Oklahoma State University Athletics
2008 Cowboy Jamboree: OSU Quotes
October 04, 2008 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track
Cowboy Jamboree :: Oct. 4, 2008
Oklahoma State Quotes
Coach Dave Smith
On the race:
"I thought it was an A effort. That was exactly what we needed. We had a plan to start that race that we wanted to run as hard as it took to win as a team, but controlled enough to keep a group of four or five together and keep everybody in there building momentum towards future races. I think we did that to perfection today."
On his young runners:
"Unbelievable, unbelievable, better than I had hoped. German, we started getting hints he was pretty good early on in training. Colby, I didn't let him do one of the real key indicator workouts that German did, so I wasn't sure where he was, but he showed he's right there. Then Ryan Prentice, same thing. Ryan Prentice surprised me a lot today and ran a great race for a freshman. We had never had a freshman break 25 minutes since I've been here, and we had three do it today. That was awesome."
On the veterans:
"I think it's great to have guys that know how to keep their emotions under control; keep everybody else in the game mentally during the race. Ryan Vail, Matt Barnes-Smith and Dan Watts are great leaders. They've been great with this young group."
On running at home in the Jamboree:
"It was awesome. We had a lot of excitement and a lot of anticipation about the race today and had a lot of talk about the freshmen and new guys with the returning team that was third at nationals. I think we got more people out here into the college race than we've had in a long time. That was fun."
German Fernandez
On his race:
"It went really well. We stayed as a group the whole way. That was our plan; just don't go out too fast, go out smart. We just stayed strong the whole way so it was incredibly fitting that we finished together."
"It was about what I was expecting. I wasn't really going for any time or place, I was just trying to stay with the team and run as a pack."
What he thought about his first Jamboree:
"It went great. It was amazing. I can't explain it."
How he felt running in Stillwater:
"I feel more at home here, I've got to say. Just coming all the way from California to here, I think I feel a little bit more at home here now. It wasn't really hard to adapt, it was really easy."
Ryan Vail
On the race:
"It was one of the best team efforts we've had, since I've been here, for sure. Getting a group of five guys that close together and beating some good teams out here, it felt great."
"It's what we were hoping for. We weren't sure what to expect, exactly. You can never know the first race out, but to feel that easy with a group of three guys like that, that exceeded our expectations. I didn't expect to feel that good and win the meet."
On the young runners:
"Unbelievable, having three freshmen run like that - amazing, and especially with two of them being in our top five like that; that's incredible."
On his last Jamboree:
"It's one of my favorite races every year. Having that 10,000-person crowd, that's incredible. You don't see that at most cross country meets, even nationals."
