OSU Gears Up for NCAA Indoor Championships

Friday, March 10

College Station, Texas

Oklahoma State University

NCAA Indoor Championships

Defending NCAA mile champion Kaela Edwards

Photo by: Big 12 Conference

March 08, 2017 | Cowboy Cross Country & Track, Cowgirl Cross Country & Track

Edwards seeks to defend mile crown

MEET NOTES

The Basics
A select group of Cowgirls and Cowboys join the elites of the collegiate track and field world this weekend at the 2017 NCAA Indoor Championships in College Station, Texas.
The Cowboy representatives are Josh Thompson and Matthew Fayers in the men's mile, Jacob Fincham-Dukes in the long jump and the Cowboy distance medley relay team.
Defending mile champion Kaela Edwards and Kaylee Dodd will represent the Cowgirls in College Station.

Follow The Meet
To follow the meet, live results have been made available by Flash Results and can be found on the host school's website, 12thman.com (Texas A&M).
Results and a full recap of each day's events for Oklahoma State will be posted following the first and second days of competition on okstate.com.
Follow @run4okstate for more live updates during the meet on the Cowboys' and Cowgirls' progress.

Broadcast
Fans of Oklahoma State track and field can watch the 2017 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships on ESPN3 or the ESPN app Friday and Saturday, and on tape delay Sunday on ESPN2.
The coverage for day one begins at 6:30 p.m. CT, while Saturday's championship stream is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. CT.
The tape-delay airing on ESPN2 is set for 7 p.m. CT.

Meet Format/Schedule - All Times CT
The first event for OSU at the NCAA Indoor Championships will be the women's mile semifinal featuring defending champion Kaela Edwards at 5:30 p.m.
Jacob Fincham-Dukes makes his championship debut at 5:30 as well in the long jump on Friday.
The men's mile semifinal is scheduled for 5:45 p.m., and features two Cowboys in All-Americans Josh Thompson and Matthew Fayers.
Kaylee Dodd in the women's 800-meter semifinal is the final open event for the Cowgirls on day one, and her race is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.
The final race of day one includes the Cowboys, as the distance medley relay closes competition on Friday at approximately 8:55 p.m.
The second day's schedule is available on NCAA.com.

Last Time Out
Oklahoma State won eight conference titles at the 2017 Big 12 Indoor Track and Field Championships as the Cowboys went on to finish fourth and the Cowgirls took third.
OSU swept the DMR titles for the second time in three years on the first day of competition, then won both the men's and women's mile and 1,000-meter titles behind strong races from Josh Thompson (mile, 1,000), Molly Sughroue (mile) and Abbie Hetherington (1,000).
Kaela Edwards picked up her school-record sixth indoor conference title with her win in the 800-meter run, and Craig Nowak claimed high-point honors for the first time in his career when he anchored the men's DMR to a win, won back-to-back 3,000-meter crowns and finished second in the mile.

A Look Back – 2016 NCAA Championships
Last year's NCAA Championship for OSU was historic.
Kaela Edwards became just the fourth woman in school history to win an NCAA indoor title when she won the women's mile in Birmingham, Alabama, a season ago.
John Teeters earned his third-straight All-America honor in the 60-meter dash when he finished fourth to end his indoor career with the Pokes as one of the most decorated Cowboys in school history, and Chase Ealey took sixth in the shot put.
Savannah Camacho finished fourth in the 800 and the Cowboy DMR team took fifth, earning first-team All-America honors for the first time since 2012.

Cowgirl Qualifiers:

Kaela Edwards – women's mile – March 10, 5:30 p.m. CT
Defending NCAA mile champion Kaela Edwards returns to the NCAA Championships with the No. 1 qualifying time in the country. She ran a 4:28.75 at the Millrose Games, which is the No. 7 time in NCAA history in the event, to lock up her return trip to the NCAA Championships in early February. Outside of New Hampshire's Elinor Purrier, who finished one place behind Edwards at the Millrose Games, no other collegiate woman this year has broken 4:30 and it is the first time since 2012 that two women enter the NCAA Championships with sub-4:30 times. Edwards set the tone for her senior campaign in her first race of the year at the Holiday Inn Invitational when she set the women's collegiate 1,000-meter record of 2:40.79 in January.

Kaylee Dodd – women's 800 meters – March 10, 7:10 p.m. CT
Cowgirl junior Kaylee Dodd clinched her first ever NCAA Championship spot at the Arkansas Qualifier on the last weekend of the regular season. She entered the race as a rabbit, but managed to finish in a personal best 2:04.68 and claim the last qualifying bid in the event. The spot in the 800-meter semifinal makes it six-straight appearances for the Cowgirls in the 800-meter run at NCAA Indoor Championships. The last time a Cowgirl received one of the final two bids in the 800-meter run, Kaela Edwards went on to finish third overall and earn first-team All-America honors.

Cowboy Qualifiers:

Josh Thompson – men's mile – March 10, 5:45 p.m. CT
Although Cowboy senior josh Thompson earned a qualifying spot in last year's NCAA mile semifinal, this will be his first open appearance in an NCAA D1 Track and Field Championship event as he ran the anchor-leg for the Cowboy distance medley relay team and finished fifth a season ago, as well as earned All-America honors during the 2016 cross country season. Thompson earned his qualifying mark of 3:56.89 at the Husky Classic where he was the top collegiate finisher in the event and finished only behind a 2008 Olympian and an Olympic bronze medalist. Thompson heads into the mile semifinal with the No. 5 overall time in the NCAA, but the No. 2 non-converted time behind new collegiate record-holder Edward Cheserek.

