This past month, major upgrades have been made to the Oklahoma Christian University track and field facilities. These upgrades include a brand new throwing ring for the hammer and discus events, along with plans to build a brand new ring for the weight and shot put events in the coming months. This renovation has been made possible by a generous donor who wants to see Oklahoma Christian track and field thrive.
Katie Stephens, throwing coach for the Oklahoma Christian track and field team, spoke about the donation made to Oklahoma Christian.
“So his name is Don Millican, and he is one of the main contributors to the [Throw Town] Ramona facility in Oklahoma, where there’s a lot of really good, strong pro athletes that will come and train there. He just is really into track and field, and always wanted some setup here in Oklahoma that athletes could really take advantage of the wind. So he built Ramona out there, and I believe he has some connections to OC through relatives. I believe his daughter went here, and so he’s really been looking into OC recently, and decided to invest in the program here after seeing what we had, which needed a lot of work. So he was kind enough to invest his time and money into building something better for the athletes. So we’re really excited. Don throws himself, he competes on his own time as well in the discus, and he does pretty well. He made us promise that he gets the first throw when everything’s said and done. So he’ll be coming out here to give us the first throw for the new ring,” said Stephens. “He gave money to OC, and he also gave us the groups that he worked with in Ramona, the same people that helped build their facility there, he used them here. So he helped provide the resources and the funding for us to make this happen. It’s pretty significant,” she said.
The building teams that donor Don Millican provided have been working through the past month to get one of the two outdoor throwing rings set up for athletes to begin training.
“It’ll be available this season. The hammer and discus ring will be done. I think it is almost done now, we probably won’t start throwing in it till October, though, just because of our practice schedule. But then the shot put, I believe, won’t be ready till the beginning of next year, so that’ll be a little bit later in the season. But they should still be able to get to use it this year,” said Stephens. “They built the ring for discus and hammer, and then the new poles. Really nice system of raising the nets and lowering them. Very state of the art, if we ever started to have meets it would be great for that. There’s a second part of the project, I know they’re going to start working on the shot put area. I don’t know to what extent it will look like, but we’ll replace the gravel and get a new ring there. So that’ll be a lot better than it is now.”
Solomon Ross, a junior majoring in biology and athlete on the Oklahoma Christian track and field team as a thrower, talked about the upcoming season for the throwing team.
“I throw the discus and the hammer during the outdoor season, and the weight during the indoor season,” said Ross. “We’ve got a bunch of new throwers. We always had a pretty small crew, but this year the team has just about doubled in size. We’ve got freshmen and transfers, and a lot of great athletes on the team this year, and we’re all excited to start practice, use the new ring, and compete with each other,” he said.
Ross spoke about the new throwing ring and the team’s eagerness to continue in their success from last season.
“From my understanding, it’s a pretty state-of-the-art resource. It looks great, and it’s as good as it gets, from what I can tell,” Ross said.“Last year during the indoor season, we swept the podium for the men’s weight throw, first, second, and third place. And in the outdoor season we had some other placings, notably another conference championship in the hammer throw. These were successes that we worked for on pretty old rings, and so I think that we’re definitely going to take advantage of the new one we have. We’re going to put it to good use.”
The Oklahoma Christian track and field team will soon begin regular practices with their new facilities.
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