Five Former Bison Competing in Rio Olympics

SHAWNEE – Five athletes with Oklahoma Baptist ties will be representing five nations in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, which start Aug. 5.  Former OBU track athletes Michael Rodgers, Nickeisha Wilson and Akela Jones, and swimmers A.J. Barbar and Ines Remersaro will compete in a number of events.

Rodgers will represent Team USA in the men's 4x100 relay. Wilson is in the women's 100 meter hurdles for Jamaica and Akela Jones represents Barbados in the heptathalon.

Barbar, representing Lebanon, will swim the men's 50 meter freestyle and 100 meter butterfly, while Remersaro swims the 100 meter backstroke, 200 meter backstroke and 50 meter freestyle for Uruguay.  It is the second Olympics for Remersaro.

Rodgers was a four-time national champion and five-time All-American as a senior at Oklahoma Baptist in 2007 and still holds five school records. He also has two USATF indoor championships to his credit.

Jones claimed nine OBU records, 12 national championships and 19 All-America honors before transferring to Kansas State after the 2014 season. She since won two more national titles at the NCAA Division I level.

Wilson still owns the indoor 400 hurdles record at OBU and was a three-time national champion and seven-time All-American at OBU before transferring to LSU, where she won three more national titles and nine more All-American honors in 2007-08.

Remersaro is a three-time national champion and 10-time All-American and holds seven OBU records.

Barbar holds two OBU records in the 200 meter free and 200 meter medley relays.

Several other Bison just missed out on the 2016 Games.

FINA determined Mexico's swim team and did not include Daniel Ramirez. In track, Elizabeth Dadzie had Ghana's best heptathlon score but not enough points to make the Olympic cut. Blake Bartlett was second in the 200m in the Bahamas trials but did not have a wind-legal time for the Olympic standards. He also was an alternate on the 4x100 relay, but the team did not meet Olympic standards. Gayon Evans missed the Jamaican team by one spot.

The Olympic track and field events run Aug. 12-20, while swimming goes from Aug. 6-12.