OSU Track and Field Hunts Individual Titles in Austin

Meet Information
• Event – NCAA Outdoor Championships
• Times – Wednesday: 7:02 p.m.; Thursday: 7:16 p.m.; Friday: 7:54 p.m.; Saturday: 5:41 p.m.
• Facilities – Mike A. Myers Stadium
• TV – All action can be found on the ESPN family of networks, please visit espn.com/watch for the full schedule.
Meet Notes

The Basics
            The Oklahoma State men's and women's track and field teams send four athletes each to the NCAA Outdoor Championships.
            Sinclaire Johnson, Molly Sughroue and Jenny Martinez (Celis) are competing in the 1,500 meters. Johnson is the NCAA leader in the event after running a school-record time of 4:09.50 at the West Regional.
            Aaliyah Birmingham will run the 400 meters. She also set a school record in that event earlier this year with a time of 51.51.
            Ashton Hicks and Jacob Fincham-Dukes return to the national stage after appearances at the Indoor Championships in March.
            Ryan Smeeton and Hassan Abdi both took redshirts during the 2018 outdoor season, but both will run in Austin to cap off their return seasons.

Follow the Meet
            Fans can follow the action live on Twitter by following @run4okstate for updates. Live results can be found at ncaa.com. Final results will be published on www.okstate.com, along with a recap of OSU's day on the track.
            All competition will be streamed or televised on the ESPN family of networks. For a full schedule, please visit espn.com/watch.

Director of Cross Country and Track and Field Dave Smith on the Meet
On his thoughts heading into the meet
"I think we've got a good group. It's a small group, but they're all ranked pretty highly and we have a chance to go in there and make some noise. We've got several athletes to win a national title, and not wild chances, but legit chances. Sinclaire Johnson and Ryan Smeeton are both ranked No. 1 in the NCAA. Hassan Abdi hasn't run fast yet this year, but FloTrack ranks him at No. 1 in the 10,000 meters. Aaliyah Birmingham could do it, and Jacob Fincham-Dukes has a chance. Molly Sughroue is someone who I think has been close for a long time, and Jenny Martinez (Celis) had a huge PR last week."

On the four seniors headed to Nationals
"First of all, Jacob Fincham-Dukes, Hassan Abdi, Molly Sughroue and Jenny Martinez are great people. They've done a great job in creating a culture and atmosphere of excellence. They've made it a place people want to come. They've also been really, really good athletes for us. You can count up the number of points and Big 12 titles from those four, and it's way better than the average. We're going to miss them. They're going to leave a big hole, but every time we lose someone we have people step up."

On the year as a whole
"I think we had a bounce-back year across the board. Our cross-country team weren't at the level they were at for years. We struggled, but it seems like we're bouncing back with Ashenafi Hatte and Isai Rodriguez, two of the 15 best in the NCAA. Same with the women. In track and field, we're more well-rounded than we've ever been. That's exciting
for me."

Leading Ladies
            Sinclaire Johnson and Molly Sughroue both finished the 2018 outdoor season in Eugene,Oregon, at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and figure to again lead the way for OSU this year.
            Johnson ran an NCAA-leading time in the 1,500 meters last weekend, running faster than a loaded field that included defending champion and Bowerman watch list athlete Jessica Hull.
            Johnson also proved her status in the 800 meters with a conference title in the event. She has come on as one of the elites in women's collegiate middle-distance running.
            Sughroue kept the Big 12 1,500-meter crown in Stillwater. She won the conference title in that event. The 1,500 meters has been won by a Cowgirl for the past five years.
            Sughroue and Johnson both threw down massive anchor legs to win relays for the Cowgirls at the Drake Relays.
            Johnson's anchor leg in the 4X800-meter relay clocked in at 2:02.79. That performance would have been No. 3 in the NCAA had it been a solo 800-meter race. Her leg also helped the Cowgirls set the Drake Relays record, OSU school record and the world lead in the event.
            Sughroue anchored the DMR team to victory to sweep the distance relays for the third time in program history. She battled with Utah's Sarah Feeny, who was No. 2 in the NCAA in the 1,500 meters this season. Sughroue came out as the victor and helped OSU win the race comfortably.
            Both Sughroue and Johnson are coming off a third-place finish at the NCAA Indoor Championships as members of the Cowgirls' distance medley relay team. Sughroue led off
that relay with the 1,200-meter leg and Johnson anchored the race for OSU.
            Sughroue is a four-time All-American and owns five Big 12 titles. In the 2019 indoor season, she claimed her third consecutive Big 12 title in the Mile and was a member of the distance medley relay squad that won a conference championship.
            Johnson and Sughroue are primed to once again earn All-America honors.

