OSU Makes History with Relay Sweep in Iowa

April 27, 2017 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

DES MOINES, Iowa – The Oklahoma State track and field teams swept the 4x1,600-meter relays, Thursday at the Drake Relays in dominant fashion, becoming the first team in the meet's 108-year history to sweep the events twice.

The wins marked the second time in three seasons that the Pokes have swept the events as they last did it in 2015 and didn't attend the Drake Relays in 2016.

"We traditionally build our women's team around good milers and good middle-distance runners," coach Dave Smith said. "Our men's team is the same way with good middle-distance guys who are also good distance guys like Craig or Josh."

Abbie Hetherington led off for the Cowgirls and handed off to Molly Sughroue who closed the gap on Air Force's Guilliana Vessa before eventually outkicking Alicia Monson of Wisconsin and Vessa to give Anna Boyert a two-second lead in the third leg.

Boyert looked to be caught by Wisconsin's Amy Davis on the final lap of her leg, but Boyert turned it up on the last turn, putting Savannah Camacho in the lead for the last mile.

"It's hard to run with the lead in a race like this," Smith said. "You don't want to be too far behind, but you don't want to be too far ahead, too. I try to tell them when to go and when to sit to make sure they're in a favorable position."

Camacho looked smooth running with the lead for most of the anchor-leg, but handed first-place to Wisconsin's anchor-leg Sarah Disanza for a few hundred-meters before claiming the top-spot for good on the bell lap and closing out the win for OSU in 4:46.01.

Wisconsin and OSU quickly dropped the rest of the field as the Cowgirls topped the Badgers by three seconds and the third-place team finished 22-seconds behind OSU.

Overall, the Cowgirl quartet won the race in 19:07.13, just nine seconds off the meet record that OSU set two years ago on their way to the historic distance relay sweep.

Once again, it was a race between Wisconsin and Oklahoma State in the men's race and the Cowboys outpaced the Badgers behind the efforts of Matthew Fayers, Craig Nowak, Brigham Hedges and Josh Thompson.

The Cowboys entered the race with an impressive advantage as Fayers, Nowak and Thompson all clocked sub-four minute miles during the indoor season, and Nowak and Thompson hold two of the five fastest times in the 1,500-meter run in the NCAA this season.

Fayers swung into lane two and pushed his way into third-place just before the handoff to Nowak.

Nowak patiently ran in second-place before kicking on the bell lap and opening up a 50-meter lead on second-place.

"I saw Wisconsin lined up one of the best 1,500-meter runners in the region on Brigham's leg, so I told Craig before the race that he had to really pull away and give us a big lead going into that third handoff."

On the third leg, Hedges held onto the lead for the Pokes until the last 100 meters when he was run down by a surging Oliver Hoare of Wisconsin, but Hedges handed off to Thompson just a second off the lead.

"Brigham did a tremendous job," Smith said. "The kid from Wisconsin really had to work to take the lead back and he ended up only beating Brigham to the line by a second or two."

The All-American miler Thompson tracked down Big Ten champion Morgan McDonald of Wisconsin and held onto the Badger sophomore until just before the bell lap.

"With us, we know we have great anchors in Savannah and Josh," Smith said. " Getting them the baton in second gives them a chance to do what they do best."

Once Thompson claimed the lead for the Pokes, he never gave it back up and the Cowboys cemented OSU's second sweep of the 4X1,600-meter relays in three years with a time of 16:18.80.

The action picks up Friday at the Drake Relays as Kaela Edwards makes her season debut in the 1,500-meter invitational and the Cowgirls line up for the 4X800-meter relay.

Drake Relays | Des Moines, Iowa | April 27, 2017

Women's Results

4X1,600-Meter Relay
1. Oklahoma State Team A – 19:07.14
A. Hetherington, M. Sughroue,
A. Boyert, S. Camacho

Men's Results

4X1,600-Meter Relay
1. Oklahoma State Team A – 16:18.80
M. Fayers, C. Nowak,
B. Hedges, J. Thompson