Fincham-Dukes Wins Long Jump Title

May 13, 2017 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

Cowboys' first long jump title since 1962

DAYS ONE/TWO RESULTS

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Jacob Fincham-Dukes secured Oklahoma State's first men's long jump title since 1962 when he won his first conference championship event with a leap of 7.87m/25-10.0 feet Saturday at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships.

Fincham-Dukes' title-winning mark came on his second jump of the series. He came into the event as the No. 1 seed after a late scratch from defending champion Charles Brown of Texas Tech. Fincham-Dukes still had to out-jump four men with top-15 regional marks en rout to his first conference title.

"Those were great athletes and that was a great competition," coach Dave Smith said. "Jacob is a gamer. He has been from the time when we recruited him. He's done it at indoors for us and did it last year outdoors for us. He always has his best series at conference, and today he was rewarded with a title."

The England international has now scored 28 points at conference championships since 2016, the most in the event in that timespan.

The last race of the day was not to be overlooked as three Cowboys came away with points in the men's steeplechase.

Overall the Pokes scored 13 points in the event from Christian Liddell, Ryan Smeeton and conference runner-up Josh Thompson.

"I was trying to stay out of the pack and trying to not get into trouble so I was running in lanes two and three the whole time," Thompson said. "I felt fine on the last lap, I just didn't have enough to catch [Keter] at the end, but I'm happy with the overall effort."

While Liddell had run the steeplechase throughout the 2017 season and the freshman Smeeton owns a regional qualifying mark in the event, Thompson's 8:50.61 came on just a few days of preparation.

"He had done one water jump the entire year, and that was here yesterday," Smith said. "Josh is a great athlete, and the steeple probably is his event for the future. Closing in 59 seconds with all of those barriers is incredible."

Thompson made a late charge on the bell lap to catch the surging Keter, but ran out of track and finished with the No. 7 time in school history in his first steeplechase as a Cowboy.

"I love racing, so I'm willing to do any event," Thompson said. "I love running. It's a passion of mine, and running steeple is just a fun event and it's different than any other event I usually run."

The honor was Smeeton's second overall, Liddell's first and Thompson's first outdoors, but fifth overall as he finished his indoor career back in February with four conference titles.

Kaylee Dodd led a posse of Cowgirls through to the 800-meter final with her No. 2 qualifying time from the prelims. Dodd, Savannah Camacho and Kaytlyn Larson all advanced automatically, while Ambra Wesley made it on time and true freshman Sinclaire Johnson finished ninth, but advanced after a disqualification.

Kaela Edwards cruised to the 1,500-meter final and will seek her second outdoor all-conference honor in her final Big 12 event as a Cowgirl.

"I felt pretty good," Edwards said. "Coach told me not to lead, but I was itching to go so I just took it at 800 and it went well. It's really hard to tell how you actually feel when the weather isn't ideal, but I did what I came to do."

The Cowgirls scored in the women's shot put in back-to-back years after Ieva Zarankaite took seventh in the event with another mark of more than 50 feet.

Zarankaite will throw the discus tomorrow afternoon. She enters Sunday's final with the 14th-best mark in the region and the third-best in the conference.

The Cowboy duo of Craig Nowak and Thompson advanced to the 1,500-meter final with Matthew Fayers and Sukhi Khosla.

Nowak, the reigning champion in the event, was out-stepped by two-hundredths of a second for the best time of the day, and Thompson won his heat, pushing Nowak to the three-seed heading into the final.

"Getting five women into the 800 final, and 4 men into the 1,500-meter final were pretty good highlights for us today," Smith said. "The men are having a good meet and are about where we expected, but the women are having a tougher time, and that comes back to us as coaches. We took some risks and it didn't pan out for us, but we've had some things go our way, too.

Day three of the Big 12 Outdoor Championships kicks off at 2:30 p.m. with the women's high jump featuring Cowgirl freshman Fenja Krohn.

The men's and women's 4X400-meter relays close competition, and an awards ceremony is scheduled for 9 p.m.

Overall, OSU advanced 10 to Sunday finals and will also have athletes in the 5,000-meter runs and field event finals.

Big 12 Outdoor Championships | May 12, 2017 | Lawrence, Kan.

Women's Results

100 Meters
15. Megan Harris – 11.83
16. Kira White – 11.85
17. Lexie Lewis – 11.87

200 Meters
16. Megan Harris – 24.03
18. Emily Hart – 25.28
19. Erin Hart – 25.50
21. Summor Fields – 25.90

400 Meters
17. Amira Coleman – 56.78

800 Meters
2. Kaylee Dodd – 2:08.48Q
3. Savannah Camacho – 2:09.14Q
4. Kaytlyn Larson – 2:10.92Q
6. Ambra Wesley – 2:10.03q
8. Sinclaire Johnson – 2:10.95q
12. Clara Nichols – 2:12.32
15. Stephanie Ferrante – 2:14.91
18. Haley Geissler – 2:17.47
22. Danielle Coleman – 2:26.95

1,500 Meters
1. Kaela Edwards – 4:26.50Q
9. Ariane Ballner – 4:32.24
12. Anna Boyert – 4:35.65
15. Abbie Hetherington – 4:39.32

100 Meter Hurdles
13. Emily Hart – 13.95
16. Kennedy Turner – 14.52
18. Sarah Robinson – 14.94
19. Erin Hart – 15.39

400 Meter Hurdles
13. Sarah Robinson – 1:04.82
--. Kennedy Turner – FS

3,000M Steeplechase
9. Molly Sughroue – 10:44.89
10. Kaytlyn Larson – 10:50.72

Pole Vault
--. Elliett Kulkin - NH

Shot Put
7. Ieva Zarankaite – 15.36m/50-4.75
9. Katie Kehl – 4.44m/47-4.5

Men's Results

100 Meters
16. Logan Daily – 10.58 (+4.0)
19. Ty Smith – 10.76 (+2.7)
21. Cole Norton – 10.84 (+2.7)

200 Meters
13. Anthony Grogan Jr. – 21.38
17. Ty Smith – 21.65

400 Meters
13. Tyler Jackson – 48.17
15. Brandon Singleton – 48.38
19. Tanner Green – 50.30

800 Meters
11. Bradley Johnson – 1:52.56
14. Ryan Wheatley – 1:54.09
16. Garrett Calhoun – 1:55.99

1,500 Meters
2. Josh Thompson – 3:51.58Q
3. Craig Nowak – 3:49.86q
5. Matthew Fayers – 3:51.41q
7. Sukhi Khosla – 3:52.11q
21. Brigham Hedges – 4:07.98
22. Bryce Balenseifen – 4:10.05

3,000M Steeplechase
2. Josh Thompson – 8:50.61
5. Ryan Smeeton – 8:59.52
8. Christian Liddell – 9:05.13

Long Jump
1. Jacob Fincham-Dukes – 7.87m/25-10.0
13. Simon Imagbe – 6.32/20-9.00