Seniors Roll at Final Day of Big 12 Championships

Friday, May 12

Lawrence, Kan.

All Day

Oklahoma State University

Big 12 Outdoor Championships

May 14, 2017 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

Edwards, Camacho, Thompson come away with titles

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Oklahoma State brought home three titles and 16 all-conference honors on the final day of the Big 12 Outdoor Championships at Rock Chalk Park.

For the weekend, the Cowboys won three titles in the 10,000-meter run, long jump and 1,500; and the Cowgirls won the 1,500 and 800.

OSU swept the 1,500-meter runs for the third consecutive year as seniors Kaela Edwards and Josh Thompson both claimed their first outdoor conference titles.

Edwards pulled away from a chasing Maggie Montoya of Baylor and Sandy Raines of Texas going into a head wind on the backstretch, and crossed the finish line with a 20-meter lead.

"Once Sandy made the move, it was perfect," Edwards said. "The three of us went together then I decided to take it with about 500 to go because I figured it was my time to make my move."

The win was Edwards' seventh overall Big 12 title, a Cowgirl record.

She closes the chapter on her Big 12 career having provided the Cowgirls with 94 points at conference championships, and 12 all-conference honors.

"In my time here, I think we've really changed the Big 12," Edwards said. "We haven't won a title, but we've become that team people look out for, especially in the middle-distances."

Thompson and fellow Cowboy Craig Nowak battled it out on the bell-lap for Big 12 supremacy in the 1,500. Thompson out-paced Nowak on the final turn and took his first Big 12 outdoor title with a 52.84 final lap.

"It's really windy out, so the plan was to not lead unless we had to," Thompson said. "No one took it, so we just kind of jogged the first two laps and then we really picked it up from there."

The Cowboys picked up 26 points in the 1,500 from Thompson, Nowak, Sukhi Khosla and Matthew Fayers.

With his win in the 1,500, Thompson caps a dominant two-year run in the Big 12 with 58 points and five Big 12 titles.

"I wish I had four years here, but I don't want to take anything away from my other school because I learned a lot there, too," Thompson said. "It's been nice running with these guys and these coaches. There's nothing like Oklahoma State and this team's atmosphere."

For Nowak, the runner-up finish puts him at 61 points since 2016. The two-time All-American has won three individual titles since the start of his junior season.

OSU's now eight 1,500-meter titles are the most by any team in conference history.

Savannah Camacho and Kaylee Dodd went one, two and led three more Cowgirls in the women's 800, including Kaytlyn Larson, Ambra Wesley and true freshman Sinclaire Johnson. The Cowgirls scored 29 points in the 800.

Camacho and Dodd broke away from the pack on the final turn and finished within two-tenths of a second of each other.

It was Camacho's second outdoor title and first since 2015. She ends up with three individual titles. Her win today gives OSU five of the last seven 800-meter titles at conference championships.

"People like Josh and Craig, or Savannah, Clara Nichols and Kaela, those have been the faces of our program for five years," Smith said. "It's hard to think of what the program will look like without them, but they've left the team in a much better place that when they found it. It's time for the next group of kids like Kaytlyn, Kaylee, Sukhi and Ryan Smeeton to step up."

The fifth-place finish for Wesley was her second individual all-conference honor of the year. The Cowgirl junior came into 2017 as a sprinter, but has thrived since moving up to the 600-yard run indoors and 800 outdoors.

"I didn't even expect to be running in the 800 today, so to score in that and then split well in the 4X4, I'd say it was a great day," Wesley said.

Wesley is one of a handful of OSU athletes in the top-60 in the West Region with her 2:08.51 in the 800. The time is only two-hundredths of second off the final qualifying time from a season ago.

"I didn't even expect to be partially good at the 800, so the fact that I'm sitting on the bubble is pretty amazing, but I'm crossing my fingers that I get in," Wesley said.

Hassan Abdi and Sylvester Barus came back to the track for the men's 5,000-meter final, and the duo took all-conference honors for the second time this weekend.

"Hassan doubling after that 10K is really tough and he did a really great job," Smith said. "He put a heroic effort out there trying to win that thing, but it just didn't pan out for him."