Record-Breaking 2019
            Thirteen school records have been rewritten so far this year for the Oklahoma State track and field teams.
            Sinclaire Johnson broke the Cowgirl record in the 1,500 meters last weekend with a time of 4:09.50. She set the NCAA lead in the event as well. Johnson is poised to contend for a national title in Austin.
            Aaliyah Birmingham set the school record in the women's 400 meters with a Big 12-title winning time of 51.51. Her time also met the World standard.
            Birmingham then helped the Cowgirls' 4X400-meter relay team set the school record. Birmingham, Nicolette Dixon, Latriceia Smith and Amira Coleman ran a time of 3:35.85.
            Allie Stern broke the school's record in the women's pole vault last weekend. She cleared 3.92m/12-10.25 to break the record which she set earlier this season.
            The women's 4X800-meter relay team broke the school record at the Drake Relays with a time of 8:25.41. Their time also set the Drake Relays record and set the world lead in the event. Sinclaire Johnson anchored the relay in 2:02.79, which would have been the third-best 800 meters' race in the NCAA this year had it come in a solo race.
            Cole Verble broke the school's decathlon record at the John McDonnell Invitational with 6,221 points, breaking Mace Metcalf's mark from the 2018 Big 12 Outdoor Championships.
            The Cowgirl distance medley relay squad of Molly Sughroue, Nicolette Dixon, Kaylee Dodd and Sinclaire Johnson ran a time of 10:55.01 to beat a record they previously broke. Their performance earned them third place and All-America honors.
            Bailey Golden broke the school record in the pentathlon with a score of 3,564 at the
Razorback Invitational. She broke Melody Vaughn's record of 3,498 points which was set back in 1998.
            Mace Metcalf also broke the school's indoor heptathlon record. He scored 4,999 points at the Big 12 Championships to set the school record in the men's indoor multi event.
            Aaliyah Birmingham, a transfer athlete coming in from the University of Tulsa, broke the school record at the Arkansas Invitational in the 60 meters in her first race as a Cowgirl. Her new school-best time of 7.42 surpassed Kira White's previous record of 7.54, set back in 2017.
            She broke her own record at the Big 12 Championships with a time of 7.25. She finished as the conference's runner-up in the 60 meters. All-in-all, Birmingham set the 60-meters record four times in her first season as a Cowgirl.
            Jacob Fincham-Dukes set the school record in the indoor long jump with a jump of 7.99m/26-2.75 at the Don Kirby Elite. He went on to finish fourth at the NCAA Indoor
Championships and was only four centimeters short of the winner (LSU's Rayvon Grey).
            Fincham-Dukes, who is also the indoor and outdoor long jump record holder, set the school record in the 60-meter hurdles. He ran an 8.32 at the Arkansas Invitational. Fincham-Dukes also bested his own record in the long jump.
            Ashton Hicks is only a freshman, but put himself at the top of the 400-meters performance list, running a 46.31 to set the school record in that event. He topped Timmy Thomas' 28-year-old record. Nobody on OSU's roster was born when Thomas set that record in 1991.

Orange at the Top
            Heading into the final week of the collegiate track season, the Cowboys and Cowgirls each take claim to an NCAA-leading mark. Sinclaire Johnson and Ryan Smeeton both sit atop the country in their respective events.
            Sinclaire Johnson leads the nation in the 1,500 meters after she ran a school-record time of 4:09.50 at the West Regional.
            Johnson was previously fourth in the NCAA, third in the West Region and first in the Big 12.
            Johnson controlled the quarterfinal race, winning wire-to-wire and clocking in with a faster time than anyone in the country, including defending champion Jessica Hull of Oregon.
            Ryan Smeeton leads the country in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase and has since the Payton Jordan Invitational.
            At Payton Jordan, Smeeton clocked in with a time of 8:27.90 to win the race, beating a field that included NCAA elites and professional runners.
            Smeeton has held on to the No. 1 spot in the country since that race on May 2. His time also met the World standard, qualifying him for the World Championships in the fall.
            Johnson and Smeeton have opportunities to turn their NCAA leads into NCAA championships.

