OSU Heads to Big 12 Outdoor Championships

Friday, May 13

Ft. Worth, Texas

All Day

Oklahoma State University

Big 12 Outdoor Championships

May 12, 2016 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

MEET NOTES

The Basics
            Oklahoma State heads to Ft. Worth, Texas, for the 2016 Big 12 Outdoor Championships.
            The Cowboys come into the meet having already won both the cross country and indoor titles, and seek to take the first sweep in conference history.
            The Cowgirls and their dominant middle-distance crew look to build off of their cross country title and best finish in school history at the Indoor Championships.

Follow The Meet
            Oklahoma State's results and a full recap will be available on okstate.com following the completion of each day's events.
            For live results, visit big12sports.com.

Broadcast Information
            The 2016 Big 12 Outdoor Championships will be broadcast live on Fox Sports or streamed online at FoxSportsGo.com on Sunday for the championship races.

Meet Format/Schedule (All Times CT)
            The men's and women's 10,000-meter finals will be the only running finals to take place Friday, but the women's hammer throw and men's hammer throw, pole vault and javelin throw also have finals Friday.
            Day two kicks off at 11 a.m., with the remainder of the decathlon and heptathlon events, and the running events start at 5:30 p.m. continuing until the 200-meter prelim at 8:55.
            Championship Sunday begins at 11 a.m. for the field events and 4:30 p.m. for the running events, starting with the 4X100-meter relay and concluding with the 4X400-meter relay at 7:45 and trophy presentation at 9 p.m.

Last Time Out
            The Cowgirls dominated the 800-meter run, producing five of the top-six times, with Savannah Camacho's 2:05.73 leading the pack at the Arkansas Twilight.
            It was Camacho's first open outing since the Stanford Invitational back on April 1 where she opened her season and qualified for the West Regional with her 1,500-meter time of 4:17.56, the 14th fastest in the region.
            Abbie Hetherington moved up the conference and regional rankings with her runner-up finish in the event in 2:06.26. It puts her in a tie for 16th in the West and a tie for fifth in the conference.
            All-American Jennifer Celis barely missed out on a top-10 conference time in the 800 with her fourth-place finish, and Molly Sughroue and Kaytlyn Larson took fifth and sixth for the Cowgirls.
            Five Cowgirls now hold top-10 spots in the 800-meter run in the Big 12. The Cowgirls are the only team in the conference to own five top-10 places in two events, now with the 800-and 1,500-meter run where OSU holds the five best times in the Big 12.
            Anthoney Armstrong was one of just two entries in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. He won the event in 9:05.55 and jumped to seventh in the conference for OSU's third top-10 conference mark of the day and 12th of the year for the Pokes at John McDonnell Field.
            The 12 top-10 Big 12 marks for OSU are the most at a venue this outdoor season, edging out the 11 earned at Stanford's Cobb Track.

A Look Back
            Chad Noelle defended his 1,500-meter title, Kirubel Erassa won the 10,000-and 5,000-meter titles, Savannah Camacho took the 800-meter crown and Natalja Piliusina became the most decorated Cowgirl in OSU track and field history at the 2015 Big 12 Outdoor Championships.
            Speedster John Teeters finished runner-up in the fastest 100-meter dash in conference history. He ran a 9.98 (wind-aided), and was one of three finishers on the day to run sub-10 seconds.
            Both Fabian Clarkson and Ingeborg Loevnes finished second in the 3,000-meter steeplechases.
            When Camacho crossed the finish line to win the 800, she was followed by three other Cowgirls in Kaela Edwards, Kaylee Dodd and Abbie Hetherington.
            Matthew Fayers finished sixth in the 1,500 with Noelle.
            Caileigh Glenn finished fifth the 1,500 to take home all-conference honors in her final Big 12 event.
            Overall, the Cowboys finished sixth with 69 points and the Cowgirls scored 62 to take seventh.
            In the all-conference category, 29 athletes scored for OSU.

