Recently one of the faculty members competed in a national
athletic event.
Last weekend Joe Hughes attended the National Indoor Track
meet in Albuquerque, NM. The finals of the meet were televised on ESPN on
Sunday. The track meet is a part of
Visa’s Championship Series.
Hughes originally started track in the fifth grade and has
loved it ever since. His official track career didn’t start until his sophomore
year in high school, where he ran long distance, mile and two mile and started
running the 400 meter races.
To qualify for the national meet, a runner needed to run the
400 meter run with a time of 47:40, Hughes ran the quarter mile with a time of
48:80 at the University of OU. After talking with Kate Ferguson, he realized
that the dimensions of OU’s were measured in yards instead of meters. Hughes
contacted the OU and got the accurate dimensions and realized that the
differences of measurement caused a discrepancy in the times. He wrote several emails to the chairmen of
the USA Track Team and after a week of discussing they told him he could
compete.
Hughes also made this accomplishment without being connected
or on any official running or track team. He trained with three of his friends
that ran track with him in college that wanted to start running again.
At the meet, Hughes finished third in his heat, and 14th
out of the 18 runners. The winner of the heat is an Oklahoma native that
currently has the world record with a time of 45:39.
“I enjoyed every bit of it,” Hughes said.
The meet had around a total of 150 athletes, from all over
the country and some international athletes that were sponsored by companies
like Nike and Adidas.