Texas Relays Headlines Trio of Weekend Meets

Wednesday, March 30

Austin, Texas

All Day

Oklahoma State University

Texas Relays

March 31, 2016 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

Meet Notes

The Basics
The Cowboys and Cowgirls send groups to two meets in Texas and one on the West Coast in the third weekend of the outdoor season.

Follow the Meet
Oklahoma State's results and a full recap of the competitions will be available on okstate.com following the conclusion of each day.
For live results, visit texasports.com, gocardinal.com and txstatebobcats.com.

Broadcast Information
The Texas Relays will be broadcast live on the Longhorn Network, and the Bobcat Invitational will not be televised or streamed online.
The Stanford Invitational will be available for live stream on FloTrack with a premium subscription.

Meet Format/Schedule (All Times CT)
While the Texas Relay kicks off March 30, the Cowboys don't compete until Friday in the 4X100-meter relay, slated for the morning session.
The Bobcat Invitational starts Thursday with the combined events beginning at 8:30 a.m., and the only individual events scheduled for day one are the men's and women's weight throw at 1 p.m.
Friday will involve the closing of the multi-events as well as several field events.
The running events for Friday's session start at 5 p.m., with the women's 1,500, and end with the men's 5K at 8:25.
The final day of competition begins at 9 a.m., and runs until 4:45 p.m. wrapping up with the 4X400-meter relays and providing a short break between the morning session and the afternoon session following the javelin.
As for the Stanford Invitational, Friday is expected to be a long day in Palo Alto, as the meet starts at 11 a.m., and will not end until after the men's 10K race at 12:51 a.m. on Saturday.
Saturday will be mostly high school events, but the few university events start at noon. The last collegiate event of the day will be the 4X400-meter relays.

Men's Entries
Texas Relays and Bobcat Invitational: Arlando Brewer-Johnson, Malik Givens, Anthony Grogan Jr., Sharod Selph, John Teeters.
Stanford Invitational: Anthoney Armstrong, Jacob Fincham-Dukes, Cerake Geberkidane, Brigham Hedges, Simon Imagbe, Luis Martinez, Craig Nowak

Women's Entries
Stanford Invitational: Natalie Baker, Anna Boyert, Savannah Camacho, Aurora Dybedokken, Chase Ealey, Megan Honas, Monika Juodeskaite, Clara Nichols, Katie Spencer

Last Time Out
Chase Ealey finished second in the shot put behind a facility record throw from Mississippi's Raven Saunders, but the top two finishers were the only throwers to record marks over 17 meters in the competition. Ealey launched a 17.71m/58-1.25 foot throw to break the previous school record by more than a foot. Her mark is the second-best throw in the NCAA this season, and the best in the Big 12.
Friday night in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Ealey finished sixth in the first hammer throw competition of her career and threw 50.10m/164-4 to land in the Cowgirl top-10 at No. 7.
She wasn't the only entry to earn a top-10 spot on the Cowgirl hammer throw list, as Freshman Aina Maartensson finished fourth in the in competition with a throw of 51.99m/170-7.00. It is the sixth-best throw in OSU history.
Anna Boyert won the seeded running of the 800-meter run in her outdoor season debut in 2:09.01 to take the Big 12 lead in the event, and Abbie Hetherington returned to the track for the first time in 2016 after injury kept her sidelined during the indoor season. She finished fifth in the 1,500-meter seeded run in 4:29.62.
Multi-athletes Cole Verble and Donovan Nunley had solid showings in their first decathlon of the season.
Verble finished fifth overall, his highest finish in a multi-event competition ever as a Cowboy, and Nunley took seventh in his first career decathlon.
Verble's 6,073 points was a massive personal best for him, surpassing his previous point high of 5,425 from last season's Big 12 Championships where he took 10th.
The freshman Nunley successfully completed nine of the 10 events, only failing to record a height in the high jump. He scored 5,237 points and finished seventh without the high jump thanks in part to his three top-five finishes in the long jump, shot put and 110-meter hurdles.
In the men's long jump, Simon Imagbe finished seventh with a career best leap of 7.33m/24-0.75.