Matthew Fayers – men's mile – March 10, 5:45 p.m. CT
Matthew Fayers' consistency in the mile has finally paid off as the Cowboy junior has secured an open invitation to an NCAA Championship for the first time in his Cowboy career. Fayers ran his third sub-four minute mile in three years at the Husky Classic to earn a spot at the meet. His 3:58.53 was a personal best and one of four qualifying times from this year's Husky Classic. Fayers and Thompson are one of three sets of teammates in the mile semifinal, including duos from Oregon and Colorado.

Jacob Fincham-Dukes – men's long jump – March 10, 5:30 p.m. CT
England international Jacob Fincham-Dukes is the fifth Cowboy in school history to qualify for an indoor collegiate championship in a field event. The sophomore long-jumper leapt 7.86m/25-9.5 feet at the Don Kirby Elite Invitational in February to claim a spot in College Station, Texas, to compete for a national title. He went on to finish runner-up for the second year in-a-row at the Big 12 Indoor Championships and extend his conference meet scoring streak to three-straight. He is the school record-holder for the long jump indoors and his 18 points scored in the long jump at conference championships since 2016 is second in the Big 12 behind Texas Tech's Charles Brown who has 20. His jump from the Don Kirby Elite Invitational is tied for eighth in the NCAA heading into the championships.

Men's Distance Medley Relay – March 10, 8:55 p.m. CT
For the fifth consecutive year, the Cowboys will be represented in the distance medley relay final after an effort on the final day of the season from Craig Nowak, Brandon Singleton, Bradley Johnson and Josh Thompson at the Alex Wilson. The Cowboy quartet ran a 9:28.83 to join elite company at the top of the rankings in Mississippi, Indiana and Stanford. Of the four fastest times heading into the championships, three came out of the Alex Wilson Invitational. OSU has scored twice in the DMR since its appearance streak began in 2013, including in its first run in 2013 and last year's fifth-place finishing team.

Oklahoma State's All-Time Top-Scorers Indoors

Men
1. Joe Dial*                  29 pts.
2. Nick Miller               15
3. Kirbuel Erassa 14.75
4. Paul Larkins*          14.25
5. John Teeters 13

Women
1. Kaela Edwards* 24 pts
2. Jackie Goodman* 14
3. Savannah Camacho 13
4. Christine McMiken*        13
5. Nataljia Piliusina 13

indicates active athlete
* indicates indoor national champion

OSU Among the Elite
With four total entries for the Cowboys, OSU has the joint-ninth most entries in the NCAA for this year's NCAA Indoor Championships.

Two of those entries are in the middle-distances, which puts the Cowboys in elite company as that is the third-most by any D1 program this year.

The Cowgirls are one of five women's teams including Arkansas, LSU, Villanova and Middle Tennessee as the only NCAA D1 programs with more than one entry in the middle-distance events, all tied with two apiece.

It is the fifth-straight year that the Cowboys have sent a team to the DMR final at the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Kaylee Dodd's entry into the women's 800-meter run marks the fifth-straight year a Cowgirl has reached the NCAA Championships in the event.

The Cowgirls have been represented at the NCAA Indoor Championships for each of the last seven seasons, the longest streak in school history.

It is also the Cowboys' seventh-straight year of representation in the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Ones to Watch
Kaela Edwards is currently 125th on the all-time NCAA Indoor Championship scoring list, but could move anywhere from 113th to 36th all-time depending on her finish at the Indoor Championships this weekend.

Edwards is already the highest-scoring Cowgirl at NCAA Indoor Championship events with 24 points in three appearances.

Kaela Edwards can become the first Cowgirl in OSU history to win back-to-back indoor national titles. There have been four total Cowgirls to ever win a collegiate title.

Josh Thompson, Matthew Fayers and Jacob Fincham-Dukes have the chance to become the ninth Cowboys in school history to win NCAA indoor titles.

Matthew Fayers leads the Big 12 in sub-four minute open miles in the past three seasons with one in each year since 2015.

Jacob Fincham-Dukes has the chance to become the first Cowboy in school history to receive All-America honors in the long jump.

Fincham-Dukes is the fifth Cowboy to advance to the NCAA Championships in a field event.

Edwards Remains on Bowerman Watch List
Cowgirl senior Kaela Edwards heads into the NCAA Championships on the shortlist of the most prestigious award in track and field.
She was the only Cowgirl in school history to ever make the Bowerman watch list last month, and remained on the list in the March update released by the USTFCCCA on March 1.
Edwards anchored the Cowgirl DMR team to a third-straight Big 12 title and won her school-record-setting sixth conference indoor title when she won the 800-meter Big 12 title.
Edwards is one of a handful of returning champions on the women's side of the NCAA Championships and enters the competition with the No. 1 time in D1 this year.

Magnani, Haines To Represent USA
Oklahoma State freshman Michelle Magnani won the U.S. Women's Junior Cross Country title in 22:36 at the USATF National Cross Country Championships Saturday in Bend, Oregon.
Magnani outran a talented field of American women in the 6K en rout to the national title, and, with the win, earned a spot on the U.S. Junior team that will compete at the World Championships in Kampala, Uganda on March 26.
Cowboy Freshman Alec Haines finished seventh in the men's junior 8K race in 26:35 to also earn a spot on Team USA with former Cowboy Shadrack Kipchirchir who finished third in the men's senior race.
Magnani and Haines are the second pair of OSU athletes to compete at the USA Championships in the past two years. Current Cowboys Ben Butler and Christian Liddell finished third and seventh at the Championship race in 2016.