Sports Briefs: Five former Sooners selected in Draft

Five former Sooners selected in Draft

Five former OU football players were selected this weekend in the NFL draft. Here’s a look at the players who had their names called Saturday and Sunday.

Tackle Phil Loadholt

Loadholt was selected as the 54th overall pick in the draft during Saturday’s second round by the Minnesota Vikings.

Loadholt is the third OU player taken by the Vikings in the past three years. He’s expected to compete for a starting spot next year, blocking for former Sooner tailback Adrian Peterson.

Receiver Juaquin Iglesias

The Chicago Bears selected Iglesias with the 99th overall pick in Sunday’s third round.

Chicago has also made a habit of drafting Sooners, as they’ve taken 24 Sooners overall and five since head coach Bob Stoops arrived in Norman.

The Bears hope Iglesias can add to what is widely considered a thin receiving corps in Chicago.

Safety/Linebacker Nic Harris

Former Sooner safety Harris was drafted by the Buffalo Bills with the 147th overall pick in the draft. He was selected in the fifth round Sunday afternoon.

Harris, who, excluding a few games, spent the majority of his time in the secondary at OU, may likely spend time working out at outside linebacker when he arrives in Buffalo.

Guard Duke Robinson

Robinson was also selected in the fifth round, going to the Carolina Panthers with the 163rd overall pick.

Robinson, who prior to the 2008 season was considered by many to be a first-rounder in this year’s draft, fell further than some analysts predicted.

With the pick, Robinson becomes the first ever Sooner to be selected by the Panthers. The only team now to never have drafted a player from OU is the Houston Texans, who entered the league in 2002.

Receiver Manuel Johnson

Johnson was selected by the Dallas Cowboys in the seventh and final round of the NFL draft, 229th overall.

Johnson became the eighth OU wide receiver to be selected since Stoops arrived in Norman and the seventh since 2005.

The Cowboys were looking for receiver help as they cut their No. 1 receiver Terrell Owens in the offseason. They now have former University of Texas star Roy Williams, and a group of young receivers.

— Daily Staff

Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon

The ninth-annual Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon took place Sunday morning and several winners had ties to OU.

Jordan Kinley, strategic communications graduate student and former Daily sports writer, won the event with a time of 2:27:19.

The female winner was Catherine Odell, a recent OU alumna and former track and field athlete, who was the first woman to cross the line with a time of 3:10:16.

Odell said it wasn’t until after she crossed the finish line that she was certain she finished first.

“I heard people saying I was the first woman but there was such a cluster of people finishing that on a relay or on the half marathon [no one knew I won],” Odell said. “They kept the video camera on another girl the whole race, and then she ended up dropping I think.”

— Steven Jones/The Daily

Tennis falls out in first round of Big 12 tournament

The sixth-seeded men’s tennis team fell out of the Big 12 tournament in the first round this weekend after losing 4-0 to Texas in the Big 12 Championships Friday afternoon.

The No. 3-seeded Longhorns beat the Sooners Friday for the second time this season in a match that started poorly for the Sooners.

OU could not get any early momentum and dropped the doubles point to go down 1-0 before the singles round.

The Sooners looked to bounce back in singles, but Texas came out and took the first three matches to seal the victory.

OU junior Blake Boswell was the first to fall, going 6-3,6-1.

Sophomore Ionut Beleleu fell second, followed by freshman George Chanturia.

After completing one of the toughest schedules in the country, the Sooners now wait to see if they have a future in the postseason.

The NCAA will announce who will compete in the national championships on April 29th.

- Annelise Russell/The Daily