Abdi finished third and Barus took fifth. It was Abdi's fifth all-Big 12 honor since joining the Cowboys in the fall.

Ieva Zarankaite scored for the second time at this championship when she finished fifth in the discus throw.

"I'm proud of her effort," throws coach Josh Langley said. "We discussed it after the shot put and figured that she wanted to make it happen so bad that she abandoned technique a little bit, but she came back in the discus and looked composed and looked great. I think this weekend will give her a ton of confidence heading into the prelims in a couple weeks."

Senior Katie Kehl narrowly missed out on the discus final a day after a ninth-place finish in the shot put. Kehl will leave OSU with two throws in the Cowgirl top-10 in the shot put and discus.

"It was absolutely heart-breaking for her to finish ninth in both events," Langley said. "She's been a tremendous team-first person and we're going to miss her a lot next year."

Edwards, Camacho and Wesley returned to the track for the women's 4X400-meter relay and scored another point for the Cowgirls with Amira Coleman.

The Cowboy quartet of Anthony Grogan Jr., Brandon Singleton, Tanner Green and Tyler Jackson finished sixth in the 4X400 with a season's best time of 3:10.12.

"Both 4X4's ran great," Smith said. "The men's team had one of the best performances we've had here in a while and they're really growing as unit."

In the final team standings, the Cowboys finished sixth with 75 points and the Cowgirls took eighth with 48. Kansas State won the women's team title for the first time since 2002 and the men of Texas won their third-straight title.

Next up for OSU is the NCAA West Preliminary Rounds at the end of the month in Austin, Texas. The squad currently has 17 athletes in qualifying positions and the official start list for the regional meet will be released later this week.

Big 12 Outdoor Championships | May 14, 2017 | Lawrence, Kan.

Women's Results

800 Meters
1. Savannah Camacho – 2:09.44
2. Kaylee Dodd – 2:09.68
4. Kaytlyn Larson – 2:11.87
5. Ambra Wesley – 2:11.94
7. Sinclaire Johnson – 2:13.71

1,500 Meters
1. Kaela Edwards – 4:33.10

5,000 Meters
9. Molly Sughroue – 16:56.83
13. Aurora Dybedokken – 17:07.07
15. Gintare Zenkeviciute – 17:21.78
21. Anna Boyert – 17:29.00

4X100-Meter Relay
8. Oklahoma State Team A – 46.87
M. Harris, K. White,
S. Fields, L. Lewis

4X400-Meter Relay
8. Oklahoma State Team A – 3:40.59
S. Camacho, K. Edwards
A. Coleman, A. Wesley

High Jump
--. Fenja Krohn - NH

Discus Throw
5. Ieva Zarankaite – 54.62m/179-2.5
9. Katie Kehl – 47.46m/155-8.5
10. Baylor Nelson – 46.49m/152-6.5
12. Jocelen Ruth – 43.80m/143-8.5

Men's Results

1,500 Meters
1. Josh Thompson – 4:08.11
2. Craig Nowak – 4:08.47
4. Sukhi Khosla – 4:10.98
6. Matthew Fayers – 4:11.70

5,000 Meters
3. Hassan Abdi – 14:22.04
5. Sylvester Barus – 14:27.45
18. Christian Liddell – 14:57.26
19. Noah Gade – 15:04.69
22. Brigham Hedges – 15:15.62

4X100-Meter Relay
--. Oklahoma State Team A - DNF
L. Daily, A. Grogan Jr.
T. Jackson

4X400-Meter Relay
6. Oklahoma State Team A – 3:10.25
A. Grogan Jr., B. Singleton,
T. Green, T. Jackson

Women's Team Standings
1. Kansas State – 133
2. Texas – 128.5
3. Baylor – 123
4. Oklahoma – 121
5. Kansas – 84
6. Texas Tech – 64
7. Iowa State – 55
8. Oklahoma State – 48
9. TCU – 36
10. West Virginia – 26.5

Men's Team Standings
1. Texas – 153.5
2. Kansas – 143
3. Texas Tech – 110
4. Oklahoma – 96
5. Baylor – 79
6. Oklahoma State – 75
7. Iowa State – 56
8. TCU – 53
9. Kansas State – 52.5