OSU Wins Six Titles on Final Day of Big 12 Championships

Friday, February 24

Ames, Iowa

Oklahoma State University

Big 12 Indoor Championships

February 25, 2017 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

Cowboys finish fourth, Cowgirls take third

RESULTS

Ames, Iowa – Oklahoma State won six individual titles on the final day of the Big 12 Indoor Championships as the Cowgirls scored 88 points to take third and the Cowboys finished fourth with 93.

"We were close on both sides and we were missing a lot of pieces," coach Dave Smith said. "If we have Cerake Geberkidane and some other athletes were able to go, maybe we do things a little differently and go for it more, and take a few more risks, but part of our philosophy was protecting the athletes who are going to Nationals."

Cowgirl senior Kaela Edwards became the most decorated indoor athlete in Cowgirl history when she won the women's 800-meter title in 2:04.77.

"It's cool to have that record, but it's not something I ever thought about reaching in the way I might for a timed record," Edwards said. "I'm happy to be leaving OSU with an impact in the record books. I worked for every success along the way and good results happen when you try to achieve things by working hard to be the best you can even with setbacks along the way."

It was her school-record sixth conference indoor title and second of the weekend as she anchored the Cowgirl distance medley relay team to gold Friday night.

"Kaela is a beast," women's assistant coach Cody Halsey said. "She comes with an iron-clad will every day and she's always ready for anything we give her. We can put Kaela in any race and know that she's going to be in contention for the title."

Edwards stayed in third for a majority of the race, but bolted for the lead on the bell lap and put a full-second gap between her and second-place with 60 meters to go.

All-American Savannah Camacho and Kaylee Dodd finished third and fifth, respectively, in the same race to give the Cowgirls 20 points and extend their lead on the conference in 800-meter scoring over the past five seasons.

With the 20 points from Saturday, OSU has now scored 82 points in the 800 since 2013. The next highest point total in the conference belongs to Baylor with 35.

OSU swept the Big 12 mile titles for the second consecutive year, this time with Molly Sughroue and Josh Thompson completing the double in similar fashions.

Sughroue stayed on the shoulder of the leader for the first four laps of the mile, then accelerated past the leader on the bell-lap of the 300-meter track and never looked back. She won by nearly two seconds in 4:47.76. Cowgirl senior Anna Boyert took third and sophomore Kaytlyn Larson finished fourth in the same event.

Thompson ran in the middle of the pack with senior teammate Craig Nowak until Kansas State's Lukas Koch started to pull away with two laps to go. Thompson and Nowak went with the Wildcat junior and finished the race one-two, with Thompson out-pacing Nowak for the win by less than a second.

The Cowboy senior Thompson came back less than an hour later and won the men's 1,000-meter title in a school and Lied Recreational Facility record 2:22.07. The previous facility record stood for 24 years before Thompson's run Saturday.

With the conference championships complete, Thompson ends his indoor Big 12 career undefeated in title races and 40 points scored in just two years as a Cowboy. He's the first Cowboy in school history to win back-to-back 1,000-meter and mile titles.

"I didn't expect to go undefeated when I came here," Thompson said. "I was just trying to train well and hang on to some of these guys because they were a lot faster than me. At first I was kind of intimidated, but I stepped up to the challenge and because of my teammates and my coaches I've developed and gotten a lot faster."

The mile win also marked the fourth-straight year a Cowboy has won the event.

Thompson fought off a surging Nowak for the win the mile, but in the 3,000-meters, Nowak dominated the field to defend his title from 2016.

Nowak took the men's High Point Award as he scored 28 points and won two events at the Big 12 Championships thanks to his men's 3,000-meter title Saturday.

"I couldn't have asked for a better way to go out," Nowak said. "A team win would have been nice, but individually, I couldn't have asked for more."

Nowak led wire-to-wire in an unconventional conference championship race, and pulled Big 12 Cross Country Runner of the Year Hassan Abdi with him as the duo broke away with the lead pack early on.

"I think at that point in the meet, everyone is expecting a sit-and-kick tactical race," Nowak said. "Usually that plays into my favor, but I wanted to do something that no one was expecting, and I wanted to shock some people and I think it played out well."

Abdi pushed forward into second-place just before the turn onto the homestretch and nearly caught Nowak approaching the line, but the Cowboy newcomer settled for his second runner-up finish of the weekend.