A Look Back
Last year's Texas Relays came on the same weekend as the Arkansas Spring Invitational and the Bobcat Invitational.
Chase Ealey finished second in the shot put with a throw of 16.84m/55-5.0 foot throw at the Texas Relay and Ieva Zarankaite won the discus throw at the Bobcat Invitational.
Only the Cowgirls ran at the Relays and Bobcat Invitational, with some athletes performing double duty at both meets.
The Cowgirl 4X400-meter relay team of Stephanie Ferrante, Ambra Wesley, Summor Fields and Danielle Coleman ran the best time for OSU of the three teams that took to the track that weekend, finishing 24th at the Relays in 3:47.02.
Individually, Bailey Johnson finished fourth in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:01.85 at the Bobcat Invitational, and 28th in the same event in 1:01.55 at the Texas Relays.

Newcomers Already Making a Mark
It's early in the season, but the Oklahoma State newcomers are already making their presences known.
Jacob Fincham-Dukes made his outdoor debut for the Cowboys at the Tulsa Duels this weekend in both the 200-meter dash and the long jump. The English international won the long jump with a 7.46m/24-5.75 foot leap, edging out the second-place finisher by five inches. He also ran in the 200-meter dash and finished 12th in 22.58 seconds.
His long jump mark put him at No. 7 on the Cowboy top-10 list, putting him on his second top-10 list in just his first three months with OSU.
In her first appearance for the Cowgirls after transferring from Ft. Hays State over the winter, Megan Honas threw a 47.43m/155-7.50 in the javelin to win the competition at the 2016 Tulsa Duels. Her throw set the school record in the javelin, breaking Chase Ealey's record from a season ago by three feet.
The Pokes have only competed in one meet this season, but the future looks bright after the marks put up by both Fincham-Dukes and Honas.

Season Sweep?
The Cowboy track and field team is in a unique position heading into the outdoor season.
For just the second time in conference history, a team has the opportunity to sweep the cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field Big 12 Championships. The only other team in Big 12 history to be in this position was the 2013-14 Cowboy squad that finished third at the outdoor championships.
The task will not be easy, though. After finishing third at indoors in 2015, the Cowboys finished sixth at last year's outdoor championships, scoring 69 points and bringing home three individual titles, including the 10K, 5K and 1,500-meter championships.
If OSU can pull off the unprecedented, it will not just be its first Big 12 outdoor title in school history, but its first team title since 1957, when the school was still Oklahoma A&M.
The Pokes' highest finish at the outdoor championships since joining the Big 12 is the third-place finish from 2014, but OSU did nab back-to-back runners-up finishes in the Big 8 back in 1959 and 1960.

Cowgirls Debut at 24 in Preseason Poll
For the first time in school history, the Cowgirls have opened the outdoor campaign in the top-25 for back-to-back seasons by debuting at No. 24 in the 2016 USTFCCCA preseason poll.
OSU is one of five Big 12 teams to earn top-25 nods, giving the conference the second-most teams in the ranking behind the SEC's eight.
The Cowboys missed out on a preseason top-25 spot for the second time in four seasons, but the Pokes always find a way to make a statement as they have reached the top-20 during each outdoor campaign in three consecutive seasons.
Individually, so far in this young season, the Cowboys have two athletes with top-20 marks in the West Region, and the Cowgirls have one.
Megan Honas has the 15th-best javelin throw in the region at 47.43m/155-7.0 feet, and Jacob Fincham-Dukes and Simon Imagbe have the No. 11 and 20 long jump marks at 7.46m/24-5.75 feet and 7.33m/24-0.75, respectfully.
The next USTFCCCA top-25 poll will be released April 4.