Men's Entries

Anthoney Armstrong, Arlando Brewer-Johnson, Sean Casey, Matthew Fayers, Jacob Fincham-Dukes, Cerake Geberkidane, Malik Givens, Tanner Green, Anthony Grogan Jr., Wesley Hallof, Brigham Hedges, Simon Imagbe, Tyler Jackson, Tre'Tez Kinnaird, Luis Martinez, Nick Miller, Craig Nowak, Vegard Oelstad, Sharod Selph, Brandon Singleton, John Teeters, Josh Thompson, Cole Verble, Ryan Wheatley

Women's Entries

Natalie Baker, Anna Boyert, Triana Browne-Hearrell, Savannah Camacho, Jennifer Celis, Amira Coleman, Danielle Coleman, Kaylee Dodd, Aurora Dybedokken, Chase Ealey, Kaela Edwards, Stephanie Ferrante, Summor Fields, Megan Harris, Abbie Hetherington, Megan Honas, Monika Juodeskaite, Katie Kehl, Kaytlyn Larson, Ingeborg Loevnes, Aina Maartensson, Baylor Nelson, Clara Nichols, Sarah Robinson, Viktoriia Sadokhina, Molly Sughroue, Kennedy Turner, Gintare Zenkevicuite

OSU Fields 28 Academic All-Big 12 Honorees
            Oklahoma State was well represented on the 2016 Big 12 Academic All-Conference list, released Tuesday, with 11 Cowboys and 17 Cowgirls earning the honor.
            The 28 total student-athletes on the list gave the Pokes second in the conference behind the 30 student-athletes honored from both the University of Kansas and University of Texas.
            The Cowgirls led the conference in first team honors, and three student-athletes in Natalie Baker, Stephanie Ferrante and Sarah Robinson earned the first-team spot with a 4.0 grade point average. Overall, OSU's four 4.0 student-athletes, including decathlete Cole Verble, is a Big 12 high as well.
            The Cowboys' 10 first-team all-conference honorees is the second-most in the Big 12, tied with Kansas and trailing only Texas' 11.
            First team members consist of those who have maintained a 3.20 or better GPA while the second team selections hold a 3.00 to 3.19 GPA.
            To qualify, student-athletes must maintain a 3.00 GPA or higher either cumulative or the two previous semesters and must have participated in 60 percent of their team's scheduled contests. Freshmen and transfers are not eligible in their first year of academic residence. Senior student-athletes who have participated for a minimum of two years and meet all the criteria except percent of participation are also eligible.
            In total, 222 student-athletes were named to the list.

Scoring Specialists
            The Oklahoma State Cowgirls have dominated the conference's middle-distance races for years under coach Dave Smith. Coming into the 2016 outdoor championships, the Cowgirls have scored 190 points in the 800-meter, 1,000-meter, 1,500-meter and mile races at the indoor and outdoor championships since 2014.
            There has been at least two Cowgirls in the 800-meter final at every Big 12 Championship since the 2014 indoor season. The streak is the longest in the conference.
            In those five conference championships, OSU has taken home seven individual titles, including three-straight in the 1,000 indoors and both 1,500-and 800-meter titles at the outdoor conference championships a season ago.
            Coming into this weekend's event in Ft. Worth, Texas, the Cowgirls have five of the top-10 marks in the 800-meter run and all five of the best marks in the 1,500. No other program on the men's or women's side has five of the best times in multiple events.

Slow and Steady
            While the Cowgirls have mastered the Big 12 middle-distance races, the Cowboys have made themselves perennial contenders in the distance races, winning four-straight 5,000-meter titles at both indoor and outdoor conference championships, and scoring 170 points across the three distance events since 2014.
            Though much more dominant at the indoor championships, sweeping the 3,000-and 5,000-meter titles at three-straight conference meets, the Pokes are coming into the 2016 outdoor championships having swept the 5,000-and 10,000-meter crowns at last year's Big 12 meet.
            Thirty Cowboys have scored points at conference meets in the distance races, and those 30 have helped the Cowboys score in double-digits at each of the last five meets in the distance events.
            In that three-year stretch, OSU has won two conference titles, both indoor, and each time they took the crown, they scored 30 or more points combined in the 3,000 and 5,000.

Season Sweep?
            The Cowboy track and field team is in a unique position heading into the outdoor season.
            For just the second time in conference history, a team has the opportunity to sweep the cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field Big 12 Championships. The only other team in Big 12 history to be in this position was the 2013-14 Cowboy squad that finished third at the outdoor championships.
            The task will not be easy, though. After finishing third at indoors in 2015, the Cowboys finished sixth at last year's outdoor championships, scoring 69 points and bringing home three individual titles, including the 10K, 5K and 1,500-meter championships.
            If OSU can pull off the unprecedented, it will not just be its first Big 12 outdoor title in school history, but its first team title since 1957, when the school was still Oklahoma A&M.
            The Pokes' highest finish at the outdoor championships since joining the Big 12 is the third-place finish from 2014, but OSU did nab back-to-back runners-up finishes in the Big 8 back in 1959 and 1960.