OSU Prepares for NCAA Indoor Championships

March 10, 2016 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

MEET NOTES

The Basics
            The Oklahoma State track and field team sends its qualifiers to Birmingham, Alabama, to compete for national titles in six events at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Follow the Meet
            A video recap will be available on the OSU Athletics YouTube page and results and full recap will be posted on okstate.com following each day's events.
            A link to the live results can be found on ncaa.com.

Broadcast Information
            The 2016 NCAA Indoor Championships will be broadcast live on ESPNU and online at WatchESPN.

Meet Format/Schedule (All Times CT)
            Oklahoma State's first event of the NCAA Championships starts at 5:45 p.m. Friday with the women's mile semifinal.
            The men's 60-meter semifinal is scheduled for 6:30 and the women's 800-meter semifinal starts an hour later at 7:35.
            Night one concludes with both the men's and women's distance medley relay races at 9 p.m.
            Day two begins at noon with the high jump and runs until the 4X400-meter relays at 6:45 with the women's shot put scheduled to start at 5.

Last Time Out
            The Oklahoma State Cowboys took home their second Big 12 indoor title and the Cowgirls claimed their highest finish in school history, finishing runner-up.
            OSU won nine titles at the two-day conference championships and had 36 All-Big 12 honors.
            Cerake Geberkidane won the first title for the Pokes, winning the 5,000-meter final on night one.
            Newcomer Josh Thompson won both the mile and 1,000-meter runs at his first Big 12 championships and Tre'Tez Kinnaird made a splash at his first Big 12 meet when he took the 800-meter title.
            Criag Nowak won the 3,000-meter final ahead of four other Cowboys in the top-six, including Geberkidane, Vegard Oelstad, Chad Noelle and Brian Gohlke.
            The Cowboys clinched the title after the 4X400-meter team of Tyler Jackson, Brandon Singleton, Bradley Johnson and Kinnaird finished fifth and Texas dropped two points by finishing second behind Baylor.
            The Cowgirls scored a school record 109 points en route to their second place finish.
            Kaela Edwards accounted for 24 of those points as she won both the mile and 1,000-meter finals and ran in the fifth-place finishing 4X400-meter team.
            Ingeborg Loevnes won the 3,000-meter final after finishing runner-up in the 5,000-meter final a day prior.
            The Cowgirl DMR team of Savannah Camacho, Danielle Coleman, Clara Nichols, Jennifer Celis won the race to give OSU its second straight DMR title.

A Look Back
            Kaela Edwards' second-place finish came in a personal best time of 2:03.59, which is the third fastest in school history at last season's NCAA Indoor Championships
            She improved on her third place finish in the event from 2014 and became the fifth Cowgirl ever to score in consecutive NCAA Indoor Championships.
            In the 60-meter final, John Teeters scored at a national meet for the first time in his career.
            Teeters ran a blazing 6.54 and finished second, becoming the only Cowboy in school history to place in the 60-meter dash at an NCAA indoor meet. His finish earned the Cowboys eight team points.
            The men's mile final featured two-time Big 12 Champion Chad Noelle in his first NCAA mile final.              The decorated middle-distance runner snagged a fifth place finish with a time of 4:04.36.
            Noelle picked up four points for the Cowboys and received first team All-America honors for the first time in his career.
            Chase Ealey made her NCAA Championships debut in the women's shot put in 2015 and became the first Cowgirl in school history to compete in the event at an indoor national meet. Ealey's throw of 15.51m/50-10.75 landed her in 16th place and earned the junior second team All-America honors.
            The OSU men's team wrapped up the meet in 13th place and earned its third straight top-15 finish at an NCAA Indoor Championships. The women's team finished 28th.

OSU at the Indoor Championships
            The Cowboys and Cowgirls are preparing for the NCAA Indoor Championships with the hopes of bringing home an event title for the first time since 2002.
            The Cowgirls have the honor of being the last squad to deliver an indoor title back to Stillwater, with a 5,000-meter crown at the championships, 14 years ago.
            As for the Cowboys, their last individual title came back in 1984.
            Both teams have individual competitors with the Cowgirls entering Savannah Camacho in the 800, Kaela Edwards in the mile and Chase Ealey in the shot put and the Cowboys send John Teeters to Alabama to run the 60 where he finished runner-up a season ago.
            Both squads have a DMR team entered, marking the first time since 2011 that the Cowgirls have a team entered in the event and the fourth consecutive team for the Cowboys.
            The men's quartet comes into the race having the No. 1 time in the NCAA and the third fastest time in NCAA history, while the Cowgirls own the sixth-fastest time in the country this season.

Cowgirls 13, Cowboys Remain No. 16 in Final USTFCCCA Poll
            Not much has changed for Oklahoma State heading into the NCAA Championships as the Cowboys remain at 16, and the Cowgirls drop one spot to 13 in the final poll of the season.
            Despite winning the conference championship back in late February, The Pokes remain the third highest ranked Big 12 team in the USTFCCCA top-25 this week. Although Texas took a hit, dropping to seventh after holding a top-five spot for a majority of its indoor campaign, OSU slots in at 16 for the third time this season.
            The Cowboys were successful at the conference championships, winning four titles, but they send just John Teeters and the distance medley relay team to Birmingham,
            However, Teeters comes into the race with the second-fastest time in the 60-meter dash this season and the DMR squad ran the third-fastest time in NCAA history this year and also leads the nation going into the final.
            On the women's side, OSU dropped one spot to 13, and is one of five Big 12 schools ranked in the top-25. Only the SEC has more with seven.
            Kaela Edwards, Savannah Camacho and Chase Ealey will make the trip to Alabama for the NCAA Indoor Championships along with the Cowgirl DMR team.
            Edwards qualified in three events, but will run the mile down in Birmingham. Camacho's 800-meter time coming into the weekend is the third-best time in the country and Ealey's shot put mark is third in the NCAA.