OSU Prepares for Competitive Mt. SAC Relays

Thursday, April 14

Walnut, Calif.

All Day

Oklahoma State University

Mt. SAC Relays

April 14, 2016 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

MEET NOTES

The Basics
            OSU sends a small group to a big meet this weekend as the middle-distance runners continue to strive for West Regional qualifying times with a month to go in the regular 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 mtsacrelays.com.

Broadcast Information
            The 2016 Mt. SAC Relays will be streamed live on FloTrack with a premium subscription.

Meet Format/Schedule (All Times CT)
            The Mt. SAC Relays is a three-day meet, but OSU is scheduled to take to the track on days two and three for the collegiate and elite races.
            Friday's festivities begin with the women's 1,500-meter open race at 12:30 p.m., and the track will be in use until after the 5,000-meter run wraps up after midnight, weather pending.
            Saturday kicks off at 11:45 a.m., but the collegiate races don't start until 3:10 p.m., with the 4X100-meter relay.
            The last event for the collegiate athletes will be the 4X400-meter relays at 6:50 p.m.

Men's Entries: Matthew Fayers, Tre'Tez Kinnaird, Josh Thompson
Women's Entries: Savannah Camacho, Kaylee Dodd, Kaela Edwards, Ingeborg Loevnes, Clara Nichols, Molly Sughroue

Last Time Out
            Big 12 800-meter indoor champion Tre'Tez Kinnaird made his outdoor debut in the same event and crossed the finish line with the same result. The Cowboy newcomer won the 800 in 1:48.74 to take a two second lead on the conference list. His time is also sixth in the West Region.
            All-American and two-time Big 12 champion Josh Thompson returned to the track Saturday in the 1,500-meter run after nearly a month away from competition following his run at the NCAA Indoor Championships.
            Thompson entered the event as the highest seed and lived up to his ranking by winning the 1,500 in 3:46.77. His time is No. 26 in the West and fourth in the conference.
            Both Chase Ealey and Aina Maartensson moved themselves up another Cowgirl top-10 all-time list, this time in the hammer throw. Ealey, while still relatively new to the event, landed a 56.00m/183-6 foot throw to finish runner-up in the competition and claim the sixth-best mark in Cowgirl history. Maartensson's throw of 52.08m/170-10 feet put her at seventh all-time and earned her a fourth-place finish.
            Ealey also won her usual event of the shot put with a throw of 16.81m/55-2.00 feet, and tried her hand at javelin where she finished third.
            Megan Honas won her second javelin competition of the season, this time out-throwing the second-place finisher by 10 feet with a heave of 45.87m/150-6.
            Both Cowboy relay teams topped their season's bests with solid outings against teams from Arizona, Iowa, TCU and Northern Arizona.
            The 4X100-meter team of Arlando Brewer-Johnson, Sharod Selph, Anthony Grogan Jr., and Tyler Jackson ran a 39.98, which brings the Pokes to fourth in the Big 12. The 4X400-meter team's 3:13.29 earned them a fourth-place finish and puts them in a deadlock with Kansas State for sixth in the conference.
            The Cowgirl A-team took fourth in the 4X400-meter relay with Ferrante running a 55.5 split on the third leg.
            As for the overall team scores, the Cowboys finished in fifth with 64 points and the Cowgirls took fourth with 58. Iowa won the men's competition and host Arizona took the women's win.

A Look Back
            Just three Cowgirls made the trip to Walnut, California, last season to compete in the Mt. SAC Relays.
            Kaela Edwards led the way with a then personal best 2:03.28 in the 800-meter run. While she finished seventh in the event, her time was the third fastest in school history.
            She ran in a field of mostly professionals and her time gave her the top qualifying time in the region at that point in the season.
            Bailey Johnson ran a time in the 400-meter hurdles that was fast enough to put her into the Big 12 top-10 for 2015.
            Her 1:01.12 would have made the Cowgirl all-time top-10, but she already held the No. 4 time in school history.
            Kaylee Dodd was the third Cowgirl who made the trip out west last year. She finished 10th in the open run of the 800-meter run in 2:08.28.

Cowboys Continue to Rise in USTFCCCA Poll
            After being left out of the preseason top-25 poll, the Cowboys have jumped into the top-20 in this week's United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association ranking.
            The Pokes moved up two spots to No. 19 in the week two poll after winning two events at the Jim Click Shootout over the weekend and getting two more athletes into the West Region's top-50.
            The Cowgirls remained at 23, but gained some ground on 22nd-ranked Florida State after wins from Chase Ealey and Megan Honas in Tucson, Arizona.
            Texas and Texas Tech are the only Big 12 schools ahead of the Pokes in the men's ranking and TCU joins the trio at No. 24.
            As for the Cowgirls, they are one of five Big 12 teams in the top-25 behind Texas, Kansas State, Baylor and Oklahoma.
            Cerake Geberkidane and Tre'Tez Kinnaird are the only Cowboys with top marks in the NCAA, while five Cowgirls have top-50 marks in the country this year.

Kaela Edwards Returns For Cowgirls
            Cowgirl legend in the making Kaela Edwards is scheduled to return to the track this weekend for the first time since winning the NCAA title in the mile back in the indoor season.
            Edwards is entered in both the 1,500 and 800-meter runs at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, California.
            She had two first-team All-America honors in the 800 going into last outdoor season and picked up a second-team honor in Eugene, Oregon, in the event as well. While she has yet to run the 1,500 during the outdoor season, Edwards holds the school's indoor mile record and is coming off a championship season.
            Last outdoor season, Edwards ran at just three regular season meets, earned first-team All-Big 12 honors in the 800 and finished 22nd at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

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.