Cross Country Heads to Iowa for NCAA Berths

Friday, November 11

Iowa City, Iowa

11 a.m.

Oklahoma State University

NCAA Midwest Regional Championships

November 09, 2016 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

MEET NOTES

The Basics
The Oklahoma State Cowboys come into the Midwest Regional on a five-year win streak and fresh off a ninth-straight Big 12 title, riding a wave a success that has kept them at No. 1 in the region for 50 weeks in-a-row.
The Cowgirls are looking to right the ship after surrendering their Big 12 crown to Iowa State with one last matchup with their in-conference foe before the NCAA Championships in two weeks.

Follow the Meet
Fans can follow the action live on Twitter by following @run4okstate for updates. Final results will be published on www.hawkeyesports.com as well as www.okstate.com, along with a recap of OSU's day on the course.

Meet Schedule (All Times CT)
The 2016 NCAA Midwest Regional Championship is scheduled to begin Nov. 11 at 11 a.m., with the women's 6K, then the men's 10K run will follow at 12 p.m.

Last Time Out
The ninth-ranked Cowboys scored 36 points to win the title, and all of OSU's top-five finishers earned all-Big 12 honors.
The race started slow as a large lead pack kept things tight through 5K. OSU sat in third after 3K, but slowly picked off Texas and Iowa State en route to the win, taking the outright lead by the 6K mark.
Hassan Abdi finished third behind two Texas Tech runners, despite losing both shoes midway through the race.
Luis Martinez had a big day at his second Big 12 cross country meet, crossing the line in 25:41.9 and finishing fifth for his first All-Big 12 honor since 2014.
Josh Thompson (seventh), Anthoney Armstrong (10th) and Christian Liddell (11th) completed the Cowboy top-five. It was Armstrong's cross country championship debut, and Liddell's first all-conference honor of his career.
The first race of the day saw the Cowgirls finish second with 82 points. It was their second runner-up finish under Smith.
The wind was much more punishing earlier in the day, but it didn't slow down the pace as each of the top-10 finishers crossed the line in less than 21 minutes, including Cowgirl freshman Michelle Magnani.
Finishing seventh, Magnani was the Cowgirls' highest finisher, taking All-Big 12 honors in her first conference event.
In her 2016 debut, Kaela Edwards took 13th to claim her second consecutive all-conference honor at the cross country championship and her 10th overall in her storied Cowgirl career.
The Cowgirl top-five was rounded out by Aurora Dybedokken (18th), Molly Sughroue (21st) and Abbie Hetherington (23rd).

Coach Dave Smith - Meet Comments

On the race plan for the women
"We've got to kind of put our bead on Minnesota. I think they're maybe the second or third best team in the region and we have to be top-two and make sure they're the third best team. In terms of Iowa State, it would be nice to win it, but first we have to make sure that we secure that second place finish. Once we get to a point in the race where we're sure we've beaten Minnesota, then we might be able to take a few chances and go after the win, but the first thing is getting through. The women have got to out-work and out-want Minnesota for that spot in the Championship."

On the race plan for the men
"We're in a tricky spot right now. We've got six guys who have been running very well, but two of them have come down with some issues this week. We want to get through to the National Championship, we want to get to the National Championship feeling like we've got some running left in our legs, but at the same time we want to win the region. We're undefeated so far this year, we want to keep that going. It's another title that we want to win."

On the pressure on the men
"There's always a little bit of pressure. I always believe that more of it comes internally than some legacy or something like that. It's more of just every kid wants to run well, and they want to run well for themselves, their teammates and the program, I think most of that pressure is there whether you've won 10 in-a-row or you're going after your first."

On the biggest competition for the men for the regional title
"Iowa State is a potential top-10 team at the National Championship. They're a team that took it to us at Big 12s. It was nip and tuck down that last 600 meters – I wasn't sure if we were going to win or not. I imagine it will be very similar. What I've been stressing to the guys is that we cannot take this lightly. We can't assume we're going to Nationals, which is sometimes the assumption. Last year, in the middle of the race we realized we might have been in some trouble, so I think we hit the panic button and guys ran a lot harder than what we would have liked. We ended up winning the region and we made it through, but we spent a lot of our capital for the National Championship on that race."

Cowboys Sit at No. 9 Ahead of Midwest Regional
Heading into the Midwest Regional, the Oklahoma State Cowboys remained at No. 9 for the third week in-a-row, and the Cowgirls rose to 17 and No. 2 in the region after falling short of their second ever Big 12 title.
The Pokes put five men in the Big 12's top-15 en route to claiming a ninth-straight Big 12 title and a 50th-straight week at No. 1 in the Midwest Region.
While there was movement around the Cowboys in the polls, with Oregon plummeting seven spots to No. 10 and Colorado surging up to No. 2 after an eventful PAC-12 Championship, the Cowboys stayed put at No. 9 after handling No. 13 Iowa State in Lubbock.
The Big 12 stayed the same in the polls. The Cyclone men held firm at 13, and Texas continued to receive votes.
On the women's side, OSU slid a couple of spots down before climbing up to 17 ahead of the Midwest Regional.
Iowa State leads the Big 12 and the Midwest region after taking the crown back from OSU. The Cyclones sit in 12th and Baylor and West Virginia have snuck into the top-30 at 25 and 27, respectively.
The final poll of the season is released Nov. 14, just five days before the NCAA Championship in Terre Haute, Indiana.

A Look Back - The 2015 Midwest Regional
The Cowboy and Cowgirl cross country teams swept the Midwest Regional titles for the first time since 2005 and the second time in regional history.
Natalie Baker led the way for the Cowgirls with a fourth-place finish in 20:21.2 minutes, and Cerake Geberkidane finished third in the men's 10K in 29:50.4.
Overall the Cowboys topped the runners-up Golden Gophers of Minnesota by 36 points, and the Cowgirls won going away over conference rival Iowa State 51-98.
The win marked the fifth-straight regional title for the Cowboys and the Cowgirls' third since 1997.
Ingeborg Loevnes (seventh) and Kaela Edwards (ninth), joined Baker in the top-10, and three other Cowgirls finished in the top-25, including Molly Sughroue (15th), Aurora Dybedokken (16th) and Anna Boyert (22nd).
The Cowboys put four other runners in the top-20, with 2015 Big 12 Champion Vegard Oelstad taking 10th, Josh Thompson 13th, and Craig Nowak and Brian Gohlke finishing 16th and 17th, respectively.