Abdi, Thompson Earn Cross Country All-America Honors

Saturday, November 19

Terre Haute, Ind.

11 a.m.

Oklahoma State University

NCAA Championships

November 19, 2016 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Hassan Abdi and Josh Thompson earned All-America honors to lead the Cowboys to a 12th-place finish at the NCAA Cross Country Championships, Saturday, in Terre Haute, Indiana. The Cowgirls took 17th in the women's 6K Championship.

The Cowboys returned to the top-15, scoring 363 points, with four first-timers toeing the line at the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course.

"It was a middle-of-the-road day for the men," coach Dave Smith said. "I thought maybe we'd finish somewhere from fifth to 15th, and we got 12th. The guys really had their sights set on a top-10 finish, and we came up a bit short of that. We had some good things happen, though."

The newcomer, Abdi, finished 16th in 30:10.1 to lead the Pokes, and Thompson crossed the line in 30:23.4 to finish 36th.

It was both Cowboy front-runners' first NCAA cross country All-America honor, and Thompson's second overall after he anchored the fifth-place distance medley relay team at the indoor championships earlier this year.

"Hassan is emerging as one of the best runners in the country and we look forward to him leading us next year," Smith said. "Josh got his first cross country All-America honor and he did a great job."

The duo became the 48th and 49th cross country All-Americans in school history.

Christian Liddell, an alternate for the Cowboys in 2015 at the championships, finished 121st, Sylvester Barus took 139th and Anthoney Armstrong took 142nd to complete the Cowboy scoring.

"The rest of them are coming along nicely," Smith said. "We came into the day with only one guy who'd ever run the national championship race before – it's a really inexperienced group and they got some valuable experience today. I think with these six out of seven coming back next year, we're in a really good spot."

After the race, Liddell received the NCAA Elite 90 Award for academic excellence. The Cowboy sophomore earned academic all-Big 12 honors earlier this season for his 4.0 grade point average.

In the first race of the day, under a thick overcast and on a muddy Gibson Course, the Cowgirls finished 17th, winning the rare tiebreak with Penn State. Kaela Edwards was the highest finisher for OSU in 80th-place.

"We hoped we would be top-20," Smith said. "If we had a really good day, we thought we could finish top-10, and we were somewhere in the middle of that. I think we had some people run well and improve upon what we had last year and that's always good."

True freshman and season-long No. 2 Michelle Magnani suffered an injury Friday, but still ran in the championship 6K and finished 188th.

"Having Michelle hurt, and hurt just a day ago, that took our women's team down a little bit," Smith said. "She went from being one of our best girls this year to our five or six, so that was a big swing for us."

Molly Sughroue (88th), Savannah Camacho (116th), Aurora Dybedokken (126th) and Abbie Hetherington (178th) each had their final positions added to the Cowgirls' score of 465.

For Sughroue, her 88th-place finish was a 34-place improvement from her championship debut a season ago.

With the conclusion of the cross country season, OSU turns its attention to the indoor track and field season, with meets slated to begin as early as Dec. 9.

"These men and women are going to all take a break," Smith said. "It's been a long season. They're tired and some of them are a little dinged up. When they come back, they're all very good athletes - very good track athletes - I expect some big things."

Last year, the indoor season was one for the history books as the Cowboys won their second Big 12 indoor title in three years and Kaela Edwards won a national title in the mile.

NCAA Cross Country Championships | Nov. 19, 2016 | Terre Haute, Ind.

Men's Individual Results
16. Hassan Abdi – 30:10.1
36. Josh Thompson – 30:23.4
121. Christian Liddell – 31:03.1
139. Sylvester Barus – 31:10.3
142. Anthoney Armstrong – 31:11.1
155. Matthew Fayers – 31:18.1
184. Luis Martinez – 31:30.8

Women's Individual Results
80. Kaela Edwards – 20:44.4
88. Molly Sughroue – 20:47.1
116. Savannah Camacho – 20:54.3
126. Aurora Dybedokken – 20:56.6
178. Abbie Hetherington – 21:16.2
188. Michelle Magnani – 21:21.8
234. Anna Boyert – 22:16.5

Men's Team
1.Northern Arizona – 125 pts.
2.Stanford – 158
3.Syracuse – 164
4.Mississippi – 196
5.Arkansas – 206
6.Colorado – 223
7.Brigham Young – 247
8.Wisconsin – 256
9.Oregon – 282
10.Iona – 319
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12. Oklahoma State – 363

Women's Team
1.Oregon – 125 pts.
2.Michigan – 126
3.Colorado – 134
4.N.C. State – 223
5.Stanford – 255
6.San Francisco – 307
7.New Mexico – 310
8.Michigan State – 314
9.Eastern Michigan – 316
10.Brigham Young – 328
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17. Oklahoma State - 465