Track and Field Heads to Fayetteville for Regular Season Finale

Track and Field Heads to Fayetteville for Regular Season Finale

February 15, 2017 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

MEET NOTES

The Basics
                In the last weekend of the regular season, Oklahoma State returns to "the fastest track in the world" to produce NCAA qualifying times and get in in one last tune-up before the Big 12 Championships Feb. 24-25 in Ames, Iowa.

Follow the Meet
                To follow the action in Fayetteville, visit arkansasrazorbacks.com for a link to live results and other meet information.

Broadcast
                The Arkansas Qualifier will be televised or streamed live.

Meet Format/Schedule - All Times CT
                The Arkansas Qualifier is just a one-day meet beginning at 2 p.m. with the men's shot put.
                The first running event of the day is the 60-meter prelim at 5 p.m. The 60-meter final is an hour later at 6 p.m., and is the only event with a prelim/final set up at the meet.
                Men's and women's 800-meter runs begin at 6:40 and the meet concludes with the 4X400-meter relays scheduled to begin at 7:50 p.m.
                The meet's full schedule, along with other useful information, can be found on the Arkansas Razorback athletics website.

Last Time Out
                The Cowboys and Cowgirls were spread across the country last weekend and put up some of the NCAA's best marks in New York, Seattle and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
                Kaela Edwards ran the seventh-fastest mile by a collegiate woman in history and finished sixth at the historic Millrose Games in 4:28.75 among a crowded field of Olympians and professionals.
                Jacob Fincham-Dukes extended his school record and jumped a personal best in Albuquerque of 7.86m/25-9.5 feet.
                The leap by the England international is the fifth-best in the NCAA this season and the 15th best mark in the world in 2017.
                Senior All-American Josh Thompson picked up the No. 4 mile time in the NCAA, running a personal best 3:56.89 at the Husky Invitational to headline a race with two other Cowboys breaking the four-minute threshold.
                Matthew Fayers and Craig Nowak both broke four minutes in the mile and Thompson's time is the No. 3 time in the world on an oversized track.

A Look Back - Week Six, 2016
                This time last year, most of the OSU squad was resting up for the Big 12 Championships, but a few athletes went for conference tune-ups and important NCAA qualifying times at the Alex Wilson Invitational and the Steve Miller Open.
                The Cowboy DMR team grabbed one of those important times at the Alex Wilson Invitational with a school record mark of 9:26.50, the third fastest time in NCAA history in the event.
                Savannah Camacho also qualified on her last race of the regular season, securing a top-five spot in the NCAA Championships before ultimately finishing fourth and earning All-America honors.
                Several athletes at the Steve Miller Open performed their way onto the Cowboy team for the Big 12 Championships, which OSU went on to win, including Trenton Daniels who ran in the 600-yard run as a freshman at the meet in Ames.

OSU Represented In NCAA Top-15
                It's been a long time coming, but Oklahoma State now has some of the top-15 marks in the NCAA this year thanks to big weekends from the team in Seattle, Albuquerque and New York.
                Kaela Edwards is the highest ranked OSU athlete, with the No. 1 mile time in the NCAA from her Millrose Games performance last week. At 4:28.75, she also holds the No. 7 time in NCAA history.
                Over in Seattle, two Cowboys ran top-15 times this year in the mile.
                Josh Thompson crossed the line at Dempsey Indoor in 3:56.89 for the No. 4 mile time in the NCAA in 2017 and Matthew Fayers ran the 14th-fastest mile this year coming in at 3:58.53.
                The first top-15 mark of the year came from Jacob Fincham-Dukes last Friday when he recorded a personal-best jump of 7.86m/25-9.5 feet in the long jump at the Don Kirby Invitational in Albuquerque. The leap extended his school record and put him into the top-15 in the world in 2017.
                OSU has one weekend left to add to its Championship team before the Big 12 Championships in Ames, Iowa.

My, Oh Mile
                The mile run has been the Cowboys' bread and butter since 2014. They have won the event title at the Big 12 Indoor Championships each of the past three years and scored a total of 56 points in that one event, ahead of second-place Oklahoma with 50.
                Clocking a sub-four minute mile is the standard for excellence. While OU has two and Texas and Texas Tech both have one since 2013, the Cowboys have had 16 times under four minutes in that five year span.
                This year, Josh Thompson, Matthew Fayers and Craig Nowak have each broken four minutes. They're the only athletes in the conference to do so in 2017 and they have put OSU in elite company as one of four programs to have more than two sub-four minute milers this year with Colorado, Michigan and Syracuse.
                Those four programs account for 12 of the 26 fastest mile times in the NCAA this year, with Thompson's 3:56.89 sitting at fourth among collegians.

Magnani, Haines To Represent USA
                Oklahoma State freshman Michelle Magnani won the U.S. Women's Junior Cross Country title in 22:36 at the USATF National Cross Country Championships Saturday in Bend, Oregon.
                Magnani outran a talented field of American women in the 6K en rout to the national title, and, with the win, earned a spot on the U.S. Junior team that will compete at the World Championships in Kampala, Uganda on March 26.
                Cowboy Freshman Alec Haines finished seventh in the men's junior 8K race in 26:35 to also earn a spot on Team USA with former Cowboy Shadrack Kipchirchir who finished third in the men's senior race.
                Magnani and Haines are the second pair of OSU athletes to compete at the USA Championships in the past two years. Current Cowboys Ben Butler and Christian Liddell finished third and seventh at the Championship race in 2016.

Edwards Added to Bowerman Watch List
                Kaela Edwards' latest accomplishment in her senior season was a Cowgirl first as she made the Bowerman Award Watch List.
                It was the first time a Cowgirl has ever made the prestigious list, and puts OSU in some elite company in NCAA track and field.
                With Edwards now making the list, OSU is the 57th team of the 132 Division I programs to earn a women's Bowerman nod.
                Last year, NCAA champions Chad Noelle and Nick Miller represented the Cowboys on the list and German Fernandez was a finalist for the award in 2010.