Guess Who's Back, Back Again
            Hassan Abdi has returned to the track after two seasons away from the track due to exhausted eligibility in the cross country and indoor seasons.
            The senior put himself in the final race of the year with a third-place finish in the 10,000 meters at the West Regional.
            Abdi took home a conference title this year. He won the 10,000 meters for the second time in three years. It was Abdi's second Big 12 10,000-meter title in a row, for he redshirted in 2018.
            Abdi has been a staple for the Cowboys over the past two years. He aided OSU to a conference title during the 2016 cross country campaign.
            Abdi earned All-America honors during the same season, which was his first season as a Cowboy.
            The South Plains transfer has two more All-American performances under his belt. He anchored the Cowboys' distance medley relay team to a sixth-place finish at the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championships.
            Abdi came back the next year and finished third in the 5,000 meters.
At the conference level, Abdi has been elite. He has won three individual conference titles and has scored at conference track meets six times.
            Abdi's three conference championships have all come in distance events. He was the 2017 Big 12 cross country champion and was named the 2016 Big 12 Cross Country Runner of the Year.
            Abdi was the 2017 outdoor 10,000 meters' conference champion and the 2018 Big 12 champion in the indoor 3,000 meters.
            After two seasons away from the track, Abdi is poised to return and step back into his role as one of the nation's best distance runners.

A Sprinter's Delight
            Aaliyah Birmingham and Ashton Hicks qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 400 meters.
            Birmingham is coming off a historic season where she was a part of two school records. She broke the individual 400 meters record at the Big 12 Championships with a time of 51.51. She also led off the women's 4X400-meter relay team that
broke the OSU school record.
            Birmingham qualified for Austin's competition with an automatic qualifier in the first round and a time qualifier in the quarterfinals at the West Regional.
            Hicks has also had a fantastic freshman season.
            Hicks came within six hundredths of a second of breaking the OSU 400-meter record outdoors. He already owns the indoor 400-meter record.
            Hicks scored at the Big 12 Championships and went on to earn a spot at the West Regional. In Sacramento, Hicks cruised to the NCAA Championships with two automatic qualifiers.
            Hicks and Birmingham have a chance to make history again. No Cowboy has earned first team All-America honors in the 400 meters since 1956, and no Cowgirl has accomplished the feat ever.
            The pair has the chance to also become the first tandem in program history to earn All-America honors in the 400 meters in
the same year.
            Birmingham and Hicks have a chance to rewrite history again in Austin.

Might as Well Jump
            Jacob Fincham-Dukes is entering his final competition as a Cowboy.
            The English long jumper has been a staple for coach Zivile Pukstiene in his four years at OSU.
            Fincham-Dukes is coming off a second-place finish at the West Regional with a mark of 7.84m/25-8.75. His performance earned him a spot in the final field in Austin.
            During his final outdoor season, Fincham-Dukes matched his own school record in the long jump. He jumped 7.96m/26-1.5 to win the long jump at the National Relay Championships.
            Fincham-Dukes also saw success indoors in 2019. He won the Big 12 in the long jump and finished fourth at the NCAA Indoor Championships. He finished within four centimeters of the champion Rayvon Grey in Birmingham.
            He has also been honored as an All-American three other times. He was a second-team All-American twice in 2017 and an honorable mention All-American last year.
            Fincham-Dukes has also seen success in the sprints. He has been a part of multiple scoring 4X100-meter relays as well as holding the school record in the 60-meter hurdles.
            Fincham-Dukes was the first long jumper at OSU to become an All-American of any kind outdoors and he has a chance to become the first Cowboy to finish as a first team All-American in Austin.

Oklahoma State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Hassan Abdi

Amira Coleman

Nicolette Dixon

Kaylee Dodd

Jacob Fincham-Dukes

Bailey Golden

Ashenafi Hatte

Ashton Hicks

Sinclaire Johnson

Jenny Martinez

Mace Metcalf

Isai Rodriguez

Ryan Smeeton

Latriceia Smith

Molly Sughroue

Cole Verble

Kira White

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