Joey D. Richards

It's funny how things work out. Ramon Sparks and Andrew McDowell were both recruited by the University of Kansas track and field team, and it seemed like the two friends from Kansas City, Mo., were going to be competing as Jayhawks together.

Well, at least until things fell apart when it came time to sign. It seems neither Sparks or McDowell were happy with Kansas' final offer as far as scholarship money.

"If I can't have as much money as I feel like I should get, then I don't want to come at all," said McDowell, an accounting major. "I want to go somewhere else where I could get more money. It's all about graduating for me. Track has paved the way for me to get my diploma, and that's what I was coming here for. I wasn't going to college just to run track and be a track star. I wanted to be a student first and then an athlete. Track was just paying the way."

Of course, "here", at least in terms of Abilene Christian University, wasn't really on McDowell's radar at the time. But Sparks came down for a visit, and ACU made him an offer. He talked Don D. Hood -- ACU's track coach at the time -- into giving his friend McDowell a look, too, and eventually Hood extended an offer -- and McDowell accepted before he ever set foot on the campus.

It turned out to be a pretty good deal for all the parties involved. McDowell won an indoor national title as a junior in the 60-meter hurdles last season, while Sparks won an outdoor national title in the triple jump as a sophomore a few months later.

Both attended Raytown South High School in Kansas City, Mo., where they graduated in 2006, and they both feed off each other's success.

"Even in high school, we kind of worked off each other," Sparks said. "We're both pretty decent athletes. We've been friends since my freshman year in high school. Coming to college, it was like the perfect thing to come to school together. Even now, we still work off each other. Like last year, he won indoors, and it really encouraged me to go out there and win outdoors. I didn't want to go home and feel like he won a national championship and I didn't have nothing to show back home."

But the last piece of the puzzle for the two friends would be winning national titles on the same weekend, and they'll get that chance at the indoor championships this weekend (March 12-13) in Albuquerque, N.M.

"For us to both win, that would be great," McDowell said. "My mom always says Ramon is her surrogate son. She takes care of him just like she does for me."

And McDowell's parents will be making the trip to Albuquerque to see both compete this weekend.

"It would be a great thing just to share that with my family and his parents, because I'm like a son to them," McDowell said. "I pray to God that we can make that happen this weekend."

Sparks aiming for two titles

Ramon Sparks is the defending national outdoor champion in the triple jump, and he's got the best leap going into this weekend's indoor championships. But he'd like to win both the triple and long jumps. Winning the long jump won't be easy. He goes into the event with 13th best qualifying mark out of 13 athletes.

But he knows with ACU only sending six men in nine events, every point is crucial if the Wildcats hope to win their first indoor national title since 2005 when they won their eighth straight title and 11th out of the previous 13. St. Augustine's has won the last four titles.

"We're really down as a team right now, but I still feel like we can pull it off as a team," Sparks said. "If we go there and compete to our ability, we have a chance. But that's a reason I want to go out there and win (both). If I can put 20 points on the board for our team it gives us a better chance of winning as a team."

ACU's Desmond Jackson (60, 200), Amos Sang (mile run and 5,000), Landon Ehlers (pole vault) and James Hardin (heptathlon) also qualified for the indoor nationals.

ACU will be sending four women in seven events -- Wanda Hutson (60, 200), Jessica Withrow (high jump, pentathlon), Jessica Blair (pole vault, triple jump) and Anais Belledant (mile run).

Blair, a senior, goes in the pole vault competition as the No. 2 qualifier (4 meters), while Minnesota State-Mankato's Lauren Stelton is No. 1 (4.07). Hutson, a senior, is seeded No. 6 in the 60 (7.50).
Adams State is the defending women's champs. ACU has won 13 titles, its last in 2000 to culminate a streak of eight in a row.