Cross Country Squads Head to Louisville for NCAA Championships

MEET NOTES

THE BASICS
The Oklahoma State cross country teams go to Louisville, Kentucky to run on one of the most historic courses in the country with national titles on the line.
The Cowgirls finished 17th at the NCAA Championships a season ago, while the Cowboys took 12th.

FOLLOW THE MEET
Fans can follow the action live on Twitter by following @run4okstate for updates.
The races will be live streamed on FloTrack.com with available subscription, and live results will be posted on NCAA.com
Final results will be published on NCAA.com, as well as www.okstate.com, along with a recap of OSU's day on the course.

MEET SCHEDULE (ALL TIMES CT)
The 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championships is scheduled to begin at 9:45 a.m., with the women's 6K, then the men's 10K run will follow at 10:45 a.m.
An awards ceremony to honor All-Americans and the top-four team finishers from the men's and women's races will promptly follow after results are official.

LAST TIME OUT
With 103 points, the OSU women advanced to the NCAA Championships for the 11th time in school history and the sixth time under head coach Dave Smith.
The women's race remained tight the entire 6K race, but the Cowgirls' start of the race is what allowed them to hold on in the end.
The Cowgirls got production from an unexpected place in sophomore Kaytlyn Larson. She rose to the occasion and earned a 13th overall finish in 20:30.8 as the Cowgirls' highest finisher.
Senior Molly Sughroue ran a respectable 20:37.8, good enough for 17th overall. Essex, England native Kaylee Dodd wasn't far behind, crossing the line 21st overall.
Senior Gintare Zenkeviciute and freshman Cheyenne Walden rounded out the Cowgirls' top five, finishing 25th and 27th, respectively. That effort allowed the Cowgirls to advance to nationals ahead of No. 13 Minnesota, who finished third overall.
For the Cowboys, despite finishing third in the Big 12 Championships two weeks ago, a solid team effort was good enough for 74 points, just five points behind No. 1 Iowa State.
In familiar fashion, senior Hassan Abdi led the way for the Cowboys, finishing an impressive second overall to Illinois' Jonathan Davis.
Senior Luis Martinez kept up his solid final campaign with a 29:19.4 in the men's 10K, good enough for 10th overall.
The Cowboys earned second in large part to their 3-4-5 runners, who all ran solid races. Junior Christian Liddell finished 19th, Noah Gade placed 21st and freshman Ryan Smeeton right behind, finishing the 10K in 29:41.3 for 22nd overall. That effort allowed all the Cowboys top five to finish in the top 25.

COACH BOBBY LOCKHART ON THE MEET

On his expectations for the weekend
"First and foremost, we want to compete as best as we can. I don't feel like the guys have really put together a great race yet this season where they're all coming together at once. The girls last weekend, I thought that was they're best race of the season. If they can replicate that, they'll finish very, very high at the national meet. Really just go out there and compete the best we can and hope that every can come together at the last meet and run well."

On working with the quick turnaround
"Mostly our freshmen are kind of used to it. The women are just running 6K, so you can recover a little bit. But for 10,000 meters it's a little bit tougher. But everyone has to do it and everyone is on the same boat. So it is what it is and not a big deal."

On how last week's placing effects the momentum
"Last week was really just kind of a qualifier. We just wanted to get top two with each of the teams, which we did. So whether we finished first or second, the goal was really to just get through to get to nationals."

LAST TIME IN LOUISVILLE – 2015
The last time the Oklahoma State cross country teams were in Louisville, Kentucky, the Cowgirls wrapped up a historic season under head coach Dave Smith. In 2015, The Cowgirls combined for 274, which was good enough for their second-highest finish in school history.
The women nabbed an All-America honor in the process, in the form of Ingeborg Loevnes, who finished a respectable 35th overall. Natalie Baker wasn't far behind, as she took 41st place, just missing out on an All-America honor.
The Cowboys finished an uncharacteristic 18th, after more than a decade of top 10 finishes. The team came into the race ranked fourth nationally, led by Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Josh Thompson and senior Craig Nowak.
Nowak was the Cowboys' highest finisher in at the 2015 national meet, running the 10K race in 30:34.6, good enough for 52nd place. Thompson pulled out at 101st place finish in his first D1 cross country season.

A LOOK BACK AT THE 2016 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
After a historic 2015 season for the Cowgirls, they followed it up with a 17th place finish at the 2016 NCAA Championships, winning a rare tiebreak with Penn State.
Senior Kaela Edwards was the highest finisher for the Cowgirls, running the 6K in 20:44.4, good enough for 80th place at the national meet. Junior Molly Sughroue wasn't far behind, finishing 88th overall. The team finished with 456 points.
The Cowboys returned to the top-15, scoring 363 points, with four first-timers toeing the line at the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course. Taking 12th place overall, the men were led by junior Hassan Abdi, who finished 16th in the 10K race. His time of 30:10.1 was the fastest time for the Pokes, with senior Josh Thompson not far behind, crossing the line at 36th overall. Those placings earned both Cowboys All-America honors, which was their firsts in NCAA cross country. It was Thompson's second honor overall, as he took part in the distance medley relay team that took 15th place in the indoor NCAA Championships the season before. The duo became the 48th and 49th cross country All-Americans in school history.
Under a thick overcast, sophomore Christian Liddell finished 121st, junior Sylvester Barus in 139th and senior Anthoney Armstrong took 142nd to complete the Cowboy scoring.
After the race, Liddell received the NCAA Elite 90 Award for academic excellence. The Cowboy sophomore earned academic all-Big 12 honors earlier this season for his 4.0 grade point average.

SEASON SUMMARY
After a precarious start to the season, the Oklahoma State cross country teams have started to hit their strides as of late. The Cowboys went 2-1 in the first meet of the season at the Cowboy Preview, and the Cowgirls started off slow, finishing 0-3 at the Preview.
In what the teams consider the first official test of the season, the men's squad edged out Ole Miss in the Cowboy Jamboree, winning its eighth-consecutive title at the meet. Led by individual champion and senior Sylvester Barus, the Cowboys' top five all finished in the top 25, allowing them to narrowly take first to Ole Miss, 42-44. The Cowgirls finished an uncharacteristic fourth, led by Michelle Magnani's 16th place overall.
Two weeks later, the teams traveled to State College, Pennsylvania to take part in the Penn State National Open. The Cowboys rode the momentum from the Jamboree, and took first in the Penn State open as well. This time, senior Hassan Abdi took home the individual crown for the Cowboys. The women's team finished sixth overall in a packed field that included No. 10 Penn State and No. 15 Villanova.
In the first postseason race, Abdi was the Big 12 individual champion for OSU, but the Cowboys narrowly took third to Iowa State and Texas. Abdi was the Cowboys' first conference champion since Vegard Oelstad in 2015. The Cowgirls finished runners-up for the second-consecutive year.
Last week, both squads took second in the Midwest Regional. The placings earned them spots in this week's NCAA Championships on Friday.

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Cross Country Squads Head to Louisville for NCAA Championships

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Anthoney Armstrong

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Craig Nowak

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