True freshman Ryan Smeeton also scored for the Cowboys with an eighth-place finish in the same event.

"It felt good to be able to contribute to the team at my first meet," Smeeton said. "Dave said to all of us, 'don't go to the front,' but Craig did it and it was kind of a plot twist there, so I just chipped away at the guys ahead of me and just went for it."

For Nowak, the win was his eighth all-conference and fourth Big 12 title in two years after falling short of scoring at conference meets in his first two seasons for the Cowboys.

"One of my favorite moments of the weekend was watching Craig Nowak," Smith said. "Coming into the meet last year he'd never scored and now he has 47 points in three meets. He's been a great Cowboy, he's done everything we've ever asked of him and to see him go out and get two titles and a runner-up finish was great for me and great for our program."

Abbie Hetherington completed her comeback season with her first Big 12 title when she won the women's 1,000-meter run.

"It feels amazing," Hetherington said. "I've always been close, but not close enough and usually my teammates are the ones in front of me. Ever since the end of the cross country season, I decided to step it up and just see what could happen."

Hetherington sat out of last year's indoor season due to injury, but has run personal bests in the indoor 800 and scored her fourth all-Big 12 honor and second indoor honor this season.

"My plan was to win," Hetherington said. "I just really, really wanted to win. Cody [Halsey] told me before the race that no one was going to beat me today, and I just had to go out and prove her right."

The win in the 1,000, completed the OSU sweep of the event as Thompson won the men's race, and made it four-straight 1,000-meter titles for the Cowgirls.

Chelsea Jarvis took third and Ariane Ballner finished fifth in the 1,000 to claim their first all-Big 12 honors.

"Overall through the middle-distances we did a pretty good job," Smith said. "We're consistently strong in those events and that showed again today with the amount of points we scored there."

Sixty-one of the Cowgirls' 88 points came from middle distance events and 36 of the Cowboys' 93 points came in the 800, 1,000 and mile.

There were shades of 2016 in the men's 60-meter dash final as a false start reset the race for the second year in-a-row. After lane three was vacated, sophomore Malik Givens clocked a 6.71 to take third for his second consecutive all-conference indoor honor.

"Malik outperformed what anyone probably expected he would do," Smith said. "He's really starting to come on and I think he's going to become one of those sprinters to be reckoned with in the Big 12."

Brandon Singleton and Amira Coleman both took sixth-place in the men's and women's 600-yard runs, and Bradley Johnson earned his first individual all-conference honor when he finished eighth in the 800-meter final.

Donovan Nunley made history Saturday, when he became the first Cowboy to ever score in the 60-meter hurdles at a Big 12 Championship meet. He finished eighth in 8.44 seconds.

"Donovan's run in the hurdles was a piece of history for the program and the history and a huge confidence boost for him," throws and multis coach Josh Langley said. "I know he and Cole are disappointed by the results of the heptathlon, but they laid it on the line and recorded PRs in the process."

OSU has now scored in 11 of the 12 running events since 2013. Only three Big 12 men's teams have scored in all 12, including Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas. Only Texas and OSU have won conference titles in that time.

Aurora Dybedokken returned to the track Saturday in the women's 3,000-meter final and finished seventh to follow up her sixth-place finish in the 5,000 Friday.

In the women's shot put, two Cowgirls scored and another finished just outside of the scoring places, with Ieva Zarankaite leading the way.

Zarankaite earned her fourth all-Big 12 honor and first indoor honor as a Cowgirl with her 15.24m/50-0 foot throw on her first attempt of the series. Not only did Zarankaite claim five points and her first all-conference honor since 2015, but she also threw the No. 5 mark in OSU history.

"Ieva and Katie had great meets," Langley said. "Ieva finally cracked that 50-foot barrier and did it when it mattered most. I know she isn't happy, but it's because she had high expectations for herself and those around her, but she's going to be confident heading into outdoors."

Senior Cowgirl Katie Kehl closed her Cowgirl indoor career with a medal and an eighth-place finish in the women's shot put for her first career all-conference honor.

"Katie had one of her most consistent series, and walked away with her first honor," Langley said. "She's definitely ready for bigger throws come outdoor season."

