Cross Country Heads to Lubbock to Defend Big 12 Titles

Saturday, October 29

Lubbock, Texas

Oklahoma State University

Big 12 Cross Country Championships

October 27, 2016 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

Meet Notes

The Basics
In Oklahoma State's first chance at silverware this postseason, the Cowboys have history on their side.
OSU has won the men's Big 12 cross country title eight years in-a-row and seek a ninth in Lubbock, coming into the event as the top-ranked Big 12 team.
The Cowgirls won their first Big 12 title a season ago hope to find their stride in time to make it back-to-back sweeps for OSU.

Follow the Meet
Fans can follow the action live on Twitter by following @run4okstate for updates. Final results will be published on www.texastech.com as well as www.okstate.com, along with a recap of OSU's day on the course.

Meet Schedule (All Times CT)
The 2016 Big 12 Cross Country Championships is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., with the women's 6K, then the men's 8K run will follow at 10:30 a.m.

Last Time Out
Oklahoma State's win came against some of the best teams in the country with the likes of No. 10 Mississippi, 19th-ranked Virginia, No. 28 Virginia Tech and Big 12 rival Texas toeing the line at the PSU Cross Country Course.
A pair of Texas men took the lead early, but were run down by the pack, including Sylvester Barus and Hassan Abdi, among others before the 5K mark.
Barus and Abdi kept pace with the lead-pack, opening up the door for Josh Thompson, and leading the Pokes to a first place finish with 47 points, topping Mississippi by two points.
Abdi's run of 25:01 got him second overall, and Thompson earned a third-place finish with a 25:03 on the 5.2 mile course. Luis Martinez (11th), Anthoney Armstrong (14th), and Barus (17th), helped secure the win for the Cowboys.
The race also marked a big day for another OSU newcomer in Michelle Magnani who suited up in orange for the first time in the women's 6K.
The Cowgirls surged back from fifth place with a kilometer to go to take third behind hosts and No. 8 Penn State (47), and No. 25 Mississippi (94), scoring 114 points behind a strong showing from Aurora Dybedokken who took ninth overall.
Molly Sughroue took 12th and true freshman Magnani finished 13th in her first official race for OSU. Savannah Camacho crossed the line in 26th, while Anna Boyert came in at 54th to wrap up the Cowgirl top-five.

Coach Dave Smith - Meet Comments

On Kaela Edwards' Return
"She brings a lot of confidence. She's worked really hard, she's accomplished a lot and she's got a lot of faith in herself and belief in her ability, which is kind of contagious. At the same time, knowing she's there takes a lot of pressure off of the girls. I don't know if she'll be our No. 1 runner or not, but it just calms everybody down having her influence there. I think everybody runs better because she's there."

On the race plan for the women
"It probably won't be too different from what we've run the last couple of years. We tend to be a little more conservative than some of the other teams in the Big 12, and we have a lot of middle-distance runners so we try to come on late. What's been the scenario the last couple of years is that teams get out, get ahead of us and try to stay ahead of us and we try to catch them. Last year we had a lot of luck doing that, this year we haven't been so lucky."

On the race plan for the men
"The men are in a little different position because the conference isn't quite as deep. I think Iowa State is a pretty good team, and Texas is pretty good. I'm very confident in our front three. When you put our front three against any other front three in the country, I think we're pretty comparable, and certainly in our conference we're pretty comparable. When you have confidence, you can get three of the top-six places and that changes the way you can approach it. You can be more conservative, you can be more relaxed, you can be more poised and I think that's a luxury we have with the men. I think our second three match up pretty well with Iowa State, so probably we're going to try to go one-two-three and hope our other three can mix it up with ISU."

Oklahoma State in the Rankings
For the second-straight week, and the third week this season, the Oklahoma State Cowboys come in as the No. 9 team in the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association ranking.
The Pokes are still the top-ranked team in the Big 12 heading into the conference championships, but Iowa State is just behind OSU in 13th, and sits at No. 2 below the Cowboys in the Midwest.
Hassan Abdi and Josh Thompson ran their way into the FloTrack Top-25 Male Runners list after finishing second and third, respectively, at the Penn State Open. Abdi came in at No. 12, and Thompson No. 18.
Abdi is the highest-ranked Big 12 male runner going into the Championships, and OSU is the only Big 12 team to have runners on FloTrack's list.
The Cowgirls fell a couple of spots to 18 following a third-place finish at the Penn State Open.
Baylor soared to No. 12 and Iowa State jumped to 15, knocking the Cowgirls down to the third-highest ranked team in the conference and the No. 2 team in the Midwest Region.