Oklahoma State Track & Field Returns to Fayetteville for Razorback Invitational

Oklahoma State Track & Field Returns to Fayetteville for Razorback Invitational

January 30, 2020 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

MEET SCHEDULE (ALL TIMES CT)
The Razorback Invitational will begin at noon on Friday, starting with multi-events and field events. Running events are slated to begin at 6 p.m. The meet will take place at the Randal Tyson Track Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

FOLLOW THE MEET
Fans can follow the action live on Twitter by following @run4okstate for updates. Live results can be found HERE. Final results will be published on www.okstate.com, along with a recap of OSU's day on the track.

THE BASICS
The OSU track teams are making their second trip of the season to Fayetteville, Arkansas, for the Razorback Invitational against a power-five loaded field. A solid group of underclassmen had a great showing for the Pokes at the Red Raider Invitational. Freshman Ariadni Adamopoulou broke the school record in the pole vault for the second consecutive weekend with a 4.11 meter vault. Freshman Saara Hakanen jumped to a fourth-place finish in the triple jump, landing third all-time on the Cowgirl indoor performance list. The 600-yard race saw a trio of Cowboy underclassmen turn in top-five finishes, as Ashton Hicks finished third, followed by DeJuana McArthur and LaKyron Mays. The Cowgirls also had three runners in the top five of the 600-yard race with Gabija Galvydyte finishing second, followed by Kalaya Ali and junior Christina Ollison. Senior Aaliyah Birmingham brought home a runner-up finish in the 60 meter race, and both 4x400 relay teams turned in top-five finishes.

THE FIELD
Arkansas
Auburn
Florida
Georgia
Kansas State
Kent State
LSU
Mizzou
Oklahoma
Oregon
Purdue
Stanford
Texas

FROM COACH GILES MCDONNELL
On freshman DeJuana McArthur:
"DJ has really stood out. He just gets better each week. I love his approach and attitude, as it has been a major learning curve for him. His teammates, in particular LaKyron Mays, has taken him under his wing, and helped him grow into a Big 12-caliber athlete."

COWBOYS & COWGIRLS RELOADED
The OSU track teams return two indoor All-Americans from last season: sophomore Ashton Hicks (400m) and the 400-meter leg of the Cowgirls' third-place, school-record setting Distance Medley Relay, junior Nicolette Dixon. Returning sophomore Isai Rodriguez was the conference runner-up in the 3,000m and 5,000m for the Cowboys a year ago. Hicks set the OSU indoor 400m school record in his freshman campaign when he finished second at the Big 12 Championships with a time of 45.6. Other returning all-conference honorees for the Cowboys include LaKyron Mays (400m, 4x400m relay), Juan Diego Castro (800m, DMR), Garrett Calhoun ( 1,000m), Ryan Smeeton (mile, 3,000m), Victor Shitsama (5,000m) , Ayrton Ledesma Fuentes (5,000m), Blake Scott (pole vault), Mace Metcalf (heptathlon), Sukhi Khosla (DMR), Isaiah Priddey (DMR) and Justin Long (4x400m relay). For the Cowgirls, Aaliyah Birmingham will look to improve her record-setting times from a year ago. Birmingham made a splash in her first season as a Cowgirl, breaking the 60m school record four different times and was Big 12 runner-up in the 60 meters. Taylor Somers is coming fresh off of her first All-American finish in cross country and will look to carry that success onto the track. Somers was all-conference indoors last year in the 3,000m and 5,000m. Sophomore Molly Born also earned her first all-america honors in the fall and will look to build on her all-conference finish in the 5,000m last season. Pentathlon school-record holder Bailey Golden is back, along with four-time indoor All-Big 12 performer Ariane Ballner, who was a member of the Big 12-champ DMR team.

LAST YEAR AT A GLANCE
The OSU track teams will look to build on last year's success. Last indoor season, the Cowgirl distance medley relay team of Molly Sughroue, Nicolette Dixon, Kaylee Dodd and Sinclaire Johnson finished third place at the NCAA Championships. Other indoor season highlights for the Cowgirls included Johnson's 1,000m title and Sughroue's conference crown in the mile. Jacob Fincham-Dukes ended his Cowboy career as an indoor All-American in the long jump with a school-record setting jump of 7.99m.