The Baylor Bears won the women's title for the first time in conference history and Texas claimed their third men's title in five years.

With the six titles from Saturday and the two DMR wins from Friday, OSU walks away from Ames with eight conference titles.

The indoor season is over for most, but a handful of Cowboys and Cowgirls will head to the NCAA Indoor Championships in two weeks, including defending women's mile champion Kaela Edwards and All-American Josh Thompson.

Big 12 Indoor Championships | Feb. 25, 2016 | Ames, Iowa

Women's Results

600 Yards Final
6. Amira Coleman – 1:21.75

800 Meters Final
1. Kaela Edwards – 2:04.77
3. Savannah Camacho – 2:07.30
5. Kaylee Dodd - 2:08.47

1,000 Meters Final
1. Abbie Hetherington – 2:46.18
3. Chelsea Jarvis – 2:47.13
5. Ariane Ballner – 2:48.00

Mile
1. Molly Sughroue – 4:47.76
3. Anna Boyert – 4:51.45
4. Kaytlyn Larson – 4:53.66

3,000 Meters
7. Aurora Dybedokken – 9:31.72
13. Michelle Magnani – 9:42.31
27. Anna Boyert – 9:59.08
29. Kaytlyn Larson – 10:06.20
31. Molly Sughroue – 10:08.18
34. Jennifer Celis – 10:13.83

4X400-Meter Relay
8. Oklahoma State Team A – 3:43.72
D. Coleman, A. Coleman,
S. Camacho, A. Wesley

High Jump
11. Fenja Krohn – 1.62m/5-3.75

Shot Put
4. Ieva Zarankaite – 15.42m/50-0
8. Katie Kehl – 14.45m/47-5.0
9. Jocelen Ruth – 13.55m/44-5.5

Men's Results

60 Meters Final
3. Malik Givens – 6.71

600 Yards Final
6. Brandon Singleton – 1:09.97

800 Meters Final
8. Bradley Johnson – 1:51.04

1,000 Meters Final
1. Josh Thompson – 2:22.07^*
3. Matthew Fayers – 2:23.85

Mile Final
1. Josh Thompson – 4:13.87
2. Craig Nowak – 4:14.59
8. Sukhi Khosla – 4:20.82

3,000 Meters
1. Craig Nowak – 8:03.70
2. Hassan Abdi – 8:04.46
8. Ryan Smeeton – 8:13.16
9. Sylvester Barus – 8:14.71
10. Alec Haines – 8:17.72
12. Brigham Hedges - 8:21.27
15. Anthoney Armstrong 8:25.30
25. Sukhi Khosla – 8:51.25
29. Christian Liddell – 8:53.59

60-Meter Hurdles Final
8. Donovan Nunley – 8.55

4X400-Meter Relay
8. Oklahoma State Team A – 3:13.56
A. Grogan Jr., T. Jackson,
B. Singleton, R. Wheatley

Shot Put
11. Darrion Daniels – 13.69m/44-11.0

Heptathlon
9. Cole Verble
16. 60 Meters – 7.50
12. Long Jump – 6.36m/20-10.5
6. Shot Put – 12.22m/40-1.25
8. High Jump – 1.85m/6-0.75
14. 60M Hurdles – 9.00
5. Pole Vault – 4.65/15-3.0
6. 1,000 Meters – 2:52.78

10. Donovan Nunley
13. 60 Meters – 7.34
5. Long Jump 6.82m/22-4.5
2. Shot Put – 13.28m/43-7.0
8. High Jump – 1.85m/6-0.75
5. 60M Hurdles – 8.47
10. Pole Vault – 3.85m/12-7.5
12. 1,000 Meters – 3:10.63

Women's Final Standings
1. Baylor – 129.5 pts.
2. Texas – 100
3. Oklahoma State – 88
4. Oklahoma – 87
5. Kansas – 81
6. Kansas State – 77.5
7. Texas Tech – 59
8. Iowa State – 57
9. TCU – 44
10. West Virginia – 16

Men's Final Standings
1. Texas – 123.5 pts.
2. Kansas – 110.5
3. Texas Tech – 99.5
4. Oklahoma State – 93
5. Iowa State – 73.5
6. Kansas State – 71.5
7. Baylor – 68
8. Oklahoma – 65.5
9. TCU - 35