, and I’m trying to catch my breath.’’

Lamb

Roddick

Good news is, he got over it. In the same series of jumps three weeks ago in Albuquerque, Lamb nailed an effort of 53 feet, 41/2 inches, a mark that ranks fifth in the NCAA. It’s just what Tech coaches expected from Lamb, who last year was the nation’s top high school recruit in the triple jump and second best in the long jump.

When Lamb signed with Tech last February, Red Raiders coach Wes Kittley said he expected the phenom from
Chandler, Ariz., to challenge for all-America status as a freshman.

Lamb said his first long jump and first triple jump for Tech were forgettable as nerves got the better of him.

“They were both crazy,’’ he said. “But after that first one, it was like, ‘I got that done and now I go back to competing, just like I’ve been doing for years.’ To have a head coach expect me to compete for all-America, it’s a good expectation. I expect it myself also. To have it the first indoor season, it’s just a blessing.’’

Tech competes today and Saturday at the Big 12 Conference indoor championships hosted by Iowa State.
Men’s triple jump is one event in which Tech hopes to do well — Darrell Roddick ranks fourth in the nation with a mark a little better than Lamb’s best — but the Big 12 is loaded with star triple jumpers. Texas A&M athletes ran 1-2-3 in the nation, and four other Big 12 triple jumpers are in the top 25.

“Big 12 is going to be like the pre-nationals, I guess you could say,’’ said Roddick, a senior from North Charleston, S.C.

Lamb’s arrival as a high-profile signee might be rubbing off on his teammates. Roddick posted a personal best of 53-53/4 two weeks ago at the Texas A&M Challenge in College Station. That was the week after Lamb uncorked his 53-foot-plus jump in Albuquerque.

“I think that’s one of the main reasons I’ve improved so much from last year,’’ Roddick said. “He’s like a higher-caliber jumper than I’ve been around ever in my life. Because he’s here, I felt like I had to push myself that much harder, and it just made me that much better as a jumper.’’

Lamb’s recruitment was complicated because, aside from being a blue-chip track athlete, he was offered football scholarships by half the Pac-10 Conference as well as Nebraska and Colorado.

He said his choice came down to signing with Tech for track or with Colorado for football.

“I just kind of narrowed it down to the fact that I love track and it’s something I’ve been doing for so much longer,’’ he said. “My sister kind of helped me out with that. She told me the potential that you have for track because of things I wasn’t able to do for track in high school that I’ll be able to do in college.’’

In high school, Lamb said he seldom even practiced the jumps in workouts; he spent that time doing sprint workouts for the 100 and 200 meters, two relays and the 300-meter hurdles.

At Tech, though, he’ll concentrate on his best events and have Roddick pushing him.

Roddick transferred to Tech from South Plains College. Throughout college, he’s competed best in triple jump and high jump, two events in which he finished second in the nation for South Plains at the 2007 NJCAA outdoor meet. High jump/triple jump is an unusual combination, but Roddick also cleared 7 feet at last year’s
Big 12 outdoor championships.

Still, a stress fracture in his hip nagged Roddick throughout last season, keeping him from performing what he thought was his best. To keep from aggravating the hip injury, he’s not participating in the high jump early this season, but doing the two horizontal jumps instead.

The results so far have been encouraging.

“It feels good, especially this early in the season, to be jumping PRs (personal records) and stuff,’’ he said. “It’s nothing but building my confidence going into the rest of the season, especially for the Big 12.’’

Big 12 championships
-When: Today and Saturday
-Where: Ames, Iowa
-Tech’s national rankings: Darrell Roddick, fourth in triple jump; Bryce Lamb, fifth in triple jump, sixth in long jump; Omo Osaghae, fifth in 60-meter hurdles; Kelsey Lloyd, fifth in women’s pentathlon; Tech, sixth in women’s distance medley relay; Shade Weygandt, 10th in women’s pole vault.

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