Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Finish 16th At NCAA Cross Country Championships
April 06, 2003 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track
Sloan, who had won All-America honors in both indoor and outdoor track (distance medley relay once and 3,000-meter steeplechase twice), finished the NCAA Championships in 43rd place here at the IU Golf Course today.
His time of 31:23.00 in the 10-kilometer race was less than one minute, 17 seconds off the pace set by champion South Alabama's David Kimani. The top 44 runners of the 248 that competed at the meet received All-America honors.
"He went out fine in the beginning, and he moved up at the 5,000-meter mark," OSU coach Dick Weis said. "But he started going too fast and ran out of gas. He got All-America status, and you can't complain about that."
The Cowboys finished 16th as a team in their seventh straight appearance at the national meet. Arkansas won the team honors, while Wisconsin finished second.
"It was outstanding," Weis said. "This was not the most talented team in the past seven years, but it was one that never gave up. During those seven years, we have never finished worse that 16th. We finished 16th at the beginning of the seven years too. I'm happy for what we've done.
"This is a real credit to a great bunch of kids who worked hard and overcame a lot of adversity. This rivals the year when we finished fourth here (1996). It's fantastic."
Jerry Rainey, who was the second Cowboy to cross the finish line, completed the race in 21:55.60, good enough for 84th place.
"Jerry did a tremendous job," Weis said. "It was his best race here at OSU. They all did well."
This was the last meet for the Cowboys this season. OSU will lose only Sloan for next year's team. All members of the cross country team will compete on OSU's track and field team as well. The indoor season begins January 2000.
"I'm really excited for the kids," Weis said. "We will return six of the seven runners to the team next year. We should be back up where we belong - in the top seven or eight."
Team Results
1. Arkansas 58 2. Wisconsin 185 3. NC State 201 4. Stanford 223 5. Michigan 282 6. Oregon 306 7. Colorado 307 8. Notre Dame 312 9. Iona 338 10. Arizona 346 11. Georgetown 354 12. Northern Arizona 370 13. William & Mary 371 14. Arizona State 391 15. Minnesota 392 16. Oklahoma State 419 17. Villanova 424 18. Weber State 450 19. Providence 458 Princeton 458 21. Southern Utah 466 22. Texas A&M 487 23. Alabama 501 24. Dartmouth 502 25. South Florida 517 26. Portland 535 27. James Madison 544 28. Missouri 556 29. Cal Poly 607 30. Brigham Young 717 31. Rice 824
OSU Results
43. Chuck Sloan 31:23.00 84. Jerry Rainey 31:55.60 126. Bruce Wright 32:23.70 130. Ben Lake 32:27.20 149. Junior Vasquez 32:40.90 200. Staffan Stegmark 33:27.50 233. Trey Vernon 34:26.90
