Oklahoma State University Athletics
Cowboys Ready to Bring Home Conference Championship
May 23, 2003 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track
The Cowboys will be led by returning Big 12 3,000-meter steeplechase champion Chuck Sloan when the meet starts Friday. The championships run through Sunday at the Hart/Patterson Track and Field Complex on the campus of Baylor University.
Sloan will defend his crown at 5:20 p.m. Sunday. Last season's race was one of the closest in history as Sloan came from behind to edge Missouri's Ray Hughes for the title. Both runners finished the race with the same time,8:52.30, but Sloan was awarded first after looking at the photo finish.
One of Sloan's stiffest competitors this year will be teammate Andrew Hennessy. Sloan and Hennessy are 1-2 in the Big 12 standings, and both have automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships on June 2-5. Jerry Rainey will compete in the steeplechase as well.
Another top runner in the conference is Nathaniel Lane, who has led the Big 12 in the 10,000m all season. He will receive some heavy competition from a teammate as well when the race commences at 8:15 p.m. Friday. Ren Carlsen has the second-best time in the event in the conference. Also competing in the race is Gitogo Churu, who needs to improve his time by less than a second to provisionally qualify for the national meet, and Bruce Wright.
Lane, Carlsen and Churu will go at it again in the 5,000m at 7:05 p.m. Sunday. The trio will be joined by Sloan, Hennessy, Rainey, Wright, Staffan Stegmark and Brian Young.
David Greenshields, Cam Katchuck and Ben Phillips will compete in the 800m dash at 8:30 p.m. Saturday. Katchuck also will run in the 400m dash at 6:15 p.m. Saturday.
Stegmark and Young will join Hennessy in the 1,500m run. Preliminaries are at 5 p.m. Saturday with finals at 5:35 p.m. Sunday.
Tony Houchin and Chris Nuttle will compete in the decathlon. The first event for the duo is the 100m at noon Friday, and it wraps up with the 1,500m at 7:15 p.m. Saturday.
The Cowboys' 4x400m relay team will wrap up the championships when it competes at 7:45 p.m. Sunday.
