OSU Track and Field Heads into Tri-State Weekend

Friday, April 20

PALO ALTO, CA

Oklahoma State University

Cardinal Classic

April 18, 2018 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

MEET NOTES

The Basics
The OSU track and field squad takes on another weekend trifecta in search of regional-qualifying marks at three meets this weekend in Norman, Waco, Texas and Palo Alto, California.
This is the busiest weekend of the outdoor season remaining for the Pokes after coming off a trip to Fayetteville, Arkansas last weekend that saw five event titles for Dave Smith's squads.

Follow the Meet
To follow the competition, live results will be available on each meet's host website.
For the John Jacobs Invitational, visit soonersports.com. To see Cardinal Classic results, go to gostanford.com. Finally to see the Michael Johnson Invitational results on Saturday, check out baylorbears.com.
A full recap of Oklahoma State's weekend at each meet will be available on okstate.com following the conclusion of the final day of competition.

Broadcast
The Michael Johnson Invitational will be streamed live on FloTrack and can be seen with the proper subscription.
Both the John Jacobs Invitational and the Cardinal Classic will not be streamed online or broadcast on television.

Meet Formats/Schedules
The John Jacobs Invitational and Cardinal Classic are weekend-long meets taking up most of Friday afternoon and all-day Saturday.
The Michael Johnson Invitational will be a one-day meet, taking place all-day Saturday.
Each meet's individual schedules can be seen on the host websites.
Friday's events are set to begin at 5 p.m. CT for the John Jacobs Invitational and 8:24 CT for the Cardinal Classic.
On Saturday, the Michael Johnson Invitational will kick off at 9 a.m. CT. The John Jacobs Invite is set to begin at 10 a.m. CT. Finally, the Pokes in the Cardinal Classic will run late Saturday night, approximately 10 p.m. CT.

A Look Back – John McDonnell Invitational
A week ago, the Oklahoma State track and field program earned five event titles in a windy weekend on John McDonnell Field at the aptly-named John McDonnell Invitational.
Senior Cole Verble kicked off the meet for Dave Smith's squads, taking home the first decathlon title of the outdoor season for the Cowboys, earning 4,935 points.
In the individual events, senior Molly Sughroue took gold in a heated women's 800m invitational section, running the race in 2:07.83. With former Cowgirl Clara Nichols on rabbit duty, Sughroue paced the field from 400 meters out, outrunning Carina Viljoen of Arkansas.
Eugene Grayson earned gold in the open section of the men's 800 meters, while being the only athlete to crack sub-2 minutes in the race. His time of 1:59.50 edged out Luke Moran of Tulsa by nearly a full second.
Distance standout Bryce Quigley continued to impress in his freshman year, taking first in the men's 3,000 meters in 8:33.81. Quigley has now placed in the top-five in all three races he's competed in in the outdoor season.
The women's 4x400-meter relay quartet wrapped up the event, as it competed alone and ran the relay in 3:55.36.

Stanford Success
This is the second trip of the season to Stanford for the outdoor squads, a location in which the Pokes have shined this season.
Three weekends ago in Palo Alto, California, Gintare Zenkeviciute ran the women's 10,000 meters in 34:15.18, earning her the tenth-fastest time in OSU history. Zenkeviciute's time is a personal-best mark and the best by a Cowgirl in the event since 2016.
Molly Sughroue and Ariane Ballner would run regional-qualifying times in different sections of the women's 1,500m, running a 4:20.64 and 4:20.88, respectively.
Ashenafi Hatte and Kevin Mulcaire would later run in different sections of the men's 5,000, posting two impressive times of 14:00.87 and 14:05.02, respectively.

Martinez Magic
Senior Cowboy Luis Martinez has long been a staple of the men's distance lineup, with his final campaign being no different.
In the cross country season, Martinez placed in the top-10 in the four of five races he competed in, highlighted by his silver medal at the Big 12 Cross Country Championships behind teammate Hassan Abdi.
In the indoor season, he found himself in the top-10 in three out of four meets in which he competed.
His best run came against some the conference's best at the Big 12 Championships in Ames, Iowa. Martinez competed in the 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters, earning first team All-Big 12 honors in both events.
Martinez's final outdoor season is off to a hot start for the New Mexico native. In his first race of 2018, the Arkansas Spring Invitational, Martinez ran his way to a 1,500-meter gold in 3:45.93. His time was a mere five-hundredths of a second off the meet record, set by former Cowboy Tom Farrell in 2011.
Three weekends ago in Palo Alto California, Martinez competed against some of the nation's best at the Stanford Invitational. His time of 29:16.78 placed him 19th against the best distance runners in the country.
Martinez will look to continue to etch his name among the Oklahoma State distance runners' record books, a task that has proven more and more difficult as years go by.

Obliterating Outdoors
The outdoor season has been one that's seen great success under Dave Smith. In his first season as cross country and track and field director, the Cowboys got their first individual outdoor champion since 1985 in German Fernandez. Fernandez took home the title in the men's 1,500 meters and still holds the school record mark in the event.
For the Cowgirls, 2016 was a historic outdoor year for Dave Smith's athletes. The outdoor season produced five All-Americans: Aurora Dybedokken, Chase Ealey, Ingeborg Loevnes, Kaela Edwards and Savannah Camacho. That mark represents the most women's All-Americans in a single year in program history.
In 2017, the outdoor season saw more of the same, with the Cowboys and Cowgirls both producing three All-Americans.
For the men, the season was highlighted by Hassan Abdi's first Big 12 title, Jacob Fincham-Dukes setting the outdoor school record in the long jump and Josh Thompson's fourth-place finish in the NCAA Championships.
Some highlights of the Cowgirls' outdoor season were Kaela Edwards and Savannah Camacho's final Big 12 titles and Kaylee Dodd's fifth-place finish at the NCAA Championships after finishing ninth overall in the indoor season.
So far this season, Dave Smith's squads have already begun building the future for an outdoor Oklahoma State